1940s Art

A Quiet River - Oil on Canvas Oil painting depicting a river flowing through a grove of trees. Vibrant green trees surround the river, hues of deep greens make up the trees to the l...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Serie E, var. 13 (Series E, Variation 13), from the album Henri Matisse, Dessins, Themes et Variations (Drawings, Th...

Artist: Alexander Nepote – American (1913-1986) Title: Untitled Year: circa 1940 Medium: Watercolor Size: 14.5 x 22 inches. Signature: Signed lower right Condition: Excellent Frame:...

Original Avenge December 7th vintage poster. Linen backed; excellent condition. Artist: Bernard Perlin. Office of War Information, Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office: 1942-O-491978 Dramatic original World War II poster depicting a sailor with his fist raised, standing above a scene of an exploding battleship, with the words “Avenge December 7” in red across the middle of the poster. The striking image on OWI “Poster No. 15,” memorializing the events of December 7, 1941, was created by artist Bernard Perlin. U. S. Government Printing Office. Year: 1942 As a Life Magazine war art correspondent living in Europe during the 1940s and 1950s, Perlin continued to document social change uniquely. An American painter primarily known for creating many American posters during WWII and for magic realism...

"Good Health Week" WPA American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Social Realism Jo Cain (1904 – 2003) Good Health Week 10 ½ x 15 1/2 inches Oil on pape...

Sylvia Mayzer Rantz, 'Ninth Inning', lithograph, 1949, edition 24. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '9/24' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper. The ful...

Jean-Gabriel Domergue, celebrated as the self-proclaimed “inventor of the pin-up,” was a master of portraying the elegance and allure of French high society. His work captured the sp...

Robert Vale Faro, 'Easter Sunday', color lithograph, 1946, edition 31. Signed, dated, titled and numbered '116' and '17/31' in pen. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on heavy, off-white wove paper; full margins (1 1/4 to 2 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 21 x 13 1/2 inches; sheet size 24 3/4 x 16 1/4 inches. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a well-known modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller...

Charcoal and watercolor drawing realized by Maccari in 1940s. Not signed. Very good condition, with another interesting sketch in china ink on rear.

Original WWII poster: Protect his Fugtures buy and Keep War Bonds The color poster shows a young, smiling boy being lifted in the air, holding on to a man's hands. The boy has blond...

Albert Urban, Untitled Abstraction (Figures in Red), color serigraph, 1944. Signed and dated in blue ink. A fine, painterly impression, with fresh, rich colors, on cream wove paper;...

This elegant original poster, created circa 1940 by renowned maritime artist Charles Edward Turner, showcases the iconic R.M.S. Caronia, one of the most celebrated ocean liners of th...

Original HERE. Mister! AMOCO Service mid-century vintage poster. Archivally linen backed in very good condition, ready to frame. A- condition with a dime size touch-up in the low...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Serie S.A., var. 1 (Series S.A., Variation 1), from the album Henri Matisse, Dessins, Themes et Variations (Drawings...

Handball In Central Park 1948 - Slim Aarons Estate Stamped A group of young men playing handball at a court in the 95th Street playground, Central Park, New York City, 1948 20 x 20...

Original. “OUR AMERICA, #3 USING MOTION PICTURES FOR SOCIAL VALUE.” vintage poster. Presented by the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. This poster displays the benefits of American Motion Picture making on society as a whole and is number three in the series of Our America, Motion Pictures. From leisure, as in entertainment, to the practical, like legal documentation and recording important events, are displayed in this poster. These benefits are shown in eight small windows along either side of a large ninth window, which is all brought into harmony by the use of green tones, and that the windows are set upon a mint green background. Presenting Facts of History. Our America Motion Pictures # 3. Using Motion Pictures for Social Values. 1. Using cartoons for amusement. 2. Reporting an important event. 3. Making biography dramatic. 4. Reporting athletic events. 5. Dramatizing a famous book. 6. Showing places of natural beauty. Y. Using motion pictures in legal cases. 8. Making pictures true to facts. We Can All Do Our Part! In 1943, during World War II, Coca-Cola created the “Our America” series of vintage motion picture posters...

