1950s Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

A highly finished, 1951 detailed ink drawing of a still-life and studio interior by notable Chicago Modern artist, Harold Haydon. A striking drawing completed on fine, hand-made pap...

Outstanding male portrait by 20th-century American artist, Vito Tomasello. Portrait of a Violinist, 1950. Charcoal on paper, sheet measures 13 x 19 inches. Signed lower left. A ...

A substantial, mid-century Impressionist-style watercolor on Arches paper showing a misty view of turquoise waves rolling into a secluded rocky cove in Big Sur, California Signed lo...

In the Land of the Cat is a Pencil Drawing and watercolour realized by Mino Maccari in 1950s. Good condition, no signature, titled on the centre of the artwork in italian language. ...

Created circa 1955 by Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and stamped, verso, with Victor di Gesu estate stamp. Winner of the Prix Othon Friesz, Victor di Gesu first attended the L...

Original watercolor of Monhegan Island, Maine on archival paper by the well known American watercolorist, Ted Davis. Signed lower right and dated 1950. Cond...

Marie LAURENCIN Mermaid, 1953 Original ink and pencil drawing Signed by artist stamp On paper 24.5 x 19.5 cm (c. 9.6 x 7.6 inch) Very good condition, marks of the manipulation on ...

A vibrant, Modern 1950's watercolor of a young male bather kneeling against a sunny Mediterranean beach by notable French artist Andre Delfau. Painted most likely near Marseille in ...

French watercolor of quiet fishing village in Brittany, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits a standard-size frame. Archiva...

"Horses" is an original china ink drawing on ivory-colorated paper realized by Yves Brayer in 1954. In excellent conditions. This is an original drawing representing two horses. ...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Maine Backyard View (P2.63), Year: 1958, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Image Size: 10.5 x 14 inches, Size: 11 x 15 in. (27.94 x 38.1 c...

Signed lower right, 'Ph. Noyer' for Philippe Henri Noyer (French, 1917-1985), inscribed, 'Paris' and dated 1959. After a traditional education at the elite Ecole des Roches, Philipp...

Pleasant watercolor landscape painting of pasture with cows in background by French artist Tae, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. M...

Created circa 1955 by Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and stamped verso with certification of authenticity. An atmospheric and psychologically penetrating figural drawing, sho...

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is arguably the most important American artist of the 20th century. He not only defined Pop Art, but has had an unrivalled and lasting influence on artists an...

Figure is an artwork realized by Michel Cadoret in 1956. Pencil drawing on paper. Hand-signed. The artwork id depicted through soft strokes in a well...

Stamped, verso, with estate stamp for Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and created circa 1955. Winner of the Prix Othon Friesz, Victor di Gesu first attended the Los Angeles Art...

Charcoal and watercolor on paper realized by Mino Maccari in 1955 ca. Hand signed lower right. Very good condition.

From a series of paintings by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis. To see them or our other Modern British Art, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from thi...

Watercolor on paper realized by Mino Maccari in 1950 ca. Hand signed. Matted. Very good condition.

View of Paris is an artwork realized by an anonymous artist in the 1950s.   Watercolor drawing on paper.   Good conditions. The artwork is created through deft brushstokes and har...

American artist Ron Blumberg was classically trained at La Grande Academie Chaumiere in Paris, 1932, before moving to New York where he became a National Academy artist and a member of the Art Students League. "Maestro", is a rare pen...

Henry Woon Charcoal Female Nude 2 c. 1950's Charcoal on Strathmore Charcoal Paper 25"x19 1/2"Unframed Signed in ink H Woon lower right His large portfolio of charcoal drawings was ...

A stunning Modern Cubist watercolor on paper of purple irises by Chicago and New York artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell). Signed and inscribed "Duis A.W.S." (American Watercolor Society...

Real Socialism,Moscow,1970,Russia,Orange,Men at Work,Propaganda VIKTOR A. KONOVALOV (Uidol, Vladimir region 1912 – Moscow 1995) Russian painter and graphic designer. He was born in...

Signed lower right, 'Di Gesu' for Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and painted circa 1955. Winner of the Prix Othon Friesz, Victor di Gesu first attended the Los Angeles Art Cen...

