People Animal Prints

Frank Weston Benson Winter Wildfowling, 1927 Signed lower left Etching on paper Image 8 1/2 x 7 inches Born in Salem, Massachusetts, a descendant of a long line of sea captains, Benson first studied art at Boston’s Museum School where he became editor of the student magazine. In 1883, Benson enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris where artists such as Bouguereau, Lefebvre, Constant, Doucet and Boulanger taught students from all over Europe and America. It was Boulanger who gave Benson his highest commendation. “Young man,” he said, “Your career is in your hands . . . you will do very well.” Benson’s parents gave him a present of one thousand dollars a twenty-first birthday and told him to return home when it ran out. The money lasted long enough to provide Benson with two years of schooling in Paris, a summer at the seaside village of Concarneau in Brittany and travel in England. Upon returning to America, Benson opened a studio on Salem’s Chestnut Street and began painting portraits of family and friends. An oil of his wife, Ellen Perry Peirson, dressed in her wedding gown is representative of this period. It demonstrates not only the academic techniques he learned at the Academie Julian but also his own growing emphasis on the effects of light. And yet, despite all the technical mastery displayed in the work, the painting exudes the warmth that existed between model and artist. More than a likeness, it is a study in serenity. Perhaps it was of a work such as this that Benson was thinking when he said, “The more a painter knows about his subject, the more he studies and understands it, the more the true nature of it is perceived by whoever looks at it, even though it is extremely subtle and not easy to see or understand. A painter must search deeply into the aspects of a subject, must know and understand it thoroughly before he can represent it well.” Following a brief stint as an instructor at the Portland, Maine, Society of Art, Benson was appointed as instructor of antique drawing at the Museum School in Boston in the spring of l889. Benson’s long association with the school was particularly fruitful. Under the leadership of Edmund Tarbell and Benson the Museum School became a national and internationally recognized institution. The students won numerous prizes, enrollment tripled, a new school building was erected and visiting delegations from other schools sought the secret of their success. Benson cherished his role as teacher and was held in high esteem by his students, many of whom called him “Cher Maitre.” Reminiscing about his long career with the school Benson once said, “I may have taught many students, but it was I who learned the most.” In 1890, Benson won the Hallgarten Prize at the National Academy in New York. It was the first of a long series of awards, that earning for him the sobriquet “America’s Most Medalled Painter.” In the early years of his career, Benson’s studio works were mostly portraits or paintings of figures set in richly appointed interiors. Young women in white stretch their hands out towards the glow of an unseen fire; girls converse on an antique settee in a room full of objets d’arts; his first daughter, Eleanor, poses with her cat. Works of this sort, together with a steady influx of portrait commissions, earned Benson both renown and financial rewards, yet it was in his outdoor works that gave Benson his greatest pleasure. In the latter half of the 1890s, Benson summered in Newcastle, on New Hampshire’s short stretch of seacoast. It was here, in 1899, that Benson made his first foray into impressionism with Children in the Woods and The Sisters, the latter a sun-dappled study of his two youngest daughters, Sylvia and Elisabeth. This painting was one of the first works that Benson hung at an exhibition with nine friends. The resignation of these ten illustrious artists rocked the American art establishment but, the catalogue for their first exhibition was titled, simply, “Ten American Painters.” When, in 1898, the three Bostonians and seven New Yorkers began to exhibit their best work in exquisitely arranged small shows, the group (dubbed by newspapers, “The Ten” ) quickly became known as the American Impressionists, a bow to the style of their French predecessors. The Ten’s annual shows soon became an eagerly awaited part of the annual exhibition calendar and were always well reviewed. Held annually in New York City, the group’s yearly exhibitions usually traveled to Boston and were occasionally seen in other cities. Benson’s association with other members of the group such as Childe Hassam, Thomas Dewing, William Merrit Chase and J. Alden Weir, only reinforced his growing emphasis on the tenets of Impressionism. As he later said to his daughter Eleanor, “I follow the light, where it comes from, where it goes.” The principles of Impressionism began to dominate Benson’s work by 1901, the year that the Bensons first summered on the island of North Haven in Maine’s Penobscot Bay. His summer home “Wooster Farm,” which they rented and finally bought in 1906, became the setting for some of Benson’s best known work and there, it seemed, he found endless inspiration. Benson’s sparkling plein-air paintings of his children–Eleanor, George, Elisabeth and Sylvia–capture the very essence of summer and have been widely reproduced: In The Hilltop, George and Eleanor watch the sailboat races from the headland near their house. As a boy, Benson dreamed of being an ornithological illustrator. In mid-life, he returned to the wildfowl and sporting subjects that had remained his lifelong passion. Using etching and lithography, watercolor, oil and wash, Benson portrayed the birds observed since childhood and captured scenes of his hunting and fishing expeditions. Together with his two brothers-in-law, Benson bought a small hunting retreat on a hill overlooking Cape Cod’s Nauset Marsh. Here, in the late 1890s, he began experimenting with black and white wash drawings. These paintings became so popular that Benson was not able to keep up with the demand. He turned to an art publishing company to have several made into it intaglio prints; twelve wash drawings are known to have been reproduced in this manner. At least two of them were given as gifts to associate members of the Boston Guild of artists, of which Benson was a founding member. Benson was also an avid fisherman and his salmon fishing expeditions to Canada’s Gaspé Peninsula where one of the high points of his summer. There, in 1921, he began the first in a series of watercolors that would eventually over 500 works. Benson’s watercolors conveyed the joy and beauty of a sportsman’s life whether in a painting of a hunter setting out decoys, a flock of ducks coming in for a landing or a grouse flushed from cover. The critics favorably compared Benson’s watercolors to those of Homer. “The love of the almost primitive wilderness which appears in many of Homer’s landscapes and the swift, sure touch with which he suggests rather than describes–these also characterize Benson’s work,” one critic wrote. “The solitude of the northern woods is very much like Homer’s.” Like the wash drawings before them, Benson’s watercolors proved...

