Ethel Magafan

Above the Desert (Colorado)

circa 1950

Early work of figures moving along the street in Cuernavaca to the Cathedral in Mexico by Goldie Anita Powell Harding (American, 1892-1974). Circa 1935. Tempera on Masonite. In a per...

JOAN NELSON UNTITLED, 1984 egg tempera on masonite 24 x 18 in. 61 x 45.7 cm. signed and dated on verso landscape castle

Large-Scale Tropical Secret Garden, Mid-Century Botanical Diptych with Waterfall A stunning large-scale, substantial diptych depicting a post-impressionistic tropical nocturnal garden scene by an unknown artist, c.1960s. This diptych is comprised of two pieces; the first panel depicts a group of blooming orchids surrounded by glossy tropical leaves, big boulders, and trees, under a blue night sky. The lush garden continues onto the second panel, which reveals a gorgeous waterfall. In the style of Paul Gauguin's Tahitian period. Unsigned. Measurements: This diptych (2 panels) measures in total: 48"H x 100.50"W. Orchid panel measures 48"H x 52.50"W. Waterfall panel...

A soulful young man is captured in a deep, contemplative state, detached from current external concerns, as he gazes beyond the picture plane. He is realistically rendered, but the s...

A stylized horse is depicted grazing in an abstract landscape. Most likely, the location is Woodstock, New York, where the artist lived. Signed Lower Right; Framed; Note: titled and signed on verso. Ethel Magafan (August 10, 1916 – April 24, 1993) was an American painter and muralist. Magafan was born in Chicago to Greek parents who had recently immigrated to the U.S. The family soon relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Magafan's artistic training occurred at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center under the tutelage of Peppino Mangravite, Boardman Robinson and Frank Mechau, who hired Magafan and her twin sister, Jenne, to assist on mural projects. In 1937, aEthel won the commission to paint a mural in the U.S. post office in Auburn, Nebraska, making her the youngest recipient of such a commission. It would be the first of seven government-sponsored commissions for the artist. Murals "Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1814" E. Magafan, 1943 Under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, several programs were created to employ Americans during the Great Depression. The Magafan twins worked under the New Deal's Section of Painting and Sculpture, a program that hired thousands of artists to paint murals in public spaces, particularly post offices. Ethel and her twin sister, Jenne Magafan, became widely known for their murals painted during the Great Depression. Ethel received her first of seven Government commissions when she was commissioned to produce a painting for the United States post office in Auburn, Nebraska, titled Threshing.Other murals commissioned by the US Government hang in the United States Senate Chamber, the Social Security Building and the Recorder Deeds Building in Washington, D.C., and in post offices in Wynne, Arkansas, titled Cotton Pickers in 1940; in Madill, Oklahoma, titled Prairie Fire in 1941; and Englewood, Colorado, titled The Horse Corral in 1942.Her final mural, entitled Grant in the Wilderness, was installed in 1979 in the Chancellorsville Visitor Center at the Fredericksburg National Memorial Military Park in Virginia, She was a member of the National Academy of Design. Magafan died April 24, 1993, in Woodstock, New York, at the age of 76. References "Collections National Academy Museum". Retrieved 2017-03-08. "Jenne Magafan". Retrieved 2017-03-08. Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984. "Browse New Deal projects by State and City". Living New Deal. Retrieved 9 January 2015. "Ethel Magafan Passes Away". New York Times. No. Obituary. April 29, 1993. Opitz, Glenn B, Editor, Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book...

A gorgeous tempura painting of figures carrying goods and taking a break in a Haitian village by Frantz (Freddie) Lamothe (Haitian, b.1961). Signed "F. L...

This is an important, large tempera painting of the sand dunes that line Michigan's coast. Zolton Sepeshy, who lived and painted in Michigan, also wrote a book on tempera painting. ...

Wonderful rustic landscape of ghost town Bodie, California titled, "The Old Trunk, Bodie" by Darwin Musselman (American, 1916-2010). Presented in a wooden frame. Egg tempera on Masonite, painted at his studio on Sequoia Drive in Fresno in 1972 (verified and authenticated by the son and estate, letter included). Signed "Darwin Musselman" lower right. Titled "The Old Trunk, Bodie" and signed "Darwin Musselman" on verso. Image size, 12"H x 24"W. Darwin B Musselman was born in Selma, California, in 1916 and began his art education at Fresno State College, from which he graduated in 1938. He then attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles, where he studied with the portrait artist, Stanley Reckless...

Vivid abstracted landscape of Monument Valley, Utah by N. Mallory (American, 20th Century), circa 1945. Signed lower left corner. Condition: Good: Some edge and corner wear consisten...

Signed lower right: "Atherton", inscribed "John Atherton Original Tempera 7/28/50" on verso. Artwork measures 16" x 20" and framed 20" x 24" x 2 ½" About this artists: John Atherton (1900-1952) did not show an early aptitude for art; rather, his first love was nature and the activities he relished there, mainly fishing and hunting. Born in Brainerd, Minnesota in 1900, he learned to fish with his father from the age of four. Later the family moved to Spokane, Washington, and when he was old enough, Atherton worked at a variety of jobs to help support his family. One such job, in the sorting plant of a lead and silver mine, paid $4.25 a day—a good wage, though he never had time to spend his money, since he worked seven days a week. After serving in the Navy for a year during World War I, Atherton was determined to get an education. He worked as a sign painter and played the banjo in a dance band, finally accumulating enough money to enroll in the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Once there, he worked like a fiend, attending classes both during the day and at night, getting the best training available. Though he had always intended to be a fine artist, Atherton’s first jobs were for commercial art firms. In 1929, using the prize money won for a painting he entered in an art competition, Atherton and his wife moved to New York City. Though the economic situation was difficult in those years, he managed to keep going by taking commissions for magazine illustrations, and over the years he would paint more than forty covers for The Saturday Evening Post. In 1938, an artist friend suggested that he use the same flat, decorative style as his commercial work for his gallery paintings. This was a breakthrough for Atherton; soon afterwards he held a one-man show at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, and his paintings began to be collected by museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Atherton’s reputation increased to a national scale when he designed the art deco stone lithograph poster for the 1939 World’s Fair that strikingly depicted Earth and its atmospheric layers in the lap of Liberty. Atherton was highly influenced by the magic realist...