Charmion von Wiegand Pillar of Zen #124, 1959 Gouache on paper painting Hand signed, titled and dated on the front Unique Provenance: Andre Zarre Gallery, with label verso (Estate of renowned gallerist Andre Zarre, ne Andre Sowulewski) Measurements: Framed 26.5 inches vertical by 25.5 horizontal by 2 inches Artwork: 21 inches vertical by 22 inches horizontal Mid century modern, geometric, spiritual abstraction, mystical The Estate of the celebrated artist Charmion Von Wiegand has been represented exclusively by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery since 1998. From March 3 to August 13, 2023, Charmion Von Wiegand was the subject of an acclaimed retrospective at the Kunstmuseum Basel, and she has received major attention in the price, including a June, 2023 ArtNews feature entitled, "Who Was Charmion von Wiegand and Why Is She Important?". Her work was also featured in a solo presentation by Rosenfeld Gallery at the New York Art Show held at the Park Avenue Armory, which also received critical acclaim. Artists Biography - courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: Known for her vibrant, geometric paintings that originate a deeply personal language of spiritual enlightenment expressed through a constructivist mode of abstraction, Charmion von Wiegand (1896–1983) was born in Chicago but spent much of her childhood traveling. The daughter of a journalist for Hearst, von Wiegand eventually settled in New York in 1915 to attend Barnard College and Columbia University, where she took classes at the School of Journalism while nurturing a growing interest in art history. In 1925, von Wiegand realized that she wanted to be an artist and set up a studio in Greenwich Village, teaching herself how to paint while pursuing a career as a journalist. In 1929, she secured a position in Moscow as a foreign correspondent for Hearst, the only woman at the desk at the time. In 1932, von Wiegand returned to New York and married Russian émigré Joseph Freeman, who co-founded and edited the leftist journal New Masses. Von Wiegand began writing art criticism for New Masses as well as for other publications, including New Theatre, ARTnews, and Arts Magazine. When the Abstract American Artists (AAA) held their inaugural exhibition, von Wiegand reviewed it. An early champion of abstract art, von Wiegand became close friends with AAA founder Carl Holty. In 1941, Holty introduced von Wiegand to Piet Mondrian, who would have a profound impact on her art. Fascinated by Mondrian’s artistic philosophy, von Wiegand played a key role in the introduction of his work to American audiences, translating many of the Dutch artist’s writings into English and assisting in the composition of his influential article “Toward the True Vision of Reality” (1941). Through her friendship with Mondrian, von Wiegand re-kindled her interest in Theosophy (a religion established in the late 19th century that combines aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, occultism, and esotericism) and embarked on an extended study of neoplasticism. In her artwork, she incorporated Mondrian’s iconic grid but rejected the constraints of pure neoplasticism and embraced a wide range of influences including surrealism and German expressionism. In 1942, von Wiegand became a member of the AAA, exhibiting regularly with the group and eventually serving as its president from 1951 to 1953. In the late 1940s, sculptor and fellow AAA member Ibram Lassaw gave her a translation of The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life, which inspired von Wiegand to immerse herself in a study of Buddhist art. She began incorporating Buddhist motifs such as stupas and mandalas into her paintings, and her spiritual practice steadily intensified throughout the 1950s. In 1953, her husband gifted her a copy of the Taoist I Ching Book of Changes, a guide for divining meaning from randomly derived numbers arranged in a hexagram—a form the artist readily incorporated into her painting. Von Wiegand’s study of Theosophy also intensified over these years, bolstered by her increased access to the religion’s primary sources composed by the religion’s founders and their successors at the New York Theosophical Society’s library. Von Wiegand’s search for the sacred and transcendent ultimately led her to Tibetan Buddhism and, in 1967, von Wiegand met Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, a Gelugpa monk who had recently arrived in New York, who would mentor her spiritual study in the tradition of Mahayana Buddhism until her death. Her travels in the 1960s and 1970s took her to Tibet and India, where she had an audience with the Dalai Lama, who was living in exile in Dharamsala. Many works from these decades incorporate symbols and schematics drawn from Theosophical prismatic color charts, Chinese astrology and tantric yoga. In 1978, she was the subject of a PBS documentary titled The Circle of Charmion von Wiegand, which was scored by Philip Glass. In 1980, von Wiegand was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1982, the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach (FL) organized her first retrospective exhibition. She died the following year in New York, bequeathing her estate to Khyongla Rato and the Tibet Center of New York. In 1998, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery became the sole representative of her estate and has presented her work