Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
SURREALIST STYLE
In the wake of World War I’s ravaging of Europe, artists delved into the unconscious mind to confront and grapple with this reality. Poet and critic André Breton, a leader of the Surrealist movement who authored the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, called this approach “a violent reaction against the impoverishment and sterility of thought processes that resulted from centuries of rationalism.” Surrealist art emerged in the 1920s with dreamlike and uncanny imagery guided by a variety of techniques such as automatic drawing, which can be likened to a stream of consciousness, to channel psychological experiences.
Although Surrealism was a groundbreaking approach for European art, its practitioners were inspired by Indigenous art and ancient mysticism for reenvisioning how sculptures, paintings, prints, performance art and more could respond to the unsettled world around them.
Surrealist artists were also informed by the Dada movement, which originated in 1916 Zurich and embraced absurdity over the logic that had propelled modernity into violence. Some of the Surrealists had witnessed this firsthand, such as Max Ernst, who served in the trenches during World War I, and Salvador Dalí, whose otherworldly paintings and other work responded to the dawning civil war in Spain.
Other key artists associated with the revolutionary art and literary movement included Man Ray, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Frida Kahlo and Meret Oppenheim, all of whom had a distinct perspective on reimagining reality and freeing the unconscious mind from the conventions and restrictions of rational thought. Pablo Picasso showed some of his works in “La Peinture Surréaliste” — the first collective exhibition of Surrealist painting — which opened at Paris’s Galerie Pierre in November of 1925. (Although Magritte is best known as one of the visual Surrealist movement’s most talented practitioners, his famous 1943 painting, The Fifth Season, can be interpreted as a formal break from Surrealism.)
The outbreak of World War II led many in the movement to flee Europe for the Americas, further spreading Surrealism abroad. Generations of modern and contemporary artists were subsequently influenced by the richly symbolic and unearthly imagery of Surrealism, from Joseph Cornell to Arshile Gorky.
Find a collection of original Surrealist paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples and more art on 1stDibs.
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Style: Surrealist
UNTITLED
Located in Portland, ME
Drawing, Ink and colored pencil or Watercolor and color pencil, 2013-2020. 6 x 7 5/8 or 7 5/8 x 6 inches. Signed and inscribed, verso. One of a series of untitled drawings on various...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Color Pencil
UNTITLED
Located in Portland, ME
Drawing, Ink and colored pencil or Watercolor and color pencil, 2013-2020. 6 x 7 5/8 or 7 5/8 x 6 inches. Signed and inscribed, verso. One of a series of untitled drawings on various...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Color Pencil
UNTITLED
Located in Portland, ME
Drawing, Ink and colored pencil or Watercolor and color pencil, 2013-2020. 6 x 7 5/8 or 7 5/8 x 6 inches. Signed and inscribed, verso. One of a series of untitled drawings on various...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Color Pencil
UNTITLED
Located in Portland, ME
Drawing, Ink and colored pencil or Watercolor and color pencil, 2013-2020. 6 x 7 5/8 or 7 5/8 x 6 inches. Signed and inscribed, verso. One of a series of untitled drawings on various...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Color Pencil
Age of Unreason, mysterious, monochromatic, dark tones
By Tom Bennett
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Monotype by painter, master printmaker Tom Bennett
Category
2010s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Monotype, Archival Ink, Archival Paper
Celestial Night, dark colors, astronomy, black female nude, stars, maps, collage
Located in Brooklyn, NY
These collages were created first in the presence of a model, working quickly, in charcoal and pastel, and again, later, alone, furiously tearing and pasting images from magazines, v...
Category
2010s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Mixed Media
The artist and his model - 31-03-19, Drawing, Pencil/Colored Pencil on Paper
By Corne Akkers
Located in Yardley, PA
The artist and his model - 31-03-19 This drawing is a protest and and prestudy altogether. The latter for the sake of a bigger painting and the first because I need to be more cle...
Category
2010s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pencil
French Contemporary Art By Helen Uter - Moutons Baldwin
By Helen Uter
Located in Paris, IDF
Acrylic on paper, Framed 42 x 42 x 3 cm
Helen Uter is an established Franco-American painter born in 1955 who lives and works in Donnery, near Orléans, France. Heavily influenced b...
Category
1990s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Acrylic
French Contemporary Art By Helen Uter - May
By Helen Uter
Located in Paris, IDF
Acrylic on paper, Framed 42 x 42 x 3 cm
Helen Uter is an established Franco-American painter born in 1955 who lives and works in Donnery, near Orléans, France. Heavily influenced b...
Category
1990s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Acrylic
French Contemporary Art By Helen Uter - Joseph
By Helen Uter
Located in Paris, IDF
Acrylic on paper, Framed 42 x 42 x 3 cm
Helen Uter is an established Franco-American painter born in 1955 who lives and works in Donnery, near Orléans, France. Heavily influenced b...