Medium: 8 color Screenprint Year: 2023 Image Size: 16 × 32 inches Edition of 18 Pangas Launch from Punta Lobos by Jos Sances is a vivid contemporary woodcut that captures the tensio...

Medium: 8 color Screenprint Year: 2015 Image Size: 36 × 18 inches Edition of 11 Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways by Jos Sances revisits the brutal realities of nineteenth-century ...

Statimque Tobias visum recepit ("And immediately Tobit revovered his sight") is an artwork realized in 1964. It is part of Biblia Sacra vulgatæ editionis published by Rizzoli-Mediola...

This artwork titled "Soaking Up" c.1970 is an original lithograph on Wove paper by noted western artist Tom (Thomas) Ryan, 1922-2011. It is hand signed, titled and numbered 68/100 in pencil by the artist. The artwork (image) size is 12.25 x 17.35 inches, sheet size is 17.5 x 21.65 inches. It is in excellent condition About the artist: Tom Ryan was born Jan. 12, 1922, in Springfield, Ill., to William Martin Ryan — whose family immigrated to Illinois from Ireland in the 1880s — and Sarah Helen Behrens, whose ancestry predates the Revolutionary War. They had nine children — six boys and three girls. He began drawing before he went to school. "I was 4 years old and drawing airplanes, and an older brother was helping me," Ryan told the Reporter-Telegram in a 2002 interview at the Haley Library's going away party held in his honor. "Those were my first art lessons." He did not decide to be an artist until after his service in World War II. While in the U.S. Navy during the war, he "made quite a bit of money" drawing portraits of his shipmates and other servicemen. After being discharged in 1945, he picked up a Life magazine that carried an article about N.C. Wyeth. "I read the article, and I liked what I read, and I loved the pictures reproduced from his paintings in the article," Ryan said in 2002. "I decided then and there to be an artist." Following his graduation from the American Academy of Art, an education made possible through the GI Bill, he returned to Springfield where he married Jacqueline "Jacquie" Harvey, daughter of a local doctor. She died in 1998. The Ryans moved to New York City where he continued his studies at the Art Students League. During his second year at the Art Students League, he won a contest. His winning painting became the cover for Western writer Ernest Haycox's novel The Outlaw. "Every month after that I also received an assignment from this publisher, and they would be Western novels," Ryan said in 2002. "So that's what I did for the next six or seven years. Then I started exhibiting at the Latendorf Gallery on Madison Avenue. What I sold mainly were the book covers. They would be published and I would get paid by the publisher, and I'd take them to the gallery, and I'd get paid again." Ryan began making trips west in the late 1950s. He would stay three or four months painting, sketching and photographing scenes he'd need later. At that time, his works centered around historical events and places. "I particularly liked to do some of the trail drive things that I did, like the old longhorns," Ryan said in 2002. In the early 1960s, a work by Norman Rockwell and one by Ryan appeared in the same catalog. Rockwell, who was doing the Boy Scouts calendars for Brown and Bigelow, the premiere calendar publishing company in the United States, told the calendar company about Ryan. "The art director gave me a call and asked if I'd like to do a contemporary cowboy...

