1950s Art

A wonderful depiction of an Autumn landscape in Kent, Connecticut from the Mid-20th Century with puffed trees by the country side. For this beautiful depiction, we find distinct elements that are unique to the earlier works of George Lawrence...

This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Swedish model Inga Lindgren, wife of Argentinian finance minister Ceferino Alonso Irigoyen,...

'Breakfast At Tiffanys' Huge Oversize Limited Edition silver gelatin print Belgian-born actor Audrey Hepburn (1929 – 1993), during a shoot for the promotion of her film BREAKFAST...

Impressive early American impressionist view of New York City oil painting by Johann Berthelsen (1883 - 1972). Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 12H by 16L.

LLuís Muntané Muns (Mataró 1899 - Barcelona 1987). "Joven con cesta de flores". Firmado a mano en el ángulo inferior derecho. Y placa en marco inferior. Óleo sobre lienzo. Medidas: 9...

Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph is from the rare 1952 "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 1952 Spr...

C. Andronis French River Landscape, signed and dated 1959 Oil on board Original carved French frame This luminous and expressive painting by C. Andronis captures the vibrant spirit...

Waylande Gregory (1905-1971). Nude Reclining, ca. 1950's. Painted composite cast from original sculpted in 1930's. Casting sanctioned and approved by the artist during his lifetime in partnership with MPI, Museum Pieces Incorporated. Very few examples were produced and even fewer survive. Waylande Gregory was considered a major American sculptor during the 1930's, although he worked in ceramics, rather than in the more traditional bronze or marble. Exhibiting his ceramic works at such significant American venues for sculpture as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and at the venerable Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, he also showed his ceramic sculptures at leading New York City galleries. Gregory was the first modern ceramist to create large scale ceramic sculptures, some measuring more than 70 inches in height. Similar to the technique developed by the ancient Etruscans, he fired his monumental ceramic sculptures only once. Gregory was born in 1905 in Baxter Springs, Kansas and was something of a prodigy. Growing up on a ranch near a Cherokee reservation, Gregory first became interested in ceramics as a child during a native American burial that he had witnessed. He was also musically inclined. In fact, his mother had been a concert pianist and had given her son lessons. At eleven, he was enrolled as a student at the Kansas State Teacher's College, where he studied carpentry and crafts, including ceramics. Gregory's early development as a sculptor was shaped by the encouragement and instruction of Lorado Taft, who was considered both a major American sculptor as well as a leading American sculpture instructor. In fact, Taft's earlier students included such significant sculptors as Bessie Potter Vonnoh and Janet Scudder. But, Taft and his students had primarily worked in bronze or stone, not in clay; and, Gregory's earliest sculptural works were also not in ceramics. In 1924, Gregory moved to Chicago where he caught the attention of Taft. Gregory was invited by Taft to study with him privately for 18 months and to live and work with him at his famed "Midway Studios." The elegant studio was a complex of 13 rooms that overlooked a courtyard. Taft may have been responsible for getting the young man interested in creating large scale sculpture. However, by the 1920's, Taft's brand of academic sculpture was no longer considered progressive. Instead, Gregory was attracted to the latest trends appearing in the United States and Europe. In 1928 he visited Europe with Taft and other students. "Kid Gregory," as he was called, was soon hired by Guy Cowan, the founder of the Cowan Pottery in Cleveland, Ohio, to become the company's only full time employee. From 1928 to 1932, Gregory served as the chief designer and sculptor at the Cowan Pottery. Just as Gregory learned about the process of creating sculpture from Taft, he literally learned about ceramics from Cowan. Cowan was one of the first graduates of Alfred, the New York School of Clayworking and Ceramics. Alfred had one of the first programs in production pottery. Cowan may have known about pottery production, but he had limited sculptural skills, as he was lacking training in sculpture. The focus of the Cowan Pottery would be on limited edition, table top or mantle sculptures. Two of the most successful of these were Gregory's Nautch Dancer, and his Burlesque Dancer. He based both sculptures on the dancing of Gilda Gray, a Ziegfield Follies girl. Gilda Gray was of Polish origin and came to the United States as a child. By 1922, she would become one of the most popular stars in the Follies. After losing her assets in the stock market crash of 1929, she accepted other bookings outside of New York, including Cleveland, which was where Gregory first saw her onstage. She allowed Gregory to make sketches of her performances from the wings of the theatre. She explained to Gregory, "I'm too restless to pose." Gray became noted for her nautch dance, an East Indian folk dance. A nautch is a tight, fitted dress that would curl at the bottom and act like a hoop. This sculpture does not focus on Gray's face at all, but is more of a portrait of her nautch dance. It is very curvilinear, really made of a series of arches that connect in a most feminine way. Gregory created his Burlesque Dancer at about the same time as Nautch Dancer. As with the Nautch Dancer, he focused on the movements of the body rather than on a facial portrait of Gray. Although Gregory never revealed the identity of his model for Burlesque Dancer, a clue to her identity is revealed in the sculpture's earlier title, Shimmy Dance. The dancer who was credited for creating the shimmy dance was also Gilda Gray. According to dance legend, Gray introduced the shimmy when she sang the Star Spangled Banner and forgot some of the lyrics, so, in her embarrassment, started shaking her shoulders and hips but she did not move her legs. Such movement seems to relate to the Burlesque Dancer sculpture, where repeated triangular forms extend from the upper torso and hips. This rapid movement suggests the influence of Italian Futurism, as well as the planar motion of Alexander Archipenko, a sculptor whom Gregory much admired. The Cowan Pottery was a victim of the great depression, and in 1932, Gregory changed careers as a sculptor in the ceramics industry to that of an instructor at the Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Cranbrook was perhaps the most prestigious place to study modern design in America. Its faculty included the architect Eliel Saarinen and sculptor Carl Milles. Although Gregory was only at Cranbrook for one and one half years, he created some of his finest works there, including his Kansas Madonna. But, after arriving at Cranbrook, the Gregory's had to face emerging financial pressures. Although Gregory and his wife were provided with complimentary lodgings, all other income had to stem from the sale of artworks and tuition from students that he, himself, had to solicit. Gregory had many people assisting him with production methods at the Cowan Pottery, but now worked largely by himself. And although he still used molds, especially in creating porcelain works, many of his major new sculptures would be unique and sculpted by hand, as is true of Kansas Madonna. The scale of Gregory's works were getting notably larger at Cranbrook than at Cowan. Gregory left the surface of Kansas Madonna totally unglazed. Although some might object to using a religious title to depict a horse nursing its colt, it was considered one of Gregory's most successful works. In fact, it had a whole color page illustration in an article about ceramic sculpture titled, "The Art with the Inferiority Complex," Fortune Magazine, December, 1937. The article notes the sculpture was romantic and expressive and the sculpture was priced at $1,500.00; the most expensive sculpture...