Charles Quest, 'Underwater', 1948, chiaroscuro wood engraving, edition 12. Signed, titled, dated and numbered '3/12' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, in dark brown and warm black, on off-white wove paper, with full margins (5/8 to 1 1/2 inch), in excellent condition. Scarce. ABOUT THE ARTIST Charles Quest, painter, printmaker, and fine art instructor, worked in various mediums, including mosaic, stained glass, mural painting, and sculpture. Quest grew up in St. Louis, his talent evident as a teenager when he began copying the works of masters such as Michelangelo on his bedroom walls. He studied at the Washington University School of Fine Arts, where he later taught from 1944 to 1971. He traveled to Europe after his graduation in 1929 and studied at La Grande Chaumière and Academie Colarossi, Paris, continuing to draw inspiration from the works of the Old Masters. After returning to St. Louis, Quest received several commissions to paint murals in public buildings, schools, and churches, including one from Joseph Cardinal Ritter, to paint a replica of Velasquez's Crucifixion over the main altar of the Old Cathedral in St. Louis. Quest soon became interested in the woodcut medium, which he learned through his study of J. J. Lankes' A Woodcut Manual (1932) and Paul Landacre's articles in American Artist magazine ‘since no artists in St. Louis were working in wood’ at that time. Quest also revealed that for him, wood cutting and engraving were ‘more enjoyable than any other means of expression.’ In the late 1940s, his graphic works began attracting critical attention—several of his woodcuts won prizes and were acquired by major American and European museums. His wood engraving entitled ‘Lovers’ was included in the American Federation of Art's traveling print exhibition in 1947. Two years later, Quest's two prize-winning prints, ‘Still Life with Grindstone’ and ‘Break Forth into Singing’, were exhibited in major American museums in a traveling show organized by the Philadelphia Print Club. His work was included in the Chicago Art Institute's exhibition, ‘Woodcut Through Six Centuries’, and the print ‘Still Life with Vise’ was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1951 he was invited by artist-Curator Jacob Kainen to exhibit thirty wood engravings and color woodcuts in a one-person show at the Smithsonian's National Museum (now known as the American History Museum). Kainen's press release praised the ‘technical refinement’ of Quest's work: ‘He obtains a great variety of textural effects through the use of the graver, and these dense or transparent grays are set off against whites or blacks to achieve sparkling results. His work has the handsome qualities characteristic of the craftsman and designer.’ At the time of the Smithsonian exhibition, Quest's work was represented by three New York galleries in addition to one in his home town. He had won 38 prizes, and his prints were in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In cooperation with the Art in Embassies program, his color woodcuts were displayed at the American Embassy in Paris in 1951. Recognition at home came in 1955 with his first solo exhibition in St. Louis. Press coverage of the show heralded the ‘growth of graphic arts toward rivaling painting and sculpture as a major independent medium’. An exhibition of his prints at the Bethesda Art Gallery in 1983 attracted Curator Emeritus Joseph A. Haller, S.J., who began purchasing his work for Georgetown University's collection. In 1990 Georgetown University Library's Special Collections Division was the recipient of a large body of Quest's work, including prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, stained glass, and his archive of correspondence and professional memorabilia. These extensive holdings, including some 260 of his fine prints, provide a rich opportunity for further study and appreciation of this versatile and not-to-be-forgotten mid-Western American artist...

Hand Signed. Edition of 100 prints plus 5 prints in Roman Numerals. From the portfolio: "Dieci Litografie (Numerus, Mensura, Pondus)". Very rare print in perfect conditions. This a...

Vita col padre is the main content of these 4 Autograph Letters Signed by Gerardo Guerrieri to Maria de Matteis. Not Dated. Around 1947. In Italian. Excellent condition. Including a map of the scene, sketched in black ink. Suggesting theatrical mood, theatrical staging, stage, costume ideas and stage colors, intellectual references (Orson Welles and Rex Whistler), the Italian dramaturg asks the collaboration of the yung and talented costume designer, Maria De Matteis. Under the supervision of Luchino Visconti, Gerardo Guerrieri signs the direction of Vita col padre, by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse (premiered on January 28, 1947, Teatro Eliseo, Rome). These letters refers to all preparations and adaptations for the theater, from the stage to the costumes. " Io vorrei una scena leggera, a tinte tenui, ariosa(..) Anche per i costumi direi di tenerci su un tono più sottile e spumoso: tutta scena e personaggi svampiti che stiano per volare per aria come coppe di champagne delicatissimi!". "I would like a light scene, with soft colors, airy (..) Also for the costumes I would say to keep us on a more subtle and frothy tone: all scene and dizzy characters who are about to fly in the air like very delicate champagne glasses! Gerardo Guerrieri (Matera,1920 – Rome,1986) The Italian film director, playwright, screenwriter, translator, theater critic, and essayist, Gerardo Guerrieri is particularly remembered for translating in Italian numerous plays by Anton Chekhov, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, August Strindberg, Eugene O'Neill, William Saroyan...

