1940s Figurative Paintings

Maud Tausey Fangel - Baby Painter. In profile, we see a charming, young, ruddy-cheeked, blond girl with pig tales in a bright red-orange dress. She is reading Snow White as a sma...

Manning de Villenueve Lee:1894-1980. Well listed American painter and illustrator with Auction records up to $22,500. This spectacular painting is one of our favorites. Probably pain...

Hawaiian Symbolism Figurative & Landscape Oil painting of Mauna Uhane (Mountain Spirit) Symbolic and surreal landscape with a figure of spirit ascen...

A beautiful signed and dated 1943 impressionist oil on board depicting a seated lady, by Belgian painter Jacques Hanot (Jacano). Excellent quality and condition work, siggned lower ...

Summer Resort in Michigan is an exceptional work painted by the Chicago Modernist, William Schwartz. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago shortly ...

“Crossroads, c. 1940” by Sol Wilson (Polish-American, 1896-1974). This expressive painting by Wilson depicts a moody village crossroads rendered with his signature textured brushwor...

Abel Warshawsky (American 1883-1962) Spring Fantasy, 1948 Oil on artist's board Signed lower right and verso 16 x 13 inches 20 x 17 inches, framed Impressionist painter A.G. Warshaw...

Rafael de Soto - Village street - Oil on canvas Oil measurements 41x33 cm. Without frame.

Very finely executed modernist ballet scene. Pastel and gouache on paper. Handsomely framed. Image size, 12H by 16L.

A beautiful 1940s painting of a seated female nude in a summer landscape by renowned Chicago artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Painted at the Oxbow School in Saugatuck, Michig...

Oil on canvas by Louis BERTHOMME SAINT-ANDRE, France, 1940s. Young Red-haired Woman. with frame: 74x63 cm - 29.1x24.8 inches ; without frame: 61x50 cm - 24x19.7 inches. Format 12F. ...

Albert Heckman Woodstock Landscape Oil on board 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at ...

3910C Antique impressionistic winter landscape.Oil on canvas applied to board Displayed in a gilt wood frame, Signed lower left by Johanssen. Image size 17.5 H x 23.5 W

Seated Nude Woman American Figurative School 1940s Mid-century American impressionist painting of a woman by American artist Frederick "Fred" Yost (American/Swiss, 1888-1968). He studied: at Mt. Union Col., Alliance, OH; American Students League, New York, and with Homer Boss, John Sloan, Robert Henri, R. Lahey. The painting gleans much form his studies with John Sloan and Robert Henri in the French post-impressionist style. Image 24"H x 18"W Frame, 30"H x 24"W x 1.5"D Signed "Yost" lower right Painter, lithographer, teacher, lecturer About Fred's life: by Hal Fry of the Herald “Fred Does Whatever He Likes” was a title given to a biography written about Fred Yost by Hal Fry of the Herald. The following is taken directly from this column: “Fred Yost’s living style is like his painting style. He has fun with it. Fred John Yost was born in Switzerland, he’ sure, on November 6, 1889, he thinks. His father John brought the family to his country when Fred was about a year old—first to New York and later to Canton, Sebring and finally Alliance, where Yost Sr. loaded freight for a railroad. Fred like drawing and painting so far back he can’t remember how or when it started—it was always that way. But through the public schools in Alliance he didn’t think of this as a career possibility. He wanted to be a newspaperman. He worked his way through Mt. Union College, finishing, he thinks, about 1912. Then he beat it for New York and after kicking around for a time got a job as a proofreader for the Wall Street Journal. He combined this and art school until World War I took him into the Army. In infantry, field artillery and ordnance duties he served with the 27th New York Division through St. Mihiel and the Argonne and the rest—in the process getting his hearing clobbered by blasts from his outfit’s own guns. Coming out a Sergeant in 1919, he went back to the Wall Street Journal briefly—then caught on as a staff artist for the (New York) Herald. For several years, when he felt like it, Yost would take a bus to the Mexican border and switch to a Mexican bus to carry him way down south, then make it any way he could to the places he wanted to see. On these trips he virtually becomes a peon, disappearing totally from those who know him—living with, like and clearly thoroughly liked by the people among whom he moves.” Yost was a graduate of the Art Students League and past president of the Ohio Watercolor Society. Fred Yost, a man who eminently loved the Mexican landscape, Exhibited: S. Indp. A., 1928, 1930-33; MMA, 1945; AIC; Butler AI, 1947-1951; Ohio WC Soc.; PAFA, 1948-1950; Akron AI, 1947-1951, 1958; Fla. Southern Col., 1952; Ohio Univ., 1950; Columbus Gal. FA, 1947-50; AWCS, 1958; Salons of Am.; 3 solo: Canton AI; Akron AI, Springfield Mus. A. Contributor to Ford Times, 1958-59. Awards: prizes, Massilon Museum, 1944; Ohio Watercolor Society, 1944, 1948; Indianapolis, Ind., 1944; Tri-State Pr. M., 1945, 1946; Butler AI, 1946; Youngstown Pub. Schools, 1946 (prize); Ohio Univ., 1950; Ethel Printz award, 1950; Fla. Southern Col., 1952; Akron AI, 1952, 1956-1958; Canton AI, 1961, 1963; medal, Phila. Pa., 1950 Member: Ohio Watercolor Society (president) Work: Massillon Mus.; Youngstown Pub. Sch. Coll.; Butler AI; Akron AI; Kennedy & Co., NY; Beaver Col., Beaver Falls, Pa.; Block Gal., Indianapolis; Prospect Park, NY; murals, Sioux City Steak House; Sioux City A. Center; City Hall, Sioux City; Akron AI; Evangelical Church, Akron; Rockefeller Center; Radio City, NY; Brooklyn Zoological Park. Affiliated with NYC Park Dept. Mural Projects. Comments: Came to U. S. in 1889. Position: teacher, Butler AI; Akron AI; instr., Akron AI, Akron, Ohio; cur. Historical House of Refuge...