A 1951 ink on paper figure study by artist Harold Haydon depicting a conversation. Artwork size: 12" x 9 1/2". Archivally matted to 14" x 16". Provenance: Estate of the artist....

Charming and well painted rural New England modernist landcape by Vern Henry Smith (1927 - 2007. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.

Mid-Century earthenware vase with painted owl decoration, by Pablo Picasso, Vallauris, France (1952). This is a vintage, limited edition earthenware creation, in a run of 500 (Edition Picasso) at the Madoura pottery...

A 1954 Surrealist depiction of a Summer symphony by artist Harold Haydon. Images size: 16 1/2" x 14. Unframed, mounted / floated to a custom Holly Hunt designed gray toned wallpap...

Original oil painting of a busy Paris street with figures and cars under blue skies. Signed by the artist lower left and dated 1954. Condition is very good, no issues or restorations...

5-2729a Vintage underwater seascape on canvas Displayed in a silvered wood frame Image size 15.5x 23

Very rare and well painted Formula Two racing painting. Oil on canvas. Unsigned. Nicely framed.

5198 Japanese India ink Bamboo painting Image size 12x15"

Antique American modernist abstract landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. No signature found.

Antique American signed abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.

This work will be exhibited at Art on Paper NYC, September 4–7, 2025. – Henri Matisse (1869-1954) - Femme Bleue Lithograph from 1958. Dimensions of work: 35.5 x 26.4 cm Publishe...

Rare early 1950s Original Vintage Gelatin Silver Photograph by DOUGLAS JULEFF - also known as DOUG OF DETROIT - of bodybuilder and model GENE STAGGS. This is #1 of two images of Stag...

The Orchestra, 1950, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, 21 1/2 x 25 3/4 inches, labeled verso “Brown University, Trustee, The Walter Feldman Trust for Artwork” titled verso,...

Palm Beach Idyll A couple sunbathe by the sea at Palm Beach Florida 1955 USA Gorgeous print measuring 30 x 30" inches / ca 76 x 76 cm’s paper size. Estate Stamped Collection Edi...

Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph is from the rare 1952 "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 1952 Spr...

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) - Picador II Lithograph from 1961. Dimensions of work: 31 x 25 cm. Reference: Bloch 1017; Mourlot 350; Cramer 113.IV. Printed by Atelier Fernand Mourlot, P...