Category
1990s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Acrylic
Apocalypse, Catastrophic Destruction of the World, Surrealism - Life Magazine
Located in Miami, FL
Apocalypse in 1962? At the height of the Cold War, Life Magazine commissions an illustration that describes the world's end by means other than a nuclear war with Russia. Richard Erdoes brilliantly illustrates the work with his highly stylized painting technique. My favorite part of the work is on the left side showing a group of people packed together as they fall into oblivion. A clear reference would be Hieronymus Bosch's "The Last Judgment "
Once Again the World Ends." Illustration published in Life Magazine, Feb. 9, 1962
Signed in lower right image.
Unframed
Richard Erdoes (Hungarian Erdős, German Erdös; July 7, 1912 – July 16, 2008) was an American artist, photographer, illustrator and author.
Early life
Erdoes was born in Frankfurt,[1] to Maria Josefa Schrom on July 7, 1912. His father, Richárd Erdős Sr., was a Jewish Hungarian opera singer who had died a few weeks earlier in Budapest on June 9, 1912.[2] After his birth, his mother lived with her sister, the Viennese actress Leopoldine ("Poldi") Sangora,[3] He described himself as "equal parts Austrian, Hungarian and German, as well as equal parts Catholic, Protestant and Jew..."[4]
Career
He was a student at the Berlin Academy of Art in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power. He was involved in a small underground paper where he published anti-Hitler political cartoons which attracted the attention of the Nazi regime. He fled Germany with a price on his head. Back in Vienna, he continued his training at the Kunstgewerbeschule, now the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.[5] He also wrote and illustrated children's books and worked as a caricaturist for Tag and Stunde, anti-Nazi newspapers. After the Anschluss of Austria in 1938 he fled again, first to Paris, where he studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, and then London, England before journeying to the United States. He married his first wife, fellow artist Elsie Schulhof (d. xxxx) in London, shortly before their arrival in New York City.
In New York City, Erdoes enjoyed a long career as a commercial artist, and was known for his highly detailed, whimsical drawings. He created illustrations for such magazines as Stage, Fortune, Pageant, Gourmet, Harper's Bazaar, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, Time, National Geographic and Life Magazine, where he met his second wife, Jean Sternbergh (d. 1995) who was an art director there. The couple married in 1951 and had three children.[6] Erdoes also illustrated many children's books.
An assignment for Life in 1967 took Erdoes to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for the first time, and marked the beginning of the work for which he would be best known. Erdoes was fascinated by Native American culture, outraged at the conditions on the reservation and deeply moved by the Civil Rights Movement that was raging at the time. He wrote histories, collections of Native American stories...
Category
1960s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Mixed Media, Gouache, Board, Illustration Board
Windows of Perception, Drawing, Pencil/Colored Pencil on Paper
Located in Yardley, PA
This pencil drawing was created on acid free paper. It received the Honorable Mention Award at the Third Annual Juried Exhibition, Archway Gallery, July 9, 2011, Houston TX It obta...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pencil
Stripe Drawing - Illuminant I, 2010
Located in Atlanta, GA
In his evocative, mixed-media sculptures and installations, Nobuhiro Nakanishi aims to bridge the gap between art and life through immersive, time-based images of nature and natural phenomena that come as close as possible to matching how we might perceive them in reality. “By capturing spatial change and the infinite flow...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Pencil
Surreal Collage:
Irvington Park
Located in New York, NY
Barnett, a surrealist artist incorporates discarded mechanical objects and gadgets into his artwork. His work is characterized by its unique and eclectic mix of materials, which rang...
Category
2010s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel, Watercolor, Graphite
Surreal semi-Nude Man in the Middle of the Highway
By Steven Stroud
Located in Miami, FL
Meticulously rendered surreal image of a seemingly disoriented shirtless and shoeless man standing in the middle of a busy highway and gazing outward. The image is characterized by fine lines with some cross-hatching over a wash mono-chromatic background. Published: The Stories of John Cheever...
Category
1980s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
Portrait of Bachoo Dinshaw, Countess Woronzow
Located in Miami, FL
Powerful pencil study of Bachoo, Countess Woronzow. Tchelitchew exaggerates the sitter's features with abnormally large eyes for dramatic effect, Bachoo (Countess Bachoobai Woronzow-...