Gorgeous watercolor depiction of the Liberty Class Dry Cargo Ship "Charles Scribner" docked in Torre Annunziata, Italy, with a portrait of a man in pencil in the upper left corner, by Giovanni Gallo...

Surrealist Nocturnal Hawaiian Figurative Landscape w. Blue Skirted Woman & Moon by Marguerite Louis Blasingame Striking mid century modern Hawaiian noct...

Signed lower right 'Muff' for Orla Muff (Danish, 1903-1984) and painted circa 1940. Orla Muff received his first formal art instruction at the Copenhagen Technical School from 1917-...

Road Less Traveled Hawaii Surrealist Mid Century Figurative Abstract Landscape Symbolistic and romantic Surrealist 1940s figurative abstract landscape with a figure journeying down a path in an idyllic landscape by Marguerite Louis Blasingame circa 1940-45. Signed Blasingame lower right corner; from a collection of her work. Unframed. Condition: Excellent; professionally cleaned and UV varnished. Image, 30"H x 20"W. Marguerite and her husband Frank Blasingame...

Oil Painting of River Forest Landscape in Ireland by 20th Century Post War Irish Artist, Tobias Everet Spence Art measures 20 x 16 inches Frame measures in...

Artist: Pál Fried (Hungarian, 1893-1976) Title: "Hortense (Ballerina)" *Signed by Fried lower left Circa: 1940 Medium: Original Oil Painting on Canvas Framing: Framed in a light gold...

John Steuart Curry "Cockfight in Cuba," 1946 oil on canvas Image: 38.25 x 46.25 in Frame: 43.75 x 51.5 in Signed on reverse with initials JSC on lower right stretcher bar John Steu...

This evocative 1930s–1940s vintage oil painting by Denver modernist Paul K. Smith depicts a timeless New Mexico adobe church, likely inspired by the iconic San ...

Monumental, important WPA painting signed by Percy Albee. The painting is oil canvas measuring 36" x 48". Titled verso "New Americans", this WPA painting was exhibited at the Carnegi...

World War II Invades Central Park, 1943, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 30 x 36 inches, literature: Barton, Phyllis, Cecil C. Bell, McGrew Color Graphics (Kansas City, MO, 1976),...

Symbolic Hawaiian nocturnal figurative of whispy angel figures with mountains and bridge by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and her husband Frank Blasingame...

ANTONI CLAVÉ Spanish, 1913 - 2005 STILL LIFE signed "Clavé" lower right also inscribed "Ce tableau a ete peint par moi vers 1946, Clavé" on the reverse oil on ...

Albert Heckman Cubist Landscape Signed lower right Oil on canvas 21 3/4 x 30 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to tr...

Cityscape Mid-20th Century Modern Social Realism American Scene Regionalism WPA Samuel Thal (1903 to 1964) "Cityscene" 12 x 16 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed verso Framed: 19...