Raoul DUFY Still-Life with Fruits, 1953 Original Lithograph with stencil watercolor With printed signature in the plate On Arches vellum 28 x 37.5 cm (c. 11 x 14.8 inch) Excellent ...

Medium: lithograph (after the watercolor sketch). Printed in 1955 at the Mourlot Freres atelier, this composition is from George Braque's Intimate Sketchbooks (Carnets Intimes). Braq...

This circa 1950 lithograph by Pablo Picasso, titled "L'image envahit le monde moderne...", reflects both the artist’s genius and the societal shifts of the post-war era. Picasso, one...

Artist: Henri Matisse (after) Title: Bateau Portfolio: The Last Works of Henri Matisse Medium: Lithograph Date: 1958 Edition: 2000 Sheet Size: 14" x 10 1/2 Signature: No Reference: D...

George Gách (American, 1909-1996) The Old Tree in Glenwood Landing, 1957 Oil on canvas 23 x 27 in. Framed: 26 x 29 1/2 in. Singed lower right: Gách 1957 Provenance: Garden City Galleries, Garden City, NY Includes brochure. Born in Hungary, George Gách, the son of sculptor Stephen Gách (1880-1962), was noted for sculpture, impressionist painting and teaching. His subjects included animals, people, florals, nudes, cowboys, sports and scenes of Long Island, Bermuda, Mexico, Florida and upstate New York. Among his sculpture subjects are portrait busts of prime ministers, governors, corporate presidents and soccer stars. He served as a commercial pilot from 1939 to 1952. and in 1944, was shot down and given up as dead. He was also in prisoner of war camps twice during World War II and then in 1947, was almost imprisoned by the communists in Hungary. Gách graduated form the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest in 1939, and then immigrated to the United States. He located his studio in Roslyn Heights Long Island, and at one point set a goal...

Mid Century Bay Area Abstract Expressionist Figurative - Summer Scene by Honora Berg Compelling figurative of two teenagers sitting on dock in a summer coming-of-age scene by Honora...

This exquisite lithograph by Alexander Calder (1898–1976), titled Sans titre (Untitled), from the album XXe Siecle, Nouvelle serie No. 3 (double), Juin 1952, originates from the 1952...

The 1959 original engraving by Joan Miró, titled "Composition bleu et rouge" and created in 1938, is a captivating piece featured in the renowned art publication, XXe Siècle. Miró's ...

A captivating Mid-Century watercolor of an old Chicago house (with a female figure standing in the window) by Chicago artist George Yelich. The watercolor bears its original frame. ...

Signed lower right, 'Gallo Giovanni' for Giovanni Gallo (Italian, 20th century) and dated 1954. Titled lower left, 'Eseguito a Pompei, 'Trionfo di Bacco'' (Done in Pompeii, 'Triumph...

Artist: Andy Warhol Title: Untitled (Plate 1) Portfolio: 1956 In the Bottom of My Garden Medium: Offset lithograph and watercolor on paper Date: 1956 Frame Size: 15 3/4" x 18 3/8" Sh...

Incredible early American modernist still life oil painting. Housed in a great antique giltwood frame. Oil on board.

Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 30 x 40 Frame Size: 39 x 49 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dated 1957 "Bluebonnet Creek" Texas Hill Country Biography Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) Porfirio Salinas was a self-taught artist who painted landscapes of Central Texas with an emphasis on the vast bluebonnet fields that grow there in the springtime. Born in 1910 in Bastrop, Texas, he attended public schools in San Antonio. He also observed works in progress by the director of the San Antonio Art School, Jose Arpa, as well as landscape painter, Robert Wood. Wood is said to have paid Salinas five dollars a picture to paint bluebonnets because "he hated to paint bluebonnets". Salinas served in the military from 1943 to 1945. Although he was assigned to Fort Sam Houston, he was allowed to live at home. At the fort, Colonel Telesphor Gottchalk assigned him to paint murals for the officer's lounge and various other projects, and Salinas continued to be able to paint during his entire conscripted period. Even before he achieved notoriety among galleries, dealers, and museums, Salinas was widely followed and appreciated by many Texans, including former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who may be considered responsible for launching Salinas popularity beyond the boundaries of Texas. In 1973, Texas capital, Austin, honored Salinas for having "done much to bring the culture of Mexico and Texas closer together with his paintings". Salinas died in April 1973 in San Antonio, Texas. From the years of the Great Depression through President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society of the 1960s, Texan Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) remained one of the Lone Star State's most popular artists. Today, his works remain popular with Texas collectors and those who love landscapes of the beautiful "Hill Country" that lies in the center of the state. One of the first Mexican American painters to become widely recognized for his art, Salinas was a favorite of President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, as well as of Sam Rayburn, the longest-serving Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Texas Governor John Connelly. In fact, President Johnson was so enamored with his Salinas paintings that the artist will forever be associated with America's first Texas-born President. Works by Porfirio Salinas are in a number of museum collections, grace the halls of the Texas State Capitol and the Governor's Mansion in Austin, and are included in virtually every major private collection of Early Texas Art. Porfirio Salinas was born on November 6, 1910, near the small town of Bastrop, Texas, about thirty miles from Austin. His father, Porfirio G. Salinas (1881-1967), and his mother, Clara G. Chavez, struggled to make a hardscrabble living as tenant farmers, but eventually were forced to give up farming. The family moved to San Antonio, where Salinas' father was able to get a job working as a laborer for the railroad, but the scenic area around Bastrop, with its pine trees and the wide expanse of the Rio Grande River, would forever remain a touchstone for the artist. For the rest of his life, Salinas and his brothers went back frequently to visit their grandmother in her little farmhouse. When in Bastrop, Porfirio painted on the banks of the Rio Grande or in the groves of pine trees. The Salinas family was close-knit and Porfirio was the middle child of five children, so he had an older brother and sister as well as a younger brother and sister. His mother was a native of Mexico, so throughout his childhood the family made the long drive to Mexico to visit Clara Salinas' family. As a child growing up in the bi-lingual section of San Antonio, Salinas drew and painted incessantly and by the time he was ten, he was already producing work that was mature enough to sell to his schoolteachers. Many years later in an article in the New York Times he was described as a "boy whose textbooks were seldom opened and whose sketchbook was never closed." Instead of studying, the young artist spent his spare time watching artists paint in and around San Antonio. As an aspiring painter, Salinas was fortunate to grow up in the historic city, which had the most active art scene in Texas. It was his exposure to older, professional painters that encouraged the precocious young painter to leave school early in order to help his family and pursue a career as a professional artist, despite his father's inability to see art as a career with any future for his son. When Salinas was about fifteen he came to know the artist Robert W. Wood (1889-1979). He met Wood while he was employed in an art supply store and he soon began to work as an assistant to the English-born painter, who had moved from Portland to San Antonio in 1924. Although the diminutive Englishman was already an established professional artist, he did not have a great deal of formal art training and so he was then studying with the academically trained Spanish painter Jose Arpa (1858-1952) in order to augment his knowledge and give his work a more polished look. Salinas was an eager young man, and while working in Wood's downtown San Antonio studio he learned to stretch canvases, frame paintings and to sketch in larger compositions from small plein-air studies for the English artist. He began to accompany Wood and Arpa to the hills outside San Antonio, where they painted small Plein-air studies of fields of blue lupin - the state flower, the famous "Bluebonnets" of Texas - in the springtime and scenes of the gnarled Red Oaks as they changed color in the fall. He was soon assisting Wood in the tedious work of painting the tiny blue flowers that collectors wanted to see in the landscapes they purchased of central Texas. According to a 1972 newspaper story, "Legend has it that one day in the 1920s artist Robert Wood decided he could not bear to paint another bluebonnet in one of his landscapes. He hired young Porfirio Salinas to paint them in for him at five dollars a painting." Whether this story is accurate or apocryphal isn't clear, but the ambitious and independent young Salinas wasn't destined to be anyone's assistant for very long. The formative event of Porfirio Salinas' teenage years was the Texas Wildflower Competitive Exhibitions, a Roaring-Twenties dream of the eccentric oilman Edgar B. Davis (1873-1951). These competitive shows of paintings of wildflowers and Texas life were mounted in San Antonio from 1927 to 1929. Held at the newly opened Witte Museum each spring, the exhibition featured large cash prizes donated by the philanthropic Davis, which were an inducement for artists to travel from all over the United States to paint in the Hill Country of Texas. The "Davis Competitions," as they were known, helped to cement San Antonio's reputation as an art center, a legacy that remains with the "River City" today. The shows generated a great deal of excitement in the area, helping to make celebrities of the some of the artists who had already settled there and encouraging others to make San Antonio their home. Over the three years that the wildflower competitions were held, more than 300 paintings were exhibited, and many thousands of viewers saw the paintings at the Witte Museum and on tours throughout the state and in New York. Each year Davis would generously purchase the winning paintings and then donate them to the San Antonio Art League. Young Porfirio Salinas would have been able to not only watch his two mentors - Robert W. Wood and Jose Arpa - paint the works that they entered in the Davis Competitions, he would have been able to see Arpa take several of the major prizes, receiving the judge's accolades for "Verbena," "Cactus Flower" and "Picking Cotton," works that are still on view at the San Antonio Art League Museum today. Unfortunately, Davis eventually put his donations to work in other charitable endeavors, bringing to an end the wildflower events, but only after they inspired Salinas and other young painters and had helped to make wildflower paintings the most sought-after subject for traditionalist Texas collectors. In 1930, when he was only twenty, Salinas hung out a shingle and began to paint professionally, augmenting the sales of his easel paintings with what little business he could garner by painting signs for local concerns. It was a struggle for the young artist to make a living, as the effects of the Great Depression were settling in. His early works are very similar to those of Robert Wood's, both in subject matter and treatment. Salinas did small paintings of Bluebonnets for the tourists who visited San Antonio to see the famous Alamo as well as paintings of the Texas missions...