Contemporary figurative monochromatic mezzotint print by Polish artist Ewa Kutylak. Print depicts a wanderer with a lantern going down the road. On the left there is a mysthical crea...

'Finland Bear Hunting' Colour aquatint by Mathew Dubourg (1786-1838) after Manschirch. From Samuel Howitt's 'Foreign Field Sports'. Samuel Howitt was an English painter, illustrato...

Original linen backed 1949 International Jumping Steeple Chase Van Gent poster. The events were held at the Royal Cercle Equestre Gent; at the Feestpaleis The Royal Cercle Eque...

Etching on laid paper Signed in plate lower left: Jean François Raffaëlli. Published by Cadart & Luquet, Éditeurs, 79 Rue Richelieu, Paris With the blindstamp of the Société des Aqua...

Screenprint Edition 35 of 100 49.9 × 49.9 cm (19.6 x 19.6 in) Signed, numbered and dated on the front Excellent condition. Only visible under raking lighting minor stain in top left ...

Image dimensions : 39 x 25 cm. Hand signed. Edition of 40 prints. Plate X from the series "Imagines".

This Blue Dog work consists of a single dog with soulful yellow eyes sitting on the right side of a pink, white and red background covered in the dog's soulful yellow eyes scattered ...

The Grim Reaper by Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro (1878-1952) Colour woodcut 17 x 14.3 cm (6 ³/₄ x 5 ⁵/₈ inches) Initialled in the plate lower right, LR Exhibition: London, Stern Pissarro Ga...

El Jardín de las Delicias by Maximino Javier was created in 1970. This date places it within a significant period of artistic exploration, reflecting the cultural and social themes p...

“Arena” The First 3 Dimension Western. Original theater issued vintage movie poster - 1953. Professional archival linen backed with the original theater-issued fold marks restored. Ready to frame. Size: 27" x 41.5" Original linen-backed 1953 first 3-D Western movie poster. The FIRST 3-D Dimension Western MGM full-length feature. You live dangerously in MGM's great outdoor romance! Print by Technicolor. Photographed in Technicolor Ansco Color. Gig Young, Jean Hagen, Polly Bergen...

Raphael Macek Music, 2020 Afresco series Large-scale photograph from the Equine Beauty series. The legendary and complex relationship between humans and horses is an enduring one. ...

Joyful image of a woodcut print of a Reindeer pulling a Laplander Sami in his Pulk (small toboggan), a traditional scene in Lapland folklore and history by Yuri Mot. Signed indistinc...

Hand signed. Edition of 60 prints. Image dimensions : 47 X 35 cm

Raquel Forner (1902-1988) Argentine woman painter and printmaker born in Buenos Aires in 1902 and died in the same city in 1988, regarded as one of the best Argentine female painters...

MAGENTA HORSE, THREE GEISHAS is an original lithograph printed using hand drawn lithography techniques on archival Somerset printmaking paper, 100% acid free, by the renowned Chinese born artist Walasse Ting (DING XIONGQUAN, Chinese, 1929-2010). Ting's use of bold colors and expressive calligraphic brush drawn forms convey vivid life energy. He is well known for his colorful images of women, flowers, fish, parrots and horses and was associated with artists Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, and Pierre Alechinsky, members of the avant-garde group called COBRA. Throughout his artistic life, Ting imbued his passion and spirit into his paintings, poetry and sculpture. MAGENTA HORSE, THREE GEISHAS is a freely expressed Chinese Ink Brush drawing depicting a colorful magenta horse with dark purple black mane and tail standing with three lovely Asian women...