Category
1940s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Archival Paper, Graphite
Oedipus And The Sphinx
Located in Miami, FL
Initialed in cartouche bottom center
Provenance: Robert L. B. Tobin Foundation
Matted but Unframed
Category
1960s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gouache, India Ink
Jünglinge / Youths
Located in Wien, 9
Franz Rogler (1921 -1994) studied wood and stone sculpture with Wilhelm Gösser at the Graz School of Applied Arts and attended the master class for painting with Rudolf Szyszkowitz. During his studies he was drafted for military service and, together with fellow artist Hans Fronius, was deployed as a war painter in Austria, Germany, Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Greece and Russia. During this time he completed studies at the Academy in Zagreb and organised exhibitions in Austria. In 1944 he deserted and managed to escape to Switzerland, where he settled in Basel after his internment and came into contact with the Swiss Surrealists of "Group 33" and with the artists Hans Arp, Max Ernst and Meret Oppenheim through his friend Regula Weilenmann. After the end of the war, he studied at the Basel Art School with Walter Bodmer and Heinrich Müller, which introduced him to Constructivist art. In 1947 Rogler returned to Graz and became a member of the Graz Secession. From 1948 to 1950 he studied at the Vienna Academy with Albert Paris Gütersloh, before returning to Graz as a freelance artist in 1950. In 1953 he received the Art Prize of the City of Graz and his works were published in the first issue of the "Surrealist Publications" edited by Edgar Jené and Paul Celan...
Category
1940s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Graphite
Surrealist composition with Arm (Graphite)
Located in London, GB
CAMILLE BRYEN 1907-1977 [CAMILLE BRIAND]
Nantes 1907 – 1977 Paris (French)
Title: Surrealist composition with Arm (Graphite), circa 1935
...
Category
1930s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Graphite
Surrealist composition with Arm (Ink)
Located in London, GB
CAMILLE BRYEN 1907-1977 [CAMILLE BRIAND]
Nantes 1907 – 1977 Paris (French)
Title: Surrealist composition with Arm (Ink), circa 1935
Techn...
Category
1930s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Taurus II
By Jacob Gildor
Located in London, GB
JACOB GILDOR b. 1948
(German / Israeli)
Title: Taurus II, 2003
Technique: Original Hand Signed Tempera and Collage and Ink on cardboard
Size: 25.3 x 35.2 cm / 9.9 x 13.8 in
Additional Information: It is hand signed in black pen "Gildor" at the lower left of the paper.
It was realised in 2003.
This work is recorded in the artist archive with reference no. 2003-12
Exhibited:
1. Forward and Backward, paintings 1966-2003, Sara Kishon Gallery, Tel Aviv, January 2003. No. 6, illustrated pages 10-11.
2. Art Budapst, Antik Enterior, 2006
3. Belvedere Gallery, Budapest , Winter Collection, 2007
Literaute: Jacob Gildor, Segments of Creation, Vol. I, 2009, Israeli Art Museum...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Tempera
Pocket Nudes
By Jacob Gildor
Located in London, GB
JACOB GILDOR b. 1948
(German / Israeli)
Title: Pocket Nudes, 2007
Technique: Original Hand Signed Collage with Watercolor on cardboard
Size: 25.5 x 30 cm / 10 x 11.8 in
Additional Information: This collage by the Israeli artist Jacob Gildor is hand signed in bleu pen "Gildor" at the lower left of the paper.
It was realised in 2007.
This work is recorded in the artist archive with reference no. 2007-7
Literaute: Jacob Gildor, Segments of Creation: Second Generation, Vol. III, 2009, Israeli Art Museum...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Wind in the Garden
By Teri Brudnak
Located in Boston, MA
Artist commentary:
My plants inspire me every day. The garden is a place to recharge your spirit. In this work, the wind has pressed the plants into rhythmic patterns. The patterns ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Mixed Media, Archival Paper
Surrealist and Whimsical Watercolor by an unknown Mexican Painter
Located in Pasadena, CA
Lots of humor in this watercolor painted by a Mexican artist who unfortunately did not sign it.
We enter in a fancy world. Be prepared!
Two trinkets featuring, the first one, an imaginary church with 4 big threatening birds standing guard, two on the 2 church towers, and two in front of the door. Behind this, we can perceive the shape of a big kettle. These surreal objects stand in front of a window, therefore inside a house. They rest on a small green carpet...
Category
1960s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper
$550 Sale Price
35% Off
Target (Esravos/Selves)
By Jacob Gildor
Located in London, GB
JACOB GILDOR b. 1948
(German / Israeli)
Title: Target (Esravos/Selves), 2006
Technique: Original Collage, Ink Paper, Sand on Industrial Cardboard.
Size: 46.2 x 33.2 cm / 18...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
La Velleda
By André Masson
Located in New York, NY
La Velleda, circa 1947, by Andre Masson (1896-1987)
Pastel on paper
35 ½ in x 28 ¾ inches unframed (90.17 x 73.03 cm)
50 ¼ x 42 ¾ inches framed (127.64 x 108.59 cm)
Signed lower righ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel
Price Upon Request
UNTITLED MOUNTAINS
Located in Santa Monica, CA
EDWARD HAGEDORN (AMERICAN 1902 – 1982)
UNTITLED MOUNTAINS, ca 1935
Tempera, Unsigned. Image 18 x 24 inches. See also 1stdibs item LU411312750272 for another example form the follow...