This exquisite lithograph by Marc Chagall (1887–1985), titled L'Ange (The Angel), from Marc Chagall, Dessins Pour La Bible (Drawings for the Bible), Verve: Revue Artistique et Litter...

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting by Ervin B. Nussbaum (1914 - 1996). Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Dated 1950. Artist Bio: Ervin B. Nussbaum was born in Co...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Madame Greta Prozor (Mrs. Greta Prozor), from the album Portraits par Henri Matisse (Portraits by Henri Matisse), or...

Antique American impressionist southern oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Label from a Florida frame shop verso.

This exquisite lithograph after Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), titled Femme nue assise (Seated Nude Woman), from the album Les Lithographies de Renoir (The Lithographs of Renoir)...

Medium: original lithograph. Printed in Paris in 1957 at the Mourlot Freres atelier. Size: 8 3/4 x 6 inches (225 x 150 mm). Jean Cocteau executed this original lithograph to depict a...

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) - Vision de Paris Lithograph from 1952. Dimensions of work: 35 x 52 cm Publisher: Tériade, Paris. On the verso another Lithographs in black. Reference: ...

This exquisite lithograph after Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), titled Odalisque, from the album Les Lithographies de Renoir (The Lithographs of Renoir), originates from the 1951 ...

Artist: Joan Miro Title: Joan Miro (Plate 2) Portfolio: Joan Miro Medium: Lithograph Date: 1956 Edition: Unnumbered Frame Size: 17" x 24" Sheet Size: 9" x 15" Signature: Unsigned Ref...

Luigi Lucioni Pinks and Yellows, 1959 Signed and dated lower right Oil on canvas 13 x 16 inches Provenance Milch Galleries, New York Private Collection, Woodland Hills, California ...

Artwork sold with frame (83 x 101.5 x 5 cm ) Josep Meneses Tapias (born 1930) is a Spanish painter recognized for his vibrant, impressionistic landscapes and urban scenes. Born in B...

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, the founder of Cubism, and one of those who radically transformed the understanding of form, space, and...

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed.

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) - Sketch for L'Âne bleu stamped with the signature 'Marc Chagall' (lower right) pastel and charcoal on paper 18 7⁄8 x 24 in. (48 x 61 cm.) Executed in 1954 ...

Medium: lithograph (after Renoir). One of the most famous Renoir lithographs, this is a portrait of Julie Manet and her cousin Jeanne (Julie Manet wa...

Antique American impressionist Max Kuehne (1880 - 1968) seascape oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Signed. In excellent original condition. Handsomely framed in a giltwood mol...

Artist: William Harnden, American (1920 - 1983) Title: Conductor with Orchestra Medium: Oil on Masonite, signed Image Size: 15.5 x 19 inches Frame Size: 18 x 21 inches

This exquisite lithograph after Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901), titled Danseuse de corde (Tightrope Dancer), originates from the 1952 album The Circus of Toulouse-Lautrec. Pub...

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) - Fleurs de Neige Lithograph from 1958. Dimensions of work: 35.5 x 26.4 cm Plate signed. Publisher: Tériade, Paris. First, original edition. The work ...

Medium: pochoir (after the watercolor). Printed in Paris in 1957 by Jacomet and published by the Galerie Berggruen for a rare catalogue. Image size: 6 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches (160 x 98 mm...

Medium: pochoir (after the drawing). Printed in Paris in 1957 by Jacomet and published by the Galerie Berggruen for a rare catalogue. Image size: 6 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches (173 x 98 mm). ...

Antique American school signed abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 19L x 13H.