in four solo and multiple group exhibitions. Recent notable exhibitions that have included her work are The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, 2009) and Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America (Newark Museum, NJ, 2010). In March 2023, the Kunstmuseum Basel (Switzerland) opened the first comprehensive museum retrospective of von Wiegand’s work in Europe. Von Wiegand’s work is represented in numerous museum collections including the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy (Andover, MA); Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY); Arithmeum, University of Bonn (Germany); Birmingham Museum of Art (Alabama); Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin; Brooklyn Museum (NY); Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PA); The Cleveland Museum of Art (OH); Indianapolis Museum of Art (IN); Fondazione Marguerite Arp (Locarno, Switzerland); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Massachusetts); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY); The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY); Newark Museum of Art (New Jersey); Seattle Art Museum (WA); Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC); Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN); Weatherspoon Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College (Clinton, NY); Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY); and Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT). More about gallerist Andre Zarre A tribute in the New Criterion: Dispatch August 11, 2020 Andre Zarre, 1942–2020 by Dana Gordon On the late New York gallery pioneer. Art should never be aggressively explained; art should be felt. —Andre Zarre, 1977 Often, in the starlit New York cultural mecca, a longtime important figure fades away through the penumbra and dies without notice. Such was the fate of Andre Zarre, the contemporary art dealer, who passed away a few weeks ago. Andy, as he wanted friends to call him, opened his eponymous gallery in 1974 just off Madison Avenue on Sixty-ninth Street. He soon moved it to the omphalos of the art world in that era, 41 East Fifty-seventh Street, the Fuller Building. Over the years he moved to SoHo and then to Chelsea, as fashion and real estate prices pushed the art souk hither and thither. To understand his importance, all you need do is take a look at a list of artists who had solo shows at the Andre Zarre Gallery. This includes such names, from an early generation, as Sonia Delaunay, Nassos Daphnis, Sari Dienes, and Perle Fine. Among a subsequent generation are Pat Lipsky, Jay Milder, Thornton Willis, and Kes Zapkus.1 And this list does not include the many knowns and unknowns who were in his lively group shows. Zarre had a real “eye” and was a champion of abstract art from the moment he founded his gallery—even among the gathering storms of conceptual and political art, which he eschewed. He showed a good deal of figurative art as well. His galleries were always spacious and unpretentious, oriented simply to show the art. In the words of Dee Shapiro, who showed with the Zarre gallery many times, “He had a photographic memory and knew a lot about art and was always interested in the artist’s life.” Reliable biographical information on Zarre is scarce, but he said of his background that he was born in Poland in 1942 and that his parents were a diplomat and a socialite. He left home for the United States at the age of fifteen. During his decades as an art dealer in New York, Zarre did not appear to accumulate wealth, though he acquired a collection and lived on Park Avenue. “He was not personally aggressive in that way. People had to come to him,” Dee Shapiro said. He was honest in his financial dealings with artists, which not all art dealers are. For a long time while running the gallery he had a second job as a supervisor in an airline office and he kept little to no additional staff in the gallery. He supported a brother who remained in Poland. Among artists, Zarre was known to be quite ornery. After my show at his gallery in 1997, I refused to enter it for seventeen years. Then I ran into him in Chelsea and he offered me another show, an opportunity I gladly accepted, but he remained just as disagreeable. He showed the work of many women, probably more than any other gallery, save those devoted to showing only women. Collectors, curators, and writers found him mostly friendly. As Peter Reginato put it, Zarre was a “strange guy but I liked him. I think he was a dealer who was more interested in the art than in making money, but somehow he lasted forty-plus years.” Zarre is not known to have kept extensive or extant records of his gallery’s long history, though these may emerge in time. Scouring the Internet, one may compile a partial list of more than eighty artists who had solo shows at the Andre Zarre Gallery:Nancy Azara, Ellen Banks, Mary Barnes, Tony Bechara, Juan Bernal, Stephanie Bernheim, Randy Bloom, Elena Borstein, Michael Boyd, Fritz Bultman, Ed Buonagurio, Yoan Capote, Sonia Delaunay, Nassos Daphnis, Cathy Diamond, Sari Dienes, Joseph Dolinsky, Beata Drozd, Ronnie Elliot, William Fares, Perle Fine, Lynne Frehm, Ben Georgia, Mikel Glass, Dana Gordon, Juanita Guccione, Fred Gutzeit, Don Hazlitt, Amy Hill, Clinton Hill, Monroe Hodder, Budd Hopkins, Arlan Huang, Richard Hunt, Rhia Hurt, Buffie Johnson, Alexander Kaletski, Robert Kaupelis...