Category
1930s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Tempera
Price Upon Request
Lincoln
s Bullet as a Meteorite
Located in New York, NY
Dionisios Fragias is a New York -based artist born on the Greek island of Kefalonia and raised in New York City. He is the protege of the artist Jeff Koons whose years-long mentorshi...
Category
2010s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Steel, Stainless Steel
Price Upon Request
Moïse, illustration pour la Sainte Bible
Located in Long Island City, NY
A unique and striking watercolor on paper by surrealist Salvador Dali. This painting depicts Moses in bold red paint with a crown of black points emerging from his head. Provenance: ...
Category
1960s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
Price Upon Request
Lady with the Military Medals, Watercolor and Ink on Paper by Benjamin Benno
Located in Long Island City, NY
Lady with the Military Medals
Benjamin Benno, American (1901–1980)
Date: 1940
Watercolor and ink on paper, signed and dated
Size: 24 x 14.38 in. (60.96 x 36.51 cm)
Frame Size: 27 x 2...
Category
1940s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
Untitled 7, Colored Ink drawing by Benjamin Benno
Located in Long Island City, NY
The Amazon
Benjamin Benno, American (1901–1980)
Date: circa 1940
Colored ink on paper
Size: 14.75 x 21 in. (37.47 x 53.34 cm)
Frame Size: 22 x 28 inches
Category
1940s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink
Still Life with Fruit Bowl and Water Jug, Crayon on Paper by Benjamin Benno
Located in Long Island City, NY
Still Life with Fruit Bowl and Water Jug
Benjamin Benno, American (1901–1980)
Date: 1940
Crayon on paper, signed and dated
Size: 13 x 17.13 in. (33.02 x 43.5 cm)
Frame Size: 24.5 x 2...
Category
1940s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Crayon
"Early Morning Light, " Oil on Paper - Abstract Surrealist
Located in Houston, TX
Primal energy leaps from the depths of the universe, as the first rays of daylight break through the dark.
Artwork Details:
Ithipol Thangchalok
"Early Morning Light"
1998
Oil on Pa...
Category
1990s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Oil
Turtle Man
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Beautiful drawing of Len's reoccurring Turtle Man Character.
Category
20th Century Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Graphite
Price Upon Request
Cruxificion
Located in London, GB
Signed in pencil at lower right.
Category
1950s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Crayon, Pencil
Price Upon Request
Que principio a abrir los ojos
Located in London, GB
Signed in pencil at lower right. Inscribed 'Que principio a abrir los ojos' ('Where to start when you open your eyes') in pencil at lower centre.
Category
1950s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Crayon, Color Pencil
Price Upon Request
Untitled - Drawing by Wifredo Lam - Ink and Pencil - 1941
By Wifredo Lam
Located in Roma, IT
This extraordinary and rare drawing by Wifredo Lam is one of the artworks that the artist took with him when he moved from Cuba to France. In Paris, Lam showed Picasso his drawings a...
Category
1940s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Pencil
Tranquility
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Surrealism has been my passion since a young age. The concept of being able to manifest my visions into a space where it can be seen and interacted with has always been fascinating...
Category
2010s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pencil
Price Upon Request
E.T. Phone Home
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Surrealism has been my passion since a young age. The concept of being able to manifest my visions into a space where it can be seen and interacted with has always been fascinating...
Category
2010s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Pen
Price Upon Request
Exceptional set of complete works, dedicated, with 8 original endpage drawings
By Jean Cocteau
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Jean Cocteau
Exceptional copy of the complete works in 9 volumes, dedicated to Jacques Fonson, 8 with original endpage drawings
Half bound in red morocco with gold lettering
8 volum...
Category
1940s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gold Leaf
Recherché de l
amour
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Presenting an original scratch board drawing by American artist Darren LeGallo.
"Recherché de l'amour", is executed on scratch board, which is a whit...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Board
Price Upon Request
Everything in Between
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Presenting an original scratch board drawing by American artist Darren LeGallo.
"Everything in Between", is executed on scratch board, which is a whit...
Category
Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Board
Price Upon Request
Surrealist drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Surrealist drawings and watercolor paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add drawings and watercolor paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, purple, yellow and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Isabel Rock, Corne Akkers, Maria C. Bernhardsson, and Sergio Barletta. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Surrealist drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 3.75 inches across are also available. Prices for drawings and watercolor paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $121 and tops out at $224,500, while the average work sells for $1,494.