This powerful and rare original poster from 1941 was issued by the LVF (Légion des Volontaires Français), a collaborationist French militia founded during the Second World War. The s...

Work on canvas Golden wooden frame 65 x 77 x 2.5 cm

Etching on cream laid paper with a deckle edge and with an unidentified watermark with an "AL" inside an ovoid cartouche with a garter and buckle (likely English 19th century), 9 1/2...

Lithograph and stencil on vélin paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the album, Cahiers d'Art N°24, 1949. Published and printed by Éditions des Cahi...

Work on canvas Original frame 63 x 55 x 5 cm The city - View of Geneva This work of art depicts an urban landscape at the edge of a natural area. Dominated by shades of green and gra...

Work on canvas Beige wooden frame 80 x 66.5 x 5 cm

Nice Orbea bicycle poster from 1947. Orbea is a bicycle manufacturer founded in 1840 and based in Mallabia, Spain. It is part of the Mondragón Cooperat...

Lluís Muntané Muns ( Mataró, Barcelona 1899- Barcelona 1987) Obra: "La iglésia de Belén en 1840" 1a prueba. Aguafuerte a color. Firmado y titulado a lápiz, en la parte inferior. Medi...

Everett Spruce (1908 - 2002) Austin Artist Image Size: 18 x 15 Frame Size: 28 x 25 Medium: Oil on paper / Mixed Exhibited at a University of Texas Faculty art show in 1947 Unsigned Biography Everett Spruce (1908 - 2002) The following, submitted by a researcher of the Ashworth Collection of Native American and Western Art, is from the artist's obituary in the Fort Smith, Arkansas "Times Record" newspaper, October 20, 2002. Everett F. Spruce, well-known artist, teacher, professor emeritus, died Friday, Oct. 18, 2002, at age 94. Everett Spruce was born on a farm in Conway to William E. and Fannie McCarty Spruce. He came to Dallas, at age 17, on a scholarship to study at the Dallas Art Institute, under Olin Travis and Thomas M. Stell Jr. In 1931, he became gallery assistant at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and in 1934 married Alice V. Kramer, a fellow art student. He was one of the "Dallas Nine" group of Southwest artists...

Signed on old frame backing, 'La Vere Hutchings' (American, 1918-1998) and titled 'Early Snow'. LaVere Hutchings had a degree in art and during WWII ...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Serie L, var. 16 (Series L, Variation 16), from the album Henri Matisse, Dessins, Themes et Variations (Drawings, Th...

Bright, fun, oil on board still life by WPA painter J. William Hallquist. Signed lower right.

Terry Haass, 'Quintet', etching and aquatint, edition 20, c. 1948. Signed, titled, and numbered '12/20' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on off-white wove paper, with fu...

Untitled (Houses and Railroad Tracks), c. 1940s, oil on canvas board, signed lower right, 16 x 20 inches, presented in a newer frame This work is part of our exhibition America Coas...

A modern interpretation of the biblical story Suzanna and the Elders. Signed lower right Ink and wash on paper The Downtown Gallery Felix Landau Gallery Ernest Brown & Phillips, Ltd...

Matiz managed to create intimate portraits, in which Frida seemed happy to surrender to her lens. The result was dynamic portraits of Khalo, a wonderful example of both the photograp...

Emerging from the ashes of World War II, France sought not only to rebuild its cities and institutions, but also to rekindle its cultural flame. Among the many initiatives aimed at n...

This exquisite heliogravure after Georges Rouault (1871–1958), titled Automne (Autumn), from the album Georges Rouault, Stella Vespertina (Evening Star), originates from the 1947 edi...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right In the Timken War Bond campaign, JC Leyendecker completed more than a dozen paintings that were rep...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Hospitalities Long Past, 1941 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 37 x 27 inches "Looking into store front windows has always i...