Perfect for your hockey enthusiast! A dynamic 1950s pastel on paper drawing of a hockey game by famed Chicago Modern artist, Francis Chapin. Image size: 9 x 12 inches. Matted size: 14 x 18 inches. Estate stamped on reverse. Provenance: Estate of the artist. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of the city’s most popular and celebrated painters in his day. Born at the dawn of the 20th Century in Bristolville, Ohio, Chapin graduated from Washington and Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. He would set down deep roots at the Art Institute of Chicago, exhibiting there over 31 times between 1926 and 1951. In 1927 Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute – a prize that funded the artist’s yearlong study trip to Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Chapin decided to remain in Chicago, noting the freedom Chicago artists have in developing independently of the pressure to conform to pre-existing molds (as was experienced by artists in New York, for example). Chapin became a popular instructor at the Art Institute, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (now called Oxbow) between 1934 – 1938 (he was the director of the school from 1941-1945). Chapin’s contemporaries among Chicago’s artists included such luminaries as Ivan Le Lorraine Albright...

Stamped, verso, with estate stamp for Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and created circa 1950. A graphite study of a young woman shown nude and seated in an armchair. Winner of...

A vibrant 1950s Modern watercolor of a standing male bather in red orange tones by notable French artist Andre Delfau. Painted in the south of France along the Cote d' azure (...

Signer upper right, 'Craemer' for Kurt Craemer (German, 1912-1961) and dated 1954. Born in Saarbrucken, Craemer first attended the Academy of Cologne where he worked under Friedrich...

'On the Path', pastel and ink on art paper, by Suzanne Tourte (circa 1950s). Executed with a lively palette of colour, this is a surprisingly sophisticated modern work of art which belies its rather naive style. Flowered fields, green grassy patches, a curved path and blue skies all figure in this engaging landscape with two figures. Newly framed and glazed in anti-reflective glass, this work is in good overall condition. Signed: 'S X Tourte' in the lower right hand. Please enjoy the many photos accompanying the listing. Upon request, a video may be provided. About the Artist: Suzanne Tourte (1904-1979) was a French painter, engraver, medalist, fresco artist, lithographer and illustrator. She was also an excellent vocalist. She studied at the school of Beaux-Arts in Reims while continuing her musical studies at the Conservatoire de la Ville. She chose painting as a profession and returned to Paris to continue her studies. She was friends with artists Yves Brayer and Robert Humblot...

Mid-century watercolor painting by artist C. Heintz, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits a standard-sized frame. Archival pla...

Pencil, coloured pencil and chalk on paper, titled (lower left), signed (lower right), 31cm x 46cm, (51cm x 68cm framed). John Koch was an American painter and teacher, and an impo...

Boatmen is an original drawing in pencil on paper realized by Herta Hausmann in 1950 ca. and applied on cardboard. Hand-signed on the lower right in pe...

A colorful 1950s textile design (Black, yellow, blue, pink, red tones) by noted set and costume designer Andre Delfau. Born in Paris, France in 1914, Andre Delfau became an internationally acclaimed stage, set and costume designer who worked world-wide from the 1930s to the 1980s. Delfau was a life long artist and painted independently of his noted design career. His artwork is recognized for it’s vibrant color and form, and a particularly keen use of line. He was highly influenced by the French Modern trends of Cubism and Surrealism, and his artwork is often infused with a dramatic sense of architecture and perspective. Delfau created fashion designs for such major Paris couture houses as Balmain, Jean Patou and Balenciaga. He completed noteworthy set designs and costumes for numerous international operatic and ballet productions, including those at the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Ballet of Great Britain, the Paris Opera, the Dance Theater of Harlem, the Ruth Page International Ballet, the Civic Ballet of Chicago, the Chicago Opera Ballet and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, among others. Most notably, Delfau designed the elaborate stage sets and costumes for the 1986 PBS television production of the Viennese operetta, "Die Fledermaus...

Painted by Victor di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) circa 1955 and with Di Gesu estate stamp verso. A loosely painted, Post-Impressionist study of a woman shown nude and seated. Winner...

Mid-century French pen and ink drawing on transfer paper of a bar lounge with pink accent, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Archiv...

Description: This drawing is based on a scene from the 1950 Paramount Pictures film "Fancy Pants" starring Lucille Ball and Bob Hope. The original drawing is nicely framed and signe...

Vivid and bright watercolor of merchants gathered to trade cloth by French artist Stéphane Magnard, circa 1950. Magnard was the resident artist in Madagascar then a French possession...

Stamped, verso, with certification of authenticity for Jane Ament De La Roche (American, 1916-2000) and created circa 1950. Winner of the Prix Othon Friesz, Ament first studied at t...

