American Realist Paintings

This artwork "Black Pug" c.1940, is an oil painting on board by Cincinnati artist Laura E.Cassidy, 1886-1962. It is signed at the lower right corner by the artist. The board size is ...

Oil on wood panel, signed in the lower right with the artist's monogram. Presented in a period carved wood frame. In great condition, ready to hang and enjoy. Measures 10.25" x 11.7...

The impressionist land and water scene from Brooks Anderson. This estuary scene of Marin captures you and takes you on a journey from stream to ocean. Artist signed, titled and dated...

Forest Landscape - an Antique Oil Painting by 19th Century American Artist, Clara Davis Inness (1874-1932) Art measures 16 x 12 inches Frame measures 21 x 17 inches Oil on Canvas, ...

This artwork "Pug in a Basket" c.1940, is an oil painting on board by Cincinnati artist Laura E.Cassidy, 1886-1962. It is signed at the lower left corner by the artist. The board siz...

Nora Othic is considered one of the top regionalist painters in the Midwest. She builds on a legacy from her artistic predecessors such as Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton and the WPA ...

Bruce Barton Penney American, born 1929 Barn on a Hill Oil on board 25 by 30 in, w/ frame 30 ¼ by 35 in Signed lower right, dated 64 Born Laconia, New Hampshire. Addresses: Kennebu...

This tranquil landscape captures a sunlit autumn morning along a quiet stream. Delicate mist softens the background, while a weathered split-rail fence leads the eye through a grove ...

This mural study is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Industry and Commerce, 1936, tempera on panel, 16 ½ x 39 ½ inches, signed verso “John Ballator, Portland Ore.” provenance includes: J.C. Penney Company, represented by Russell Tether Fine Arts Assoc.; presented in a newer wood frame About the Painting Industry and Commerce is a prime example of WPA Era muralism. Like a Mediaeval alter, this mural study is filled with icons, but the images of saints and martyrs are replaced with symbols of America's gospel of prosperity through capitalism. Industry and Commerce has a strong narrative quality with vignettes filling the entire surface. Extraction, logistics, design, power generation, and manufacturing for printing, chemicals, automobiles and metal products are all represented. To eliminate any doubt about the mural's themes, Ballator letters a description into the bottom of the study. Ballator also presents an idealized version of industrial cooperation, as his workers, lab-coated technicians and tie-wearing managers work harmoniously toward a common goal in the tidy and neatly designed environments. Although far from the reality of most industrial spaces, Ballator's study reflects the idealized and morale boosting tone that many mural projects adopted during the Great Depression. About the Artist John R Ballator achieved success as a muralist, lithographer, and teacher during the Great Depression. Born in Oregon, he studied at the Portland Museum Art School, the University of Oregon and at Yale University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Art. In 1936, Ballator was commissioned to paint a mural panel for the new Department of Justice Building in Washington DC, an important project that spanned five years with several dozen artists contributing a total of sixty-eight designs. Ballator completed murals for the St. Johns Post Office and Franklin High School, both in Portland, Oregon. He also contributed to the 1938 murals at Nathan Hale School in New Haven, Connecticut. During the late 1930s, Ballator taught art for several years at Washburn College in Topeka, Kanas, where he completed a mural for the Menninger Arts & Craft Shop before accepting a professorship at Hollins College...

William H. Kinnicutt (American, 1865 - 1934) Signed: W. H. Kinnicutt (Lower, Right) " Evening Fog ", circa 1900 - 1910 Oil on Canvas 20" x 16" Housed in a 3" Carved Frame Overa...

Winter Forest Landscape - Antique Oil Painting by 19th Century American Artist, Clara Davis Inness (1874-1932) Art measures 20 x 16 inches Frame measures 22.25 x 18.25 inches Oil o...

Thomas Owings Sheckell (1883 - 1943) was active/lived in New York. Thomas Sheckell is known for Trees, landscape, snow scenes, coastal view and industrial scene painting...

Zack Zdrale's (US based) "6 and Two" is an oil painting that depicts two male figures with an obscured faces arching their backs and extending their arms a...

Richard Weers (American, 1932-2022) Signed: Richard Weers (Lower, Left) " A Friend in the Forest " Oil on Canvas 12" x 16" Housed in a 1 1/2" Gol...

This artwork "Western Scene" c.1960, is an oil painting on canvas by noted Western artist Charles Damrow, 1916-1989. It is signed at the lower left corne...

This artwork "American Clipper at Sea" c.1990 is an oil painting on canvas by noted American artist Robert Sanders, b. 1950. It is signed at the lower r...