Oil on artist board original painting by the well known American artist, Nicolai Cikovsky. Thick vibrant colors with a vase of flowers, a banjo and a notebook with photographs with a rough sea as the background. Circa 1940. Condition is very good. Overall framed in a circa 1960 frame, 23 by 27.25 inches. Landscape and figure painter Nicolai S. Cikovsky, 1894-1984, was born in Russia, where he studied at the Vilna Art School, 1910-1914; the Penza Royal Art School, 1914-1918; and Moscow High Tech Art...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Serie O, var. 17 (Series O, Variation 17), from the album Henri Matisse, Dessins, Themes et Variations (Drawings, Th...

This exquisite heliogravure after Georges Rouault (1871–1958), titled Christ et disciples (Christ and Disciples), from the album Georges Rouault, Stella Vespertina (Evening Star), or...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Serie K, var. 1 (Series K, Variation 1), from the album Henri Matisse, Dessins, Themes et Variations (Drawings, Them...

This exquisite heliogravure after Georges Rouault (1871–1958), titled Puits de Jacob (Jacob’s Well), from the album Georges Rouault, Stella Vespertina (Evening Star), originates from...

This exquisite heliogravure after Georges Rouault (1871–1958), titled Nocturne (Nocturnal), from the album Georges Rouault, Stella Vespertina (Evening Star), originates from the 1947...

When you enter visually into the sumptuous scene captured in this painting, the unknown artist is playing with you. They are teasing you to slightly suspend your careful awareness of...

A powerful American Expressionist School study of poppies shown informally arranged in a lilac container. A heavily-impastoed oil showing bravura brushwork and demonstrating an elega...

Juan Reus (1912-2003) Original Vintage Bullfighting Poster September 1942 107cm x 53cm Juan Reus was born in 1912 in Valencia, where he became a well-known...

Signed lower left, 'Marshall Thomas' for Marshall F. Thomas, (American, 1916-2011), and painted circa 1945. An elegantly composed and atmospheric view of a California Main Street sh...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Serie L, var. 17 (Series L, Variation 17), from the album Henri Matisse, Dessins, Themes et Variations (Drawings, Th...

Signed lower right, 'Agger' for Knud Agger (Danish, 1895-1973) and painted circa 1940. Born in Holstebro, Denmark, Knud Agger was exposed at a young age to theories of art and paint...

Tempera and watercolor on paper realized by Mino Maccari in 1940s. Hand signed lower right. Very good condition.

"Le Baiser d'apres Boucher", Impressionist Portrait, Oil Painting, Signed By French artist Claude Benard, (1926 - 2016) Signed and dated '1947' by the artist on the lower left hand c...

Ferdinand Springer, 'Arbre-Homme', engraving, 1945, edition 23. Signed and numbered '23/20' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, on heavy, b...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Still Life with Apples, 1940 Oil on canvas Signed and dated upper right 18 x 24 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national artistic success that was nearly unprecedented among Cleveland School artists of his day, with representation by major New York dealers...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Serie O, var. 1 (Series O, Variation 1), from the album Henri Matisse, Dessins, Themes et Variations (Drawings, Them...

Charles Harsanyi (American, 1905-1973) The Ferry No 2, 1946 Oil on board 40 x 52 in. Framed: 46 x 58 in. Signed and inscribed verso Exhibited: Grand Central Art Galleries, 1946 Charles E. Harsanyi was born in Tapolcza, Hungary in 1905. He studied at the Royal Academy in Budapest, Hungary with A. Bankhard from 1923 to 1928. Nineteen years later, in 1947, Harsanyi moved to the U. S., settling in Jackson Heights, New York. The painter and drawing specialist became a member of numerous prestigious art clubs including the Salmagundi Club, The Society of Independent Artists and the Allied Artists of America. Harsanyi served as an awards director and chairman of admissions for the Audubon Artists Association during the 1950s. Later in life after living in Stephentown, New York and Cape Coral...

This late 1940s urban portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of young boys sailing model boats at Harlem Meer, Central Park, New York Cit...

Vintage modernist still life painting by Virginia Tillou (1906 - 1995). Oil canvas. Housed in a period Heydenryk frame. Image size, 12L x 18H. Sig...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Serie F, var. 2 (Series F, Variation 2), from the album Henri Matisse, Dessins, Themes et Variations (Drawings, Them...