Original oil on wooden panel painting of a lively interior scene composed of two colorfully dressed can can girls preforming in front of a packed house of interested spectators. Signed lower left “N. Barerra”. Circa 1945. Condition is very good. Recently professionally cleaned and varnished. The painting is housed in a new custom gold leaf frame. Overall framed measurements are 16.5 by 19.5 inches. Provenance: A Bellport, Long Island collector. Nicolas Barerra is a painter born in Russia, now Ukraine in 1919. He studied at the Leningrad Academy of Fine Arts. He was a war correspondent and published drawings for American newspapers. After the war, he settled in Marseille where he worked as an illustrator and made a living from the sale of his paintings. He was a friend of Albert Camus and Patricia...

This original 1940s grayscale watercolor by Charles Ragland Bunnell depicts a semi-abstracted view of the Golden Cycle Mill in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Rendered in subtle gradations of black and gray, the composition reflects the influence of WPA-era Modernism, combining industrial subject matter with expressive abstraction. The work is a notable example of mid-20th-century American Regionalism, capturing both a sense of place and a forward-looking artistic vision. Bunnell’s restrained palette and simplified architectural forms transform the industrial landscape into a dynamic modern composition, emphasizing structure, rhythm, and atmosphere. The subject references the Golden Cycle Mining and Reduction Company, a major contributor to Colorado’s early 20th-century mining industry, located in what is now Old Colorado City. Through this modernist lens, the painting documents an important chapter of Western industrial history. The watercolor measures 8 1/8 x 9 5/8 inches (sight size) and is presented in a custom black frame measuring 18 x 19 ½ x 1 ⅜ inches, making it a refined, display-ready piece for collectors of American Modern art, WPA works, and industrial landscapes. Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897–1968) was a pioneering Colorado modernist, New Deal art...

'Market Day in Piazza Grande, Locarno, Switzerland', oil on board, by unknown artist (1947-48). Locarno is an utterly charming Italian-speaking resort located on the northern shore o...

Serenity is an impressive, giant oil painting realized by the Italian painter Felice Carena in 1948. Signed lower left. Not framed, framing optio...

An anxious moment waiting to see the doctor is depicted by Clyde Singer in this quiet and still painting. Entitled Doctor's Office (1949), Singer paints a moment of anticipation and...

'Young Man in a Yellow Brocade Waistcoat' by David Monies, 1849. Paris, Munich, Danish Royal Academy ----- Monogrammed lower right, 'DM' for David Monies (Danish, 1812-1894) and dat...

Signed lower right, 'M. Watorski' for Mieczyslaw Watorski (Polish, 1903 - 1979) and painted circa 1950. This Polish history and landscape painter is particularly revered for his doc...

Bill Crawford (1913-1982). Original illustration artwork depicting teams as they advance to the World Series. Depicted are representations of the St. Louis Cardinals and The Brooklyn...

Albert Heckman Cubist Landscape Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art w...

3910B Antique oil landscape people working in a beau colic field . Set in a 19th C gilt frame Image size 16x20"

Charming and bright mid century California figurative landscape with a female figure walking down a verdant and inviting path by William Hiller (America...

Story illustration for The Robe (People's Book Club) written by Lloyd Douglas, 1942 "Father had bought Demetrius six years ago and presented him to Marcellus on his seventeenth birt...

Romantic still-life of a beautiful porcelain lady and her two dogs - perhaps Borzoi - set among a display of fresh cut lilies by listed artist Nell Walker Warner (American, 1891-1970). Signed "Nell Walker Warner" lower left. Displayed in a giltwood frame with linen liner. Image, 30"H x 36"L. Nell Walker Warner was born in Richardson County, Nebraska on April 1, 1891. She was educated in Colorado Springs, Colorado and graduated from the Lexington College in Missouri in 1910. She moved to California in 1916 where she studied and graduated from the Los Angeles School of Art and Design. After her marriage to Dr. Bion Smith Warner in 1920, the couple settled in La Canada. During the 1920's, Nell was the curator of the Tuesday Afternoon Club in Los Angeles and further studied with Nicolai Fechin, Paul Lauritz and Fritz Werner. Her floral paintings are radiant; an article in the Christian Science Monitor stated, ''California flowers...

Corn Kachina, by Riley Sunrise, Quoyavema, Hopi, Kachina, Dancer, painting Artist Signature - Riley Sunrise (1914-2006) Quoyavema “Another of the earlier Hopi artists, Riley Sunrise (Quoyavema) worked with Fred Kabotie and Waldo Mootzka in illustrating John Louw Nelson’s Rhythm for Rain. He is also known as Quoyavema or Kwayeshva, according to Nelson. His paintings are comparable to Fred Kabotie’s, with some of them showing more action and most of them revealing less detail. Sunrise is represented in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, Gilcrease Institute (Tulsa), and the Southwest Museum. The Museum of the American Indian in New York has an extensive collection of his paintings of native Hopi dances.” (Clara Lee Tanner: Southwest Indian...