Etching realized in 1771. It belongs to the first edition of the suite "Histoire Naturelle de Buffon". Good conditions with slight foxing.

Colour aquatint after Samuel Howitt (1756/7-1822). From Samuel Howitt's 'Foreign Field Sports' Samuel Howitt was an English painter, illustrator and etch...

Marc Chagall Fables : The Rat and the Elephant, 1952 Original etching Printed signature in the plate On Montval vellum 39 x 30 cm (c. 15.5 x 12 in) With COA of the gallery and photo...

Listing includes free shipping, and a 14-day return policy. 24 x 30 inch archival pigment print Edition 4 of 5 Signed on artist certificate Also available in 3 other sizes. Arti...

Artist: Denis Paul Noyer (1940-) Title: La Closerie des Lilas Year: 1979 Medium: Lithograph on Arches paper Edition: E.A.;220, plus proofs Size: 29.75 x 22 inches Condition: Good Ins...

Pan with Flutes - Original Bay Area Woodblock Print Bold and dynamic print of the mythological figure Pan playing double flutes by John S. Cheatham (American.) Pan stands...

Artist: Abraham Hondius (Dutch, c.1625-1691) Title: "Honden Jagen Op Een Beer (Hounds Hunting a Bear)" *Signed and dated by Hondius in the plate (printed signature) lower right Year...

Map of historical landmarks, American Indian territories, rivers, mountains, dams, colleges, federal grazing districts, cities, agriculture, and other activities that were present in...

Etching and aquatint realized by Henry Alken in 1846. Plate from "The Analysis of the Hunting Field". Very good condition. Henry Alken (1765-1851) was en english painter and engrav...

Zoo - Vintage Poster is a vintage poster realized by M. Swierzy, in 1974. Colored offset print. Signed n the plate. Good conditions, except for som...

"The Bees are Dying" Original Bay Area Environmental Aquatint with Drypoint Etching with environmentalist commentary by Maria Bennett (American, 20th century.) This piece features a...

Art: 17" x 23 1/4" Frame: 27 5/8" x 33 7/8" Original color lithograph (VIII/L) Signed lower right. This original Weisbuch lithograph comes from th...

Good Night Mr. Wolf - Animal Fable is an original lithographs on ivory-colored paper realized by J.J. Grandville from Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux, 1852. Published...

Color stencil print titled "Dog Circus" by Andrée Ruellan (1905-2006). New York, American Artists Group, Inc., circa 1936. Unsigned. Presented in an arc...

'Mastiff' Copper-line engraving by J Scott (1774-1827) after Philip Reinagle (1749-1815), 1803. Philip Reinagle was one of the best of the sporting a...

‘Tippoo - A Ram of the Mysore breed in the East Indies, sent by Dr. Anderson of Madrass to Sir John Sinclair, Bt & presented by him to His Royal Highness...

Cecil Aldin (1870 - 1935) The Master Lithograph 48 x 40 cm A jolly lithograph of an MFH and his hounds. Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life. Aldin executed village scenes and rural buildings in chalk, pencil, and also wash sketching. He was an enthusiastic sportsman and a Master of Fox Hounds, and many of his pictures illustrated hunting. Aldin's early influences included Randolph Caldecott and John...

Lithograph hand colored realized by Enrico Benaglia. Edition of 100. Hand signed and numbered in pencil.