Ethereal landscape with water celebrating morning light. Oil on canvas is 30 x 40 inches, and it is meticulously painted by Brooks Anderson. Signed, ti...

We offer complimentary worldwide shipping and cover all tariffs and import taxes for this artwork. This exceptional artwork is currently on display and available for sale at Signet C...

An oil painting by American artist Rachel Personett (b. 1991, Hawaii) of a woodland scene in October. Yellow foliage adorns the trees and fallen brown leaves cover the ground in this...

"Apple Orchard with Crows" by artist Miles Cleveland Goodwin is oil on canvas, and measures 30 x 40 inches. Including the artist-made frame, the overall dimensions are 31 1/2 x 41 1/...

Nora Othic is considered one of the top regionalist painters in the Midwest. She builds on a legacy from her artistic predecessors such as Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton and the WPA ...

This series of cyanotype triptychs showcases the beauty of nature scenes, including stunning beaches and oceans, as well as the intricate textures of water, forests, and skies. These triptychs are large pieces that feature lush blues, making them an impressive addition to any beautifully designed space. Each triptych is printed by hand and carefully crafted to capture the unique essence of these natural environments, with a focus on the interplay of light and shadows, and the subtle nuances of tone and texture. The beach and ocean scenes depict the dynamic beauty of waves crashing against the shore, with the cyanotype process lending a dreamy, ethereal quality to the images. Similarly, the forest and wood scenes...

Love Mirror, True Experiences magazine cover, February 1937 by Female Illustrator and Pupl Artist Georgia Warren Oil on canvas 17 x 13 inches (43.2 x 33.0 cm) Signed lower left: War...

Nature has always been Tara Esperanza’s muse and source of endless fascination and inspiration. From an early age, her love for the environment shaped her way of seeing the world. As...

Carl Frederick Gaertner (American, 1898-1952) Flower Garden, Cape Cod, c. 1940s Gouache on illustration board 17.5 x 29 inches 27 x 39 inches, as framed Carl Gaertner was one of the greatest painters to emerge from the Cleveland School...

Original Antique Western Nevada Desert Oil Landscape by Phoebe K. Higgins A mid-century desert oil landscape of Western Nevada by Phoebe K. Higgins (American, 1895 - c 1960), circa ...

A 20th-century American School oil painting on board featuring American banker and financier J.P. Morgan (1837-1913) seated at his desk. Light streams throug...

Canvas Size: 12 x 16 in. Frame Size: 20.5 x 24.5 in. Signed, lower left: "Don Warren" A serene, classic, and cheerful scene in the Texas Hill Country by Don Warren. The foreground i...

"Pelham Bay" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modern NYC Subway Transportation Daniel Ralph Celantano (1902-1980) "Pelham Bay" 12 1/4 x 16 inches Oil on canvas Signed lower cente...

Oil on Canvas Canvas size: 24 x 36 in. Frame Size: 33 x 39 in. "Turning them North" is an exhilarating scene of the American Old West by Gary Lynn Roberts (b. 1953, American) execut...

"Misty Sunrise" with soft pastels and glowing water reflections in a peaceful harbor is a quintessential example of Tom Swimm's enhanced realism. This colorful oil exhibits all of t...

If you’ve been dreaming of owning a piece of Wyoming or Montana, this wide-horizons painting deserves a spot over your stone fireplace. Photographic in its crisp detail, the artist c...

Artist: Harry Lane, American (1891 - 1973) Title: Late Summer Medium: Oil on Board, signed Size: 16.5 in. x 12.5 in. (41.91 cm x 31.75 cm) Frame Size: 20 x 16 inches

"Snowy City Scene" American Scene Social Realism WPA Era Mid-20th Century Modern Syd J. Browne (1907-1991) "Snowy City Scene" 22 x 30 inches Oil on canvas. c. 1930s Signed lower lef...

Artist: Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) Title: Girl with Braided Hair Year: Circa 1987 Medium: Oil on canvas Size: 12 x 9 inches; framed size, 19 x 16 inches Condition: Excellent Inscripti...

An accomplished American Scene painter, Clyde Singer successfully captured everyday life during his long career. A unique aspect of American life is depicted in this painting, entitl...

Carole Rabe’s Looking into Dining Room is a beautifully composed 24 x 12 inch oil on canvas that transforms a simple domestic view into a meditative interior landscape. In this intim...

This stunning autumn mountain landscape by renowned artist Raphael Lillywhite captures the breathtaking beauty of Colorado’s rugged terrain. Painted in the traditional plein air styl...

A Fine depiction of a 20th-century tonalist oil landscape by American artist Georgina Nemethy. A serene river scene with dramatic mountains in the background, lush trees, and other f...