American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, After the Shower (1949), where he depicts a woman walking down the street after a storm with her umbrella in hand. An accompl...

Destiny's Path, Hawaii - Surreal Mid Century Hawaiian Figurative Abstract Symbolistic and romantic 1940s surreal figurative of pastel orange figure...

Symbolic Crucifixion 1949 Signed and dated, l.r. Oil on canvas 24 x 14 inches (61 x 35.6 cm), canvas 25.25 x 15.25 inches (64.1 x 38.7 cm), framed This work is offered by CLAMP i...

Albert Heckman Woodstock Landscape Oil on board 8 x 10 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art ...

A striking, vintage early 1940s fashion study featuring a stylish young woman dressed in an elegantly designed hat and coat, most likely a study for a print advertisement illustratio...

A rare and breath taking work, with masterful bursh work and sublime execution of light. We are drawn to the subtle beauty and elegant pose. The tasteful compostion lends an intimate scene into the artists studio where Philip has captured her effortlessly. This piece comes displayed in a wonderful frame and hanging wire on verso. Art measures 24 x 20 inches Frame measures 30 x 26 inches Robert Philipp was born on February 2, 1895 in New York City. He was an American painter influenced by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and known for his nudes, still lifes, and portraits of attractive women and Hollywood stars. Moses Solomon Philipp showed early talent and grew up in a family atmosphere that fed and cultivated his creativity. At age of 15, he entered the Art Students League for four years and then continued his training at the National Academy of Design. His teachers at the League included George Bridgeman and Frank DuMond, and at the National Academy he studied with Douglas Volk...

Symbolic figurative of woman having visions with religious themes and icons (cross, bride, salamander, crown, meeting Christ) while reading by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and her husband Frank Blasingame...

Six O-Clock, c. 1942, oil on canvas, 30 x 20 inches, signed and titled several times verso of frame and stretcher (perhaps by another hand), marked “Rehn” several times on frame (for the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York City, who represented Craig at the time); Exhibited: 1) 18th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings from March 21 to May 2, 1943 at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. #87, original price $450 (per catalog) (exhibition label verso), 2) Craig’s one-man show at the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York City, from October 26 to November 14, 1942, #10 (original price listed as $350); and 3) Exhibition of thirty paintings sponsored by the Harrisburg Art Association at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg in March, 1944 (concerning this exhibit, Penelope Redd of The Evening News (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) wrote: “Other paintings that have overtones of superrealism inherent in the subjects include Tom Craig’s California nocturne, ‘Six O’Clock,’ two figures moving through the twilight . . . .” March 6, 1944, p. 13); another label verso from The Museum of Art of Toledo (Ohio): original frame: Provenance includes George Stern Gallery, Los Angeles, CA About the Painting Long before Chris Burden’s iconic installation outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Urban Light, another artist, Tom Craig, made Southern California streetlights the subject of one of his early 1940s paintings. Consisting of dozens of recycled streetlights from the 1920s and 1930s forming a classical colonnade at the museum’s entrance, Burden’s Urban Light has become a symbol of Los Angeles. For Burden, the streetlights represent what constitutes an advanced society, something “safe after dark and beautiful to behold.” It seems that Craig is playing on the same theme in Six O-Clock. Although we see two hunched figures trudging along the sidewalk at the end of a long day, the real stars of this painting are the streetlights which brighten the twilight and silhouette another iconic symbol of Los Angeles, the palm trees in the distance. Mountains in the background and the distant view of a suburban neighborhood join the streetlights and palm trees as classic subject matter for a California Scene painting, but Craig gives us a twist by depicting the scene not as a sun-drenched natural expanse. Rather, Craig uses thin layers of oil paint, mimicking the watercolor technique for which he is most famous, to show us the twinkling beauty of manmade light and the safety it affords. Although Southern California is a land of natural wonders, the interventions of humanity are already everywhere in Los Angeles and as one critic noted, the resulting painting has an air of “superrealism.” About the Artist Thomas Theodore Craig was a well-known fixture in the Southern California art scene. He was born in Upland California. Craig graduated with a degree in botany from Pomona College and studied painting at Pamona and the Chouinard Art School with Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Barse Miller among others. He became close friends with fellow artist Milford Zornes...

René Mels (1909-1977) Portrait of a young man, signed lower right oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm Framed : 77.5 x 64.5 This impressive portrait is obviously tou...