Opera su carta olio, di DORA Maar Colore Turchese blu Timbro MD atelier Siglato sul retro

Signed lower right, 'Ruth Peabody' for Ruth Eaton Colburn Peabody (American, 1893-1966) and painted circa 1955. Born in Highland Park, Illinois, Ruth Peabody was taught to paint as ...

Mid-century French pen and ink drawing on transfer paper of a round bar around pillar, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Archival p...

Professor George De Goya. PhD. MA. FRSA. Born In Budapest, 1915-1992, related to the Spanish artist Goya on his mother’s side. Educated in Budapest and France where he received a de...

Dorothy Dehner Untitled Mid Century Modern abstract sculptural drawing, 1955 Marker and graphite on paper Signed and dated by Dorothy Dehner in black felt tip pen on the front Frame ...

Detailed watercolor of Monument Valley by Albert DeRome (American, 1885-1959). The viewer is looking out over the valley from a high vantage point, with towering mesas in the distance. In the foreground, there are some shrubs and a small tree to the right side of the composition. DeRome has created a sense of vast distance by rendering the far background with a hazy quality while keeping the foreground in clear focus. Signed "Albert DeRome" in the lower right corner. Inscription on verso as a gift to the artist's mother. Purchased from the estate of the artist Patterson's Antiques, Los Gatos. Presented in a wood frame with a new white mat. Image size: 5.75"H x 8"W Frame size: 11"H x 14"W Born in Cayucos, California, Albert De Rome (American, 1885-1959) became a California landscape painter, especially of natural landscapes formations, seascapes and marine scenes near Carmel and Monterey. Usually his palette was bright in both oil and watercolor, but he did the occasional nocturne. Scholars have compared his painting style and subjects to those of Thomas Hill and Albert Bierstadt. However, Albert De Rome never affiliated with any formal group of painters, although he had many close friends including Percy Gray, Gunnar Widforss and Will Sparks. As a young man, Thomas De Rome worked at the Congress Spring Hotel in Saratoga, and in San Francisco at the Globe Foundry, owned by an uncle. He studied art under Arthur Mathews, John Stanton and Lorenzo Latimer...

Robert Gilberg (1911-1970) "Pink Cheeks" c.1950s Ink and pastel on paper 12"x13.75" unframed Unsigned Good Condition - Wear consistent with age and history. Deep creases on upper le...

Stamped, verso, with estate stamp for Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and created circa 1955. Winner of the Prix Othon Friesz, Victor di Gesu first attended the Los Angeles Art...

Portrait of Moroccan Woman is an original drawing realized by Helen Vogt in the Mid-20th Century. China ink drawing on paper. Includes frame 48 x 4 x ...

Created circa 1955 by Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and stamped, verso, with Victor di Gesu estate stamp. Winner of the Prix Othon Friesz, Victor di Gesu first attended the L...

Stamped, verso, with estate stamp for Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and created circa 1955. Winner of the Prix Othon Friesz, Victor di Gesu first attended the Los Angeles Art...

Boldly lined pencil drawing of farm workers harvesting and bailing hay by French artist Jean Baptiste Grancher, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with ...

Provenance: Marlborough Gallery David McKee, Inc. Manny Silverman Gallery Private collection, Los Angeles

View of the Brooklyn Bridge at night. Oil pastel on archival paper by the American artist, Leon Dolice. Signed lower right. Circa 1950. Condition: exc...

A Very Finely Drawn Mid-Century Modern Figure Study of a Seated Young Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A well executed studio figure...

Impressive watercolor landscape of a charming old world scene of a village in Provence, France by artist Augustin Faure, circa 1950. Original one-of-a-kind artwork on paper displa...

Pastel drawing on paper realized by Kokoschka in 1953. Hand signed and dated lower right. Matted, with Image Dimensions : 14 x 22.5 cm Very good condition.

