Skip to main content

Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

American, 1866-1925
One of the best of our native talents, Penfield is well-known for the decade 1891-1901, during which he was the art director of Harper's. For five of the ten years he produced posters for each month's issue of the then-popular magazine. His drawings are deceptively simple, with flat color and clear lines, but they always manage to convey class and refinement. And there's quite often a gentle touch of humor or irony, refreshing and frivolous. Penfield's posters are models of effective composition and economy of expression (Jack Rennert, PAI-XXVII, 555) When his tenure at Harper's came to an end, Penfield was free to travel, and his experiences are preserved in two books published by Scribner's, Holland Sketches (1907) and Spanish Sketches (1911), in which his graphic sense blossomed in a wealth of detail. The critic Royal Cortissoz commented: "When he made [these], he entered thoroughly into the spirit of his themes and did some of his best work... He was never the technical virtuoso alone. Humanity was always breaking into his world." - Frederic B. Taraba "We are a bit tired of the very serious nowadays, and a little frivolity is refreshing, and yet frivolity to be successful must be most thoroughly studied." So wrote EDWARD PENFIELD near the outset of his highly influential career as an illustrator, art editor, and poster artist, a career guided by keen observation, a cosmopolitan sensibility, and simplicity that belied his meticulously crafted efforts. In looking at the work of Penfield today, we find less of what strikes us as frivolous and more of a keen sense of design and composition. The Art Center Bulletin of April 1925 remembered his contribution to illustrative art this way: "To everything he produced Penfield brought his great gifts of design and draftsmanship, a wonderful sincerity that never faltered, and a beautiful humbleness of spirit." As early as 1894, just a year and a half after Penfield began a series of monthly images for Harper's , his work was heralded by Publisher's Weekly: "The advertising poster has within recent years actually soared into the regions of art." Penfield is also credited with bringing abstraction to commercial art through his boldly simplified shapes. This and other stylistic trademarks resulted from a distillation of a number of influences, including the compositional precepts and casual poses found in Japanese prints, the hand-craftsmanship of the Arts and Crafts movement, the impressionistic approach of Parisian poster-making, and British poise and directness.
to
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
13
467
319
256
229
1
1
Artist: Edward Penfield
Woman with Hounds, Original Cover for The Saturday Evening Post
By Edward Penfield
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Cover of The Saturday Evening Post, October 27, 1906 Medium: Watercolor on board Dimensions: 17.00" x 12.00" Signed: Lower Right EXHIBITED: Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Ma...
Category

Early 1900s Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Board, Watercolor

Related Items
Puppy Dog Duckling Greeting Card Illustration painting (Children s room decor)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Ferd Sondern (b.1923) Puppy and Duckling, 1977. Pencil, gouache and watercolor on illustration board. Complete panel measures 7 x 9 inches. Signed lower left. Credited on verso. ...
Category

1970s Realist Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache, Illustration Board

You are my sweet strawberry berry.
Located in Zofingen, AG
Charming, delicious still life with ripe fruits of strawberries. I just want to reach out and take a red fragrant berry. I specially applied the technique of painting, putting a deli...
Category

2010s American Realist Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Pastel, Acrylic, Cardboard

You are my sweet strawberry berry.
You are my sweet strawberry berry.
$855 Sale Price
20% Off
H 19.69 in W 27.56 in D 0.79 in
Puppy Dog Kitten Greeting Card Illustration painting (Children s room decor)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Ferd Sondern (b.1923) Puppy and Bluebird, 1977. Pencil, gouache and watercolor on illustration board. Complete panel measures 7 x 7.5 inches. Signed lower left. Credited on verso...
Category

1970s Realist Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache, Illustration Board

plowing with oxen oil on board painting Spain
By Juan Soler
Located in Sitges, Barcelona
Oil measures 30x30 cm. Frame measures 52x52 cm. He was born in 1951. Under the direction of the teacher Pedro Bermejo, he began his artistic career, quickly standing out and observing in his works an unusual mastery of drawing. A highly mature painter who has known how to stop time in all his works. His themes are preferably costumbrist, although in his work it is usual to see 18th century themes, with horse carriages, hats, umbrellas and still lifes. Observing his work reminds us, due to the theme, of Maestro Palmero...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Post-Impressionist Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

plowing with oxen oil on board painting Spain
plowing with oxen oil on board painting Spain
$344 Sale Price
51% Off
H 11.82 in W 11.82 in
Israeli Judaica Shtetl Family Shabbat Scene Naive Art Oil Painting
By Natan Heber
Located in Surfside, FL
Natan Heber was trained by his father in Poland to be a ritual slaughterer. In 1925, he joined the Zionist movement "Mizrachi" and in 1936 immigrated to Palestine where he opened a poultry shop in Haifa. He began to paint at the age of sixty-one, after ill health forced him to retire. Driven by a need to memorialize his family and their shtetl community lost in the Holocaust, he drew scenes of traditional Jewish life. Unfamiliar with the conventions of scale and perspective, he set his heavily outlined frontal figures on steeply rising surfaces and often portrayed his father in monumental size to mark his importance. One of Israel's greatest naive-style painters. Along with Shalom of Safed, Kopel Gurwin and Gabriel Cohen, He is renowned as one of Israel's greatest living naive-style folk art painters, The Haifa Museum of Art will be opening the first ever Outsider Art exhibition (also known as Art Brut) in Israel in January 2013. He was included in the show of Outsider art at Haifa Museum The exhibition included works by Classical Outsider artists, none of them have ever been shown in Israel - Henry Darger, Martin Ramirez, Adolf Wölfli, Aloïse, Hauser, Carlo Zinnelli, Bill Traylor, Minnie Evans...
Category