An ordinary scene of a woman walking down a sidewalk in the rain is elevated to a little gem of a painting. American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Puddle Jumper (...

Elizabeth Zanzinger's (US based) "The Leap" is a masterfully created realistic oil landscape still-life. This painting measures at 40 x 28 inches, and is framed at 42 x 30 inches re...

John Steuart Curry "Sketching Wisconsin," 1946 oil on canvas 31.13 x 28 inches, canvas 39.75 x 36.75 x 2.5 inches, frame Signed and dated lower right Overall excellent condition Presented in a 24-karat gold leaf hand-carved wood frame John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was an American regionalist painter active during the Great Depression and into World War II. He was born in Kansas on his family’s farm but went on to study art in Chicago, Paris and New York as young man. In Paris, he was exposed to the work of masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Eugène Delacroix and Jacques-Louis David. As he matured, his work showed the influence of these masters, especially in his compositional decisions. Like the two other Midwestern regionalist artists that are most often grouped with him, Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942) and Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975), Curry was interested in representational works containing distinctly American subject matter. This was contrary to the popular art at the time, which was moving closer and closer to abstraction and individual expression. Sketching Wisconsin is an oil painting completed in 1946, the last year of John Steuart Curry’s life, during which time he was the artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The painting is significant in Curry’s body of work both as a very revealing self-portrait, and as a landscape that clearly and sensitively depicts the scenery of southern Wisconsin near Madison. It is also a portrait of the artist’s second wife, Kathleen Gould Curry, and is unique in that it contains a ‘picture within a picture,’ a compositional element that many early painting masters used to draw the eye of the viewer. This particular artwork adds a new twist to this theme: Curry’s wife is creating essentially the same painting the viewer is looking at when viewing Sketching Wisconsin. The triangular composition of the figures in the foreground immediately brings focus to a younger Curry, whose head penetrates the horizon line and whose gaze looks out towards the viewer. The eye then moves down to Mrs. Curry, who, seated on a folding stool and with her hand raised to paint the canvas on the easel before her, anchors the triangular composition. The shape is repeated in the legs of the stool and the easel. Behind the two figures, stripes of furrowed fields fall away gently down the hillside to a farmstead and small lake below. Beyond the lake, patches of field and forest rise and fall into the distance, and eventually give way to blue hills. Here, Curry has subverted the traditional artist’s self-portrait by portraying himself as a farmer first and an artist second. He rejects what he sees as an elitist art world of the East Coast and Europe. In this self-portrait he depicts himself without any pretense or the instruments of his profession and with a red tractor standing in the field behind him as if he was taking a break from the field work. Here, Curry’s wife symbolizes John Steuart Curry’s identity as an artist. Compared with a self-portrait of the artist completed a decade earlier, this work shows a marked departure from how the artist previously presented and viewed himself. In the earlier portrait, Curry depicted himself in the studio with brushes in hand, and with some of his more recognizable and successful canvases behind him. But in Sketching Wisconsin, Curry has taken himself out of the studio and into the field, indicating a shift in the artist’s self-conception. Sketching Wisconsin’s rural subject also expresses Curry’s populist ideals, that art could be relevant to anyone. This followed the broad educational objectives of UW’s artist-in-residence program. Curry was appointed to his position at the University of Wisconsin in 1937 and was the first person to hold any such position in the country, the purpose of which was to serve as an educational resource to the people of the state. He embraced his role at the University with zeal and not only opened the doors of his campus studio in the School of Agriculture to the community, but also spent a great deal of time traveling around the state of Wisconsin to visit rural artists who could benefit from his expertise. It was during his ten years in the program that Curry was able to put into practice his belief that art should be meaningful to the rural populace. However, during this time he also struggled with public criticism, as the dominant forces of the art market were moving away from representation. Perhaps it was Curry’s desire for public acceptance during the latter part of his career that caused him to portray himself as an Everyman in Sketching Wisconsin. Beyond its importance as a portrait of the artist, Sketching Wisconsin is also a detailed and sensitive landscape that shows us Curry’s deep personal connection to his environment. The landscape here can be compared to Wisconsin Landscape of 1938-39 (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which presents a similar tableau of rolling hills with a patchwork of fields. Like Wisconsin Landscape, this is an incredibly detailed and expressive depiction of a place close to the artist’s heart. This expressive landscape is certainly the result of many hours spent sketching people, animals, weather conditions and topography of Wisconsin as Curry traveled around the state. The backdrop of undulating hills and the sweeping horizon, and the emotions evoked by it, are emphatically recognizable as the ‘driftless’ area of south-central Wisconsin. But while the Metropolitan’s Wisconsin Landscape conveys a sense of uncertainty or foreboding with its dramatic spring cloudscape and alternating bands of light and dark, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm and reflective mood. The colors of the foliage indicate that it is late summer and Curry seems to look out at the viewer approvingly, as if satisfied with the fertile ground surrounding him. The landscape in Sketching Wisconsin is also revealing of what became one of Curry’s passions while artist-in-residence at UW’s School of Agriculture – soil conservation. When Curry was a child in Kansas, he saw his father almost lose his farm and its soil to the erosion of The Dust Bowl. Therefore, he was very enthusiastic about ideas from UW’s School of Agriculture on soil conservation methods being used on Wisconsin farms. In Sketching Wisconsin, we see evidence of crop rotation methods in the terraced stripes of fields leading down the hillside away from the Curry’s and in how they alternate between cultivated and fallow fields. Overall, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm, reflective, and comfortably pastoral atmosphere, and the perceived shift in Curry’s self-image that is evident in the portrait is a positive one. After his rise to favor in the art world in the 1930’s, and then rejection from it due to the strong beliefs presented in his art, Curry is satisfied and proud to be farmer in this self-portrait. Curry suffered from high blood...