This artwork titled "Animals Board the Ark" c.1990 is a color lithograph with embossing by noted Israeli artist Amram Edgi b. 1939. It is hand signed, titled and numbered 852/950 in pencil by the artist. It is custom framed in a gold metal frame. It is in very good condition. About the artist: Amram Ebgi was born in Morocco in 1939. He has been considered a visionary whose imagination combines the warmth of sensitive feelings with light and the complexities of life with subtle structure. Devoting his life to art and spending more than 30 years in his Art Studio. Master Printmaker and Sculptor AMRAM EBGI has been creating beautiful Art for decades, bringing the deeply symbolic and beloved images of his rich Jewish Heritage. His intricately detailed masterpieces are bursting with the Colors of Life. EBGI is truly an Ambassador of the Arts, with his exquisite work commissioned by UNICEF; permanently displayed in the Museum Collections of Yale, Princeton and UCLA exhibited by museums and collected worldwide. One Man Shows 1998 (MAY) Ohev Shalom Congregation, Orlando 1998 (MAR) UJA Federation, Miami, FL 1997 (JUN) Turnberry Jewish Center, Aventura, FL 1997 (JAN) International Ketubah Expo, Museum of Florida 1996 (NOV) Schaarai Zedek, St. Petersburg, FL 1996 (FEB) Jerusalem 3000 Celebration, Jerusalem 1994 (SEPT) Fine Arts Gallery, Ardmore, PA 1994 (JUN) Carter Art Exhibition, Paris, France 1993 (JUN) Lucien Krief Gallery, Jerusalem 1992 (NOV) Nuance Art Gallery, Tampa, FL 1991 (JAN) J.C.C. of San Antonio, TX 1990 (MAR) Temple Beth Am, Miami, FL 1989 (DEC) J.C.C. of Houston, TX 1989 (DEC) Gallery Nicole, Sherman Oaks, CA 1989 (MAY) J.C.C. of Central Florida, Maitland, FL 1989 (MAY) Riverdale YM-YWHA, New York 1989 (JAN) J.C.C. of Rockville, MD 1988 (OCT) Memphis J.C.C., Memphis, TN 1988 (AUG) J.C.C. of Central Florida, Maitland, FL Museums Beit Ha-Shoah-Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles Florida Gulf Coast Art...

'Shooting - Plate II', engraving from George Stubb's famous set of four shooting engravings. Copper-line engraving with later hand-colouring by William...

Silkscreen Image Size H 22 x 22cm Framed Size H 47 x 45cm Edition of 100 Additional information: Screen print on Paper Edition of 100 22 H x 22 W cm (8.66 x 8.66 in) Sold unframed ...

Paris: L'Eclipse, 1872. Woodcut engraving with handcoloring on light-weight wove paper, 13 3/4 x 11 5/8 inches (347 x 294 mm), margins trimmed. Illustrated in Histoire de la révolut...

BURRO EXPRESS by the American Western artist Conrad Schwiering, is a hand drawn limited edition lithograph printed using hand lithography techniques on archival Somerset paper 100% a...

The Matador. 1911. Drypoint. Hardie 109. 6 7/8 x 10 7/8 (sheet 7 7/8 x 12). Edition 15. A few scattered foxing marks and slight mat line; otherwise fine o...

Dresden Zoological Garden is an original color offset print by the German artist Etha Richter (Dresda,1883 - Dresda,1977). Hand-signed in lead bottom right: Etha Richter Dresden. T...

Original Gene Autry Gold Mine in the Sky linen-backed original vintage movie poster. The poster does show some foxing on the original theatrical fold marks. Republic Pictures. ...

Pierre AMBROGIANI (1907-1985) Wolves, 1974 Original Lithograph (Gourdon Workshop) Signed with the artist's stamp On vellum 38 x 28 cm (c. 14.9 x 11 in) Excellent condition

"Lady Cat", 2019, digital collage, print, cat, victorian, figurative, Digital Painting and Drawing / Animals / Surrealistic / Dark Colors / Portrait

Lithograph on vélin d’Arches paper, mounted on vélin d’Arches backing sheet, as issued. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the album, Corres...

Sharon Augusta Mitchell created "Cena Ultima" as if guinea vultures were the apostles in a "last supper" pose arrayed around a carcass in an edition of 100. This is impression #9 fr...

Pierre LISSAC (1878-1955) Jockey Before the Horse Race, 1926 Original woodcut Handsigned in pencil Numbered /160 On vellum 32.5 x 25.5 cm (c. 13 x 10 in) Bears the blind stamp of th...

Colorful Lithograph of Horse Race – Jockey on Norse No. 6 by Serge Medjisky, original poster: Linen-backed printer's proof without text of the horse race. In the lower right are the ...

Etching realized by Mimmo Paladino in 2008, in occasion of the Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Hand signed and numbered. Edition of 260. This work by is from the portfolio The Un...

Silkscreen work by Noche Crist (1909- 2004). Marked in pencil 3/15 lower left. Printed by the artist in the 1970s. Image is from her Year of the Ram series...