Mid-20th Century Folk Art Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Daylight Dreamer" Oil Painting by Claudia Griesbach-Martucci, Whimsical Lamb
By Claudia Griesbach-Martucci
Located in Denver, CO
Claudia Griesbach-Martucci's "Daylight Dreamer" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a lamb in a peaceful trance surrounded by flowers, a butterfly and a bee. This pain...
Category

2010s Realist Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Andrada Trapnell s Reaching For the Sun Original Monkey Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Andrada Trapnell's "Reaching for the Sun" is a captivating original artwork created in 2023. This piece measures 30 x 40 inches and features a masterf...
Category

2010s Realist Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Walk. Oil on cardboard, 70, 5 x 65, 5 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Walk. Oil on cardboard, 70, 5 x 65, 5 cm Aleksandr Rodin (1922-2001) Painter Born in a family of farmers. Wife Rasma Lace - art scholar. Studied at the Stalingrad School of Art, Sar...
Category

1970s Expressionist Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

Walk. Oil on cardboard, 70, 5 x 65, 5 cm
Walk. Oil on cardboard, 70, 5 x 65, 5 cm
$808 Sale Price
20% Off
H 27.76 in W 25.79 in
Folk Art Naive Oil Painting Ljubomir Milinkov Whimsical Pastoral Farm Landscape
By Ljubomir Milinkov
Located in Surfside, FL
Ljubomir Milinkov (1938) Oil painting on board, Whimsical pastoral farm landscape Hand signed upper right, Dimensions: painting 12-1/2 x 15-1/2 inches. framed 18.5 x 21.5 inches Ljubomir Milinkov depicts a fantasy like setting using bold colors, and carefully planned out brushstrokes. The figures and inanimate objects that fill the composition are out of proportion, bi-dimensional, and primitive, cartoonist in terms of style. In fact this painting is iconic of Milinkov's Naif style. His work was sold by Wally Findlay Galleries in New York and Palm Beach and he has designed silk scarves for Hermes. Born in Sovac, Serbia, Arrived in France in 1962. Milinkov enters the world of art. He begins to distill his own style. Good life and beautiful models on the Place du Tertre in Montmartre fill and inspire him. In 1967 he went on an adventure to the USA. For 6 months in 1968 he crossed America from New York to San Francisco aboard his own Cadillac hearse, bought for this trip. It's the full hippie period, he shaves his head in contrast to all the bearded people around him. Back in New York in 1969, he exhibited at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair with 60 artists, five hundred thousand visitors. Sponsored by the organizers to register for 2 years at the New York School of Fine Arts, he declines this generous offer to preserve his freedom and explore his own fauvist mode of expression. Proud to be a graduate of the Fine Arts Schools of “Nulle part” and “Every where”. In 1972 he opened his first solo exhibition at the Masseur Museum of Art, Monroe, Louisiana. In 1973 he joined the Wally Findlay International Gallery, with which he worked exclusively for 16 years, exhibiting in New York, Chicago, Palm Beach, Beverly Hills, Paris. He was included in the show "One of a Kind" along with Artists: Camille Bombois, Orville Bulman, Henri Maik, Gustavo Novoa and Annette Ollivary. His tapestry “Noah's Ark” was purchased by the royal family of Saudi Arabia. In 1974 he returned to France and settled between Cannes and Paris. His collaboration with French design house legend Hermes began in 1982: creation of the first Carré “Jardin Enchanté”, followed in 1998 by Gavroches scarves “La Cavale Joyeuse” and “Les Ailes pleines de Joie” and in 2013 the Carré “Bateau Flowery”. It is the “Enchanted Garden” which will have had the honor in 1983 of being the emblem of Hermès' participation in the 150th anniversary of Central Park in New York, where he will be the guest of honor. Also in 1982, creation of his second Aubusson tapestry "Arche de Noé n ° 2". In 2000 his famous “Twin towers” paintings...
Category

20th Century Folk Art Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Christmas Toys Greeting Card painting (Children s room decor)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Ferd Sondern (b.1923) Christmas Toys, 1978. Ink and watercolor on illustration board. Complete panel measures 10 x 18 inches. Signed lower left. Credited on verso. Printer nota...
Category

1970s Realist Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Illustration Board, Gouache

Daytime Watering Hole at Well in French Village 19th Century Oil Painting
Located in Stockholm, SE
This beautiful painting depicts a crowded scene of a watering hole at a well in the midst of a sunny, hot day, located on the street of a provincial village supposedly located somewh...
Category

Late 19th Century Realist Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

"Madame X" Oil Painting by Claudia Griesbach-Martucci, Whimsical Fox
By Claudia Griesbach-Martucci
Located in Denver, CO
Claudia Griesbach- Martucci's "Madame X" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a fox in a blue gown in a fairy tale setting with pumpkins, bats and moths along a lakesid...
Category

2010s Realist Edward Penfield Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Edward Penfield figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Edward Penfield figurative paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Edward Penfield in board, paint, watercolor and more. Not every interior allows for large Edward Penfield figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 12 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Frank Xavier Leyendecker, Eduardo Leon Garrido, and Frank Schoonover. Edward Penfield figurative paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $39,000 and tops out at $39,000, while the average work can sell for $39,000.

Recently Viewed

View All