Lani Vlaanderen's (US based) "Fallow Fields" is an oil painting that depicts two working horses plowing a field with dust billowing around them. Bio/artist statement: Living in the mountains near Rocky Mountain National Park Lani is never lacking something inspiring to paint, be it a grand sunrise on Long's Peak or a small sparrow perched on a pine branch. All fill her with the desire to put paint to canvas. Her goal is not to replicate what she sees, but to express her emotional response from the source of inspiration visually in paint and convey it to the world. She wants to communicate the awe she feels when in the natural world and the joy she experiences from seeing even the seemingly most insignificant moment in time that will never come again. She strives to convey her belief that all things, all beings, all life and non-life, share equal significance and are essential to the whole. "I began my art quest by taking a few classes at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, then enrolled in Kim English's class at the Art Student's Leaque of Denver. After four years with Kim and functioning as his class monitor, I had the opportunity to participate in a painting group with Richard Schmid in Loveland Colorado. I painted there with him for six years. I have taken workshops from such masters as David Leffel, Sherrie McGraw...

This is an interesting portrait of a military person related to the Prinz Heinrich Kaserne complex in Germany after World War II. Apparently there were internal conflicts happening a...

Mid Century Seascape and Figural Original oil painting on Linen 1956 Solitary figure on wharf by California artist Robert Watson, painted 1956 (1923 - 2004)The following, is from To...

Post Office WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Modern 20th Century Carlos Lopez (1910-1953) "Bounty" WPA Mural Study for Michigan Post Office 19 ½ x 22 ½ inches Oil on B...

Signature: Signed Lower Left Medium: Oil on Board Frame: Gilt Frame with Decorative Elements and Linen Inset Brightly colored and bold illustration of an American hunting scene...

New York City scene of two women walking down a sidewalk with a park in the background, in the foreground a man is walking a small dog. American life is captured in this Clyde Sing...

The Wrestlers by Clyde Singer is an excellent Mid-Century painting of a popular Aschan subject. The artist George Bellows (1882-1925) was a precursor of Singer's who often depicted ...

"Portofino Memories," with rippling water reflections below the iconic Portofino harbor is a quintessential example of Tom Swimm's enhanced realism. This colorful oil painting is on ...

Autumn Landscape, by 1958, tempera on Masonite, 24 x 36 inches, signed lower left, exhibited: 1) 133rd Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, New York, NY, February 20 – March 16, 1958 (Henry Ward Ranger Purchase Prize); and 2) Henry Ward Ranger Centennial Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY, September 25 - October 12, 1958, #133 (see Levin, Meyer, Illustrative Paintings Gathered for Ranger Show at National Academy, St. Petersburg Times, October 13, 1958 (“There’s a warm, low-keyed picture of golden fields, with distant structures, called “Autumn Landscape,” by Robert Vickrey, whose magic realism is felt in so “regular” a subject.”), literature: 1) Watson, Ernest William, Composition in Landscape and Still Life, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1959, pp. 24, 155 and 157 (illustrated); and 2) Vickrey, Robert and Cochrane, Diane, New Techniques in Egg Tempera, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1973, p. 111 (illustrated); ex collection National Academy of Design Reflecting on his art, Robert Vickery...

This still life of Plums is a top notch example of 19th century still life painting! Beautiful quality and striking but also spare and honest in nature which is what typified Americ...

A long and quiet night in the hotel lobby is depicted by Clyde Singer in this moody and still painting. Entitled Hotel Night Lobby (1947), Singer paints a moment of solitude during ...