Silkscreen Edition 49 of 100 51.3 x 51.3 (20.2 x 20.2 in) Signed, numbered and dated on the front Mint. Minor imperfections may appear due to the production process

Ernesto Garcia Peña (Cuba, 1949) 'Our time" (from Porfolio Grabados Cubanos)', 1977 linocut print on paper Canson 320 g. 23.6 x 17.6 in. (59.8 x 44.6 cm.) Edition of 200 Ref: GAE-309...

First Edition; one sheet American theater poster; archivally linen backed. Chapter 1: A Trap for the Mounties! "Gunfighters of the Northwest" Last of the White Horse Rebels!. Starring Jack Mahoney, with Clayton Moore, Phyllis Coates, Don Harvey. NSS: 54/2801. Very good condition with the expert restoration of original theater-issued fold marks. (the old movie posters...

Jack Beal Frogs and Toad, 1971 Hand signed in pencil by Jack Beal, annotated AP One-color lithograph proofed by hand and pulled by machine from a zinc plate on Arches buff paper with deckled edges at the Shorewood Bank Street Atelier Stamped, hand numbered AP, aside from the regular edition of 150 Stamped on reverse: COPYRIGHT © 1971 BY JACK BEAL, bears blind stamp 18 × 24 inches Unframed 18 x 24 inches Stamped on reverse: COPYRIGHT © 1971 BY JACK BEAL, bears distinctive blind stamp of publisher (shown) Publisher: David Godine, Center for Constitutional Rights, Washington, D.C. Jack Beal's "Frogs and Toads" is a classic example of protest art from the early 1970s - the most influential era until today. This historic graphic was created for the legendary portfolio "CONSPIRACY: the Artist as Witness", to raise money for the legal defense of the Chicago 8 - a group of anti-Vietnam War activists indicted by President Nixon's Attorney General John Mitchell for conspiring to riot during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. (1968 was also the year Bobby Kennedy was killed and American casualties in Vietnam exceeded 30,000.) The eight demonstrators included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. (The eighth activist, Bobby Seale, was severed from the case and sentenced to four years for contempt after being handcuffed, shackled to a chair and gagged.) Although Abbie Hoffman would later joke that these radicals couldn't even agree on lunch, the jury convicted them of conspiracy, with one juror proclaiming the demonstrators "should have been shot down by the police." All of the convictions were ultimately overturned by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. This lithograph has fine provenance: it comes directly from the original Portfolio: "Conspiracy The Artist as Witness" which also featured works by Alexander Calder, Nancy Spero and Leon Golub, Romare Bearden Sol Lewitt, Robert Morris, Claes Oldenburg, Larry Poons, Peter Saul, Raphael Soyer and Frank Stella - as well as this one by Jack Beal. It was originally housed in an elegant cloth case, accompanied by a colophon page. This is the first time since 1971 that this important work has been removed from the original portfolio case for sale. It is becoming increasingly scarce because so many from this edition are in the permanent collections of major museums and institutions worldwide. Jack Beal wrote a special message about this work on the Portfolio's colophon page. It says, "In 1956, shortly after Sondra and I moved to New York, two friends were arrested and jailed for protesting air-raid drills. From them and their friends came our education. This work is dedicated to them and their families. "In Memory of Patricia McClure Daw and AL Uhrie" - This print was made for their children. Jack Beal Biography: Early in his career Walter Henry “Jack” Beal Jr. painted abstract expressionist canvases, because he believed it was “the only valid way to paint.” By the early 1960s he totally altered his approach and fully repudiated abstraction. Turning to representation, he painted narrative and figurative subjects, often enhanced by bright colors and dramatic perspectives. Beal was born in Richmond, Virginia, and from 1950 to 1953 he attended the Norfolk Division of William and Mary College Polytechnic Institute, (now Old Dominion University) where he studied biology and anatomy. Shifting gears, he sought art training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he focused on drawing, and met his wife, artist Sondra Freckelton. His art history instructor encouraged her students to paint in the manner of established artists, and to that end he frequented the Institute’s galleries. For Beal this was significant: “Until I saw pictures of real quality I had tended to think of painting as just so much self-indulgent smearing around, but when I saw masterpieces by Cézanne and Matisse, and other painters of similar stature, I was bowled over; suddenly I realized the force of art.” After spending three years (1953–1956) at the Art Institute, Beal concluded his studies there without getting a