Work on paper

WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH HOUSES Signed original brush and ink on wove paper, circa 1950. WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH HOUSES is an original watercolor brush and ink on paper, hand signed in ink pen by African-American artist, teacher, and printmaker Ronald Joseph (1910--1992) Artwork depicts an abstract landscape, is in good condition, paper tape remaining on reverse side edges, mounted in an archival acid-free mat, unframed. Artwork paper size - 18 x 21.5 in. Year created - c. 1950 About the artist - Ronald Joseph (1910 -1992) was born on the island of St. Kitts, West Indies In 1910. When he was very young, his mother decided to move to the United States but she could not afford to take him with her. Mr. and Mrs. Theophilus Joseph, a childless couple who were friends of Joseph’s mother, adopted him. Afterwards, the Joseph family moved to the Island of Dominica, where they stayed for ten years. In 1921, his foster parents also decided to come to the United States. In New York, Joseph met his mother but remained living with his foster parents. In 1926 Ronald Joseph received a scholarship for the Ethical Culture School, were he spent two and half years of his high school period. At this time he obtained an art scholarship through Dr. Henry Fritz, with whom he became acquainted through his art teacher in public school. Joseph was taken into the Saturday art class, where he was the only black participant. An artistic prodigy, Ronald Joseph had his student works shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ronald Joseph graduated from Ethical Culture Fieldston School in 1929. He was honored as “the most promising” young artist in New York City’s schools. He began his study at Pratt Institute in 1931 and graduated in 1934. During the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph participated in many exhibitions of African-American art, the Works Progress Administration mural project, and the Harlem Artists Guild. Ronald Joseph enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the declaration of World War II and was posted as a member of the ground crew in Tuskegee, Alabama, and in Michigan. At the end of the war in 1945, he received his G. I. Bill of Rights scholarship. In 1948, he was presented with the Rosenwald Fellowship. The funds allowed him to live and work abroad – first in Peru for two years, then in Paris. Joseph used the G.I. bill to study in Paris at the Grande Chaumière. He described this period of his life as being “independent of economy”. His work from these travels is largely undocumented; according to Rosenwald scholar, Daniel Schulman, many pieces of art are undated or simply dated “1948-1952”. After this period he came back to New York without money and work and indicated this as period of hardship. Ronald Joseph left the U.S. in 1956, disappointed in the unreceptiveness of the art world to his work with mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, he felt guilty for having left the U.S. during a period when blacks were struggling for their civil rights; on the other, he felt “lucky” to have been able to live and work in place where he did not feel discrimination as intensely. He emigrated to Belgium and later settled permanently in Brussels. Ronald Joseph was married to Claire Joseph and they had a son, Robin Joseph. In 1989 Joseph returned to the United States after an absence of thirty-three years to attend the Lehman College exhibition and symposium and to renew his old friendships. Afterward, he returned to Brussels where he continued to work as a painter, living there for the remainder of his life. Ronald Joseph started his artistic career in Harlem, New York City at the Harlem Community Arts Center, where he was one of the youngest pupils. Joseph studied lithography and other printmaking techniques with Riva Helfond, who taught him many aspects of the process based on simple techniques, including how to operate the press, and how to prepare the stones. Helfond played a significant role as a teacher of lithography at the Harlem Art Center. Joseph produced his first lithographs under her supervision, and this was at a time when she was just beginning to learn the medium herself. At the Harlem Community Arts Center Joseph met Robert Blackburn, who was his classmate. In 1937 Ronald Joseph depicted Blackburn, in one of his most famous works, that is now located at The Metropolitan Museum collection. Experimenting with lithography and etching, as well as woodblock and silkscreen printing, Joseph explored the techniques of printmaking alongside his friend Robert Blackburn. Joseph described the Harlem Art Center as a “healthy and lively” place, where he had made wonderful friends. In the late thirties, he also served as a teacher at the Harlem Community Arts Center. There Joseph met younger artist Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight. They formed a friendship, where they enjoyed conversations and visiting museums together. Both Joseph and Knight would hire Lawrence to pose for them. Jacob Lawrence considered Ronald Joseph to be a very intellectual artist. In the 1930s, Joseph became chairman of the Harlem Artists Guild and represented it in Washington with Stuart Davis and Hugo Gellert. Ronald Joseph was also a participant in the mural section of WPA and a representative of the Harlem Artists’ Guild to the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). Joseph’s early oil paintings were influenced by Picasso, Braque and other European artists while most of his contemporaries focused on social realism. By 1943, he was hailed by art historian James Porter as New York’s “foremost Negro abstractionist painter”. His pastels and gouaches from the late forties and early fifties showed a highly structured abstraction combined with a studied spontaneity. Ronald Joseph’s finely tuned abstractions often incorporated representational elements along with apparently “purer” forms. He described this aspect of his work in these terms: “It’s not abstract and abstract at the same time. It’s pure creation.” His works from the 1950s employed both still life and landscape as pretexts for masterly exercises in nearly abstract pictorial construction related to cubism and fauvism. During World War II, Joseph was drafted. After the war he formed “a kind of a group” with Robert Blackburn, Charles White, Larry Potter, and Reginald Gammon...