A Native American scene entitled, The Day's Catch, shows a man fishing the river from his canoe with a net. Though mostly tonal, the sky and distant landscape pop with blue blue-gr...

Saint-Germain-des-Prés. 1946. Oil on canvas, 73x92 cm

Eric Johansson's "Woman with Red Bow" (1940) We are delighted to present for sale the evocative portrait “Woman with Red Bow” by the distinguished artist Eric Johansson, painted in ...

Wonderful 1940s figurative of paper boy reading the comics by Louise Miller Clark (American, 20th Century). Signed "Louise Miller" lower right. Unframed. Im...

Story illustration for “Marriage is a Private Affair” by Judith Kelly, published in the Ladies’ Home Journal, March 1941, page 13. Featuring a young bride and groom embracing as a ma...

Ozer Shabat 1978-1901 Ozer Shabbat was an Israeli painter, a resident of Haifa. Belonged to the Palestine Expressionist group of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Shabbat was born in Wolbrom, Poland. At the end of the First World War he went to Holland for agricultural training in the framework of the HeChalutz movement, prior to his immigration to Palestine. In 1920 he immigrated to Eretz Israel and joined the Hulda group. Later he joined the Merhavia group and there he began painting. Because of his desire to study drawing, he left the group and moved to Jerusalem. In 1921, he wrote articles in the newspaper "HaSadeh" on the subject of agriculture and Dutch cheese. Ozer Shabath won the first prize in a competition for the design of the Dutch Consulate's Garden in Jerusalem, enabling him to travel to Paris in 1923 to study painting. Until 1925 he studied painting at the Grande Chaumiere Academy in Paris. This year he returned to Eretz Israel and settled in Haifa, where he lived until his death. In 1928 he participated for the first time in an exhibition of Eretz Israel artists at the Tower of David. Since then he has participated in all the general exhibitions of Israeli artists. In 1934, together with painters Menachem Shemi, Avraham Mohar, Zvi Meirovitch and others, he founded the Haifa Artists' Group. In 1935-36 he toured Europe and visited Italy, France and England. During his visit, he maintained contacts with artists from the Jewish school of Paris. He has exhibited in several solo exhibitions, represented Israel in exhibitions in Europe and participated in international exhibitions in New York, Johannesburg and Zurich. In 1958 he represented Israel in the Venice Biennale. In 1960, Shabat, together with Elchanan Halpern he represented the Israeli Painters Association at the International Congress of Plastic Arts held in Vienna, Austria . In the 40s and 50s he focused on landscape pictures. However, despite the focus on the Israeli landscape, the approach is universal in the framework of the post-Impressionist painting school. In the 1960s, his approach changed and he turned more to abstraction. The abstract direction gradually evolved. The point of departure of the abstract approach is the architectural landscape, but this view loses its real character and becomes only imaginary: the buildings lose their real character and turn into exclusive geometric areas that are usually set against a dark background. Over time, architecture captured the lion's share of his paintings. Cities like Safed, Jaffa and Jerusalem are the subject of many pictures. He taught painting and art at the schools of the kibbutzim in Ramat Yochanan and Kfar Yehoshua, in high schools in Haifa and in the IDF and Gordon seminars. His paintings were purchased and are in the permanent collection of the Bezalel National Museum (now the Israel Museum), Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa Maritime Museum, Acre Municipal Museum. Select Solo exhibitions 1936 - Nadler Gallery, Haifa. 1943 - The Tel Aviv Museum of Art. 1952 - Artists House, Haifa. 1953 - Bezalel House, Jerusalem. 1955 - Gallery in Geneva, Switzerland. 1955 - The Writers' Club, Haifa. 1959 - Artists House, Haifa. 1960 - Museum of Modern Art, Haifa. 1962 - Museum of Modern Art, Haifa. 1963 - Gallery 220, Tel Aviv. 1968 - The Municipal Museum of Beit Emanuel, Ramat Gan. 1979 - Memorial exhibition marking the first anniversary...

Firmato in basso a destra Bellissimo e luminoso paesaggio del porto francese di Concarneau Esposto in varie mostre Gallerie Mady Bonnard 1961 Gallerie Le Griffon 1963 Galleria Pirr...

A dramatic mid-century western figurative action scene depicting a shootout in an old western town by Randy Steffen (American, 1917-1977), 1947. Several ...

Signed lower right 'Dante' for Giglio Raphael Dante (American, born 1916), titled verso and painted circa 1940. Raphael Dante first studied at the Academy of Rome prior to moving to...