terminal degree, thinking it was only useful if he wanted to teach, which, at the time, he did not. He also took courses at the University of Chicago in 1955 and 1956. During this period he married Freckelton, a fellow student and sculptor who began her career working in wood and plastic. Together they moved to New York’s SoHo District before its transformation from a wasteland of sweatshops and small factories into an arts district. They were active with the Artist Tenants Association which was instrumental in getting zoning laws changed so that artists could live and work in the well-lit lofts. Embracing what came to be called “New Realism,” Beal initially painted an occasional landscape as well as earthy-toned still lifes which consisted of jumbled collections filled with personal objects. His signature style started with a series of female nudes—all modeled by Freckelton—based on Greek mythology. These were large canvases with flat paint surfaces, dramatic foreshortening, and unusual perspectives. He further enlivened them with vivid colors, stark lighting, and dynamic patterns derived from textiles and overstuffed furniture. He stopped painting nudes after two episodes. The first came as he was loading a canvas of his naked wife onto a truck in lower Manhattan; several laborers walked by and started to fondle and kiss the painting. On the one hand he felt his wife had been violated, while on the other he was pleased that his realism was so convincing. The second occurred after a solo exhibition in Chicago at which the reception had been sponsored by Playboy magazine. A few days later he was approached by a publicist and asked if Playboy bunnies could be photographed in front of his paintings. He refused. Some portrait commissions came Beal’s way, but he preferred only portraying friends. More significant were four large murals on the History of Labor in America, the 20th Century: Technology (1975), which he undertook for the headquarters of the United States Department of Labor in Washington. Following a historical timeline, the themes were: colonization, settlement, nineteenth century industry, and twentieth century technology. The unveiling ceremony was attended by government officials and Joan Mondale, an arts advocate and wife of the vice-president. The reviewer for the Washington Post wrote enthusiastically: “They’re heartfelt and they’re big (each is 12 feet square). Their many costumed actors (the Indian, the trapper, the scientist, the hardhat, the capitalist in striped pants, the union maid, etc.) strike dramatic poses in dramatic settings (a seaside wood at dawn, an outdoor blacksmith’s forge, a 19th-century mill, a 20th-century lab). The lighting is theatrical. Beal’s compositions, with their swooping curves and bunched diagonals, are as complicated as his interwoven plots.” To accomplish the murals Beal assembled a team of assistants and models, much in the manner of Renaissance masters, which included artist friends and Freckelton. who by then was painting brightly colorful still lifes. A second mural commission ensued from New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority for two twenty-foot long installations for the Times Square Interborough Rapid Transit Company subway station. Beal’s designs for The Return of Spring (installed in 2001, three days after the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, DC and Philadelphia) and The Onset of Winter (installed in 2005), Beal captured the appearance of his models in an oil painting made to the scale of the intended mosaic. A collaboration with Miotto Mosaics, the canvases were shipped to the Travisanutto Workshop, in Spilimbergo, Italy, where craftsmen fabricated the design to glass mosaics. The Return of Spring depicted construction workers and other New Yorkers in front of a subway kiosk and an outdoor produce market and in The Onset of Winter, a crowd watches a film crew recording a woman entering the subway as snow falls against the city’s skyline. Harkening back to some of his early nudes based on Greek myth, Persephone, goddess of fertility and wife of Hades, appears in both. The symbolism is pertinent, since she spent six months each year below ground. Although he disparaged teaching early on, Beal and Freckelton offered four summertime workshops on their farm in Oneonta, New York. He was an instructor at the New York Academy of Art, a graduate art school he helped to establish in 1982. Returning to Virginia, he taught at Hollins College...

this impression is #46 from edition of 50 Mezzotint artist Mikio Watanabe was born in 1954 in Japan and currently lives in France. He is most known for his elegant, evocative black ...

ARTIST: Salvador Dali TITLE: Hamadryades Mimetiques Arborescentes MEDIUM: Etching SIGNED: Hand Signed EDITION NUMBER: EA MEASUREMENTS: 19.3" x 12.4" YEAR: 1971 FRAMED: No CO...