Josselin Bodley Paintings

Hollywood, 1941, oil on board, 18 x 24 inches, signed and dated lower right, illegible writing verso About the Painting From a distance, Beckwith deftly captures the spectacle of a Hollywood premiere. But we have not been invited to the party. Our view is from the shadows of a less glamorous neighborhood with a shaggy, unkept palm tree and rundown buildings in the shadows. We look down through the darkness past a packed parking lot to the bright lights of two iconic Hollywood landmarks, the Pantages Theater and the Broadway Building. Completed in 1930, the Pantages was built as an exuberant Art Deco movie palace, while the Broadway Building housed an upscale department store which catered to entertainment industry elites who were less impacted by the Great Depression than the common man, since movies had become the mainstay of popular culture entertainment during the 1930s with large numbers of Americans looking to immerse themselves in Hollywood escapism. Here, in a rare Los Angeles urban image, Beckwith combines that Hollywood fantasy with the more sobering foreground images which could have been pulled from the L.A. Noire fiction of Raymond Chandler...

This vibrant mid-20th-century oil painting, “East Santa Cruz (California)” by noted California artist Jon Blanchette (1908–1987), beautifully captures the dramatic atmosphere of the coastal landscape. A luminous yellow farmhouse stands in striking contrast to a sweeping sky of deep gray storm clouds, creating a compelling interplay of serenity and impending weather. Blanchette’s refined brushwork and masterful use of color highlight his gift for evoking mood, light, and the quiet poetry of the California coast. Painted on canvas board, the work exemplifies Blanchette’s signature romantic realism, combining inviting detail with expressive atmospheric effects. The painting is professionally presented in a custom archival frame, enhancing its depth, texture, and timeless appeal. Framed size: 21 ¾ × 25 ¾ × 1 ½ inches Image size: 16 × 20 inches About the Artist Born in England, Jon Blanchette trained at the Pittsburgh Art...

Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 Frank Sinatra Mid Century Modern Hollywood Film WPA TILL THE COULDS ROLL BY (Film Set), oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches signed “Richard Whorf” lower right and signed and dated on the verso “R. Whorf/ Dec. 21, 1945. Frame by Hendenryk. ABOUT THE PAINTING This painting is from the collection of Barbara and Frank Sinatra, dated December 21, 1945 (just nine days after Frank Sinatra’s 30th birthday), and depicts the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Culver City backlot during the filming of Till the Clouds Roll By, the direction of the film having been taking over by Richard Whorf in December 1945. It is not presently clear if Whorf gave the Sinatras this painting as a gift, as the presence of the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries label on the verso indicates the painting may have been sourced there. Frank and Nancy Sinatra acquired a number of works from Dalzell Hatfield Galleries during the 1940’s, or perhaps they framed it for the couple. Sinatra performed “Old Man River’ in the film. Sinatra and June Allyson are depicted in the center of the painting. PROVENANCE From the Estate of Mrs. Nancy Sinatra; Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. An image of the Dalzell Hatfield label and the back of the original frame (which we replaced with a stunning Heydenrk frame) are attached. Nancy Sinatra was Fran's first wife. Nancy Rose Barbato was 17 years old when she met Frank Sinatra, an 18-year-old singer from Hoboken, on the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1934. They married in 1939 at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Jersey City where Frank gave Nancy a recording of a song dedicated to her titled "Our Love" as a wedding present. The young newlyweds lived and worked in New Jersey, where Frank worked as an unknown singing waiter and master of ceremonies at the Rustic Cabin while Nancy worked as a secretary at the American Type Founders. His musical career took off after singing with big band leaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey...

Mountain Landscape, Near Colorado Springs, Colorado is an original oil on board painting by acclaimed American modernist Mary Cane Robinson. Executed ...

Downtown New York, c. 1930s, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 10 x 12 inches; label verso reads: "Harry Dix / Title Downtown New York / Medium Oil" Harry Dix was a 20th-century p...

Provenance: Private Collection, San Diego, CA. Framed Giovanni Martino, National Academy of Design* member, was born on May 1, 1908 in Philadelphia PA where all seven brothers and one sister, Filomina, Frank, Antonio, Albert, Ernest, Giovanni, Edmond, and William became painters. They were under the tutelage of their eldest brother, Frank, who in the late 1920s, founded the first commercial art* studio, Martino Studios, at 27 South 18th Street. Besides studying with his two eldest brothers, Giovanni also studied with Albert Jean Adolph at La France Institute, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts*, The Graphic Sketch Club, and Spring Garden Institute in Philadelphia. In his mid teens he accompanied his two eldest brothers to New Hope searching for subjects to paint. In the 1930s, he also started to paint in Manayunk, a hilly mill town along the Schuylkill River. At this time he signed his paintings M. Giovanni. These colorful impressionistic* works proceeded more thinly painted dramatically poetic street scenes of the mill town. These images developed into impasto* laden oils in the 1960's with some of the paintings worked with a palette knife*. In Manayunk, he was a common sight on the streets and sidewalks, painting on-the-spot with his wife, Eva Marinelli and his two daughters, Nina & Babette. In the 1980's and 90's he also painted in Conshohocken and Norristown with his youngest daughter, Babette. His paintings became more sharply executed like his earlier work but were more colorful. In the late '90's he worked in his studio to enlarge paintings. He is the recipient of over 100 awards and honors. He received the Benjamin Altman Prize in Landscape Painting in 1975 at the National Academy of Design, NYC where he was elected an Academician (NA) in 1944. He mentored not only his wife and two daughters but also taught at Lehigh University and the Graphic Sketch Club, Philadelphia. He died at his home in Blue Bell on February 1, 1997. (Babette Martino...

Neighbors, 1939, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 22 x 26 inches Norman Barr was an American Scene painter and muralist known for his poignant depictions of working-clas...

Self-Portrait, c. 1940, oil and tempera on Masonite, artist’s name inscribed verso, 30 x 25 inches William Ashby McCloy was an American artist, educator, and clinical psychologist. ...

Bold figurative work by Richard Cronin (American, b. 1952). Two figures stand on a patio, turned away from each other. The figures and scene are rendere...

A Laborer Resting, 1930, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower center, 36 x 30 inches, inscribed verso “July – 1930 / Title – A Laborer Resting / Artist – Robert Gilbert / Price - $2...

"Drama Teacher" 1938 WPA Mid 20th Century American Theatre Surrealism Modernism. 30 x 24 inches. Oil on Canvas. Signed land dated ’38 lower left. The photograph in the listing depicts the artist's friend who taught drama and about whom the painting is based Painter, printmaker and sculptor, Leon Bibel was born in San Francisco in 1913. He trained at the California School of Fine Arts and received a scholarship to study under the German Impressionist Maria Riedelstein. He worked in collaboration with Bernard Zackheim, a student of Diego Rivera, to create frescoes for the San Francisco Jewish Community Center and the University of California Medical School. In 1936 Bibel moved from California to join the Federal Art Project at Harlem Art...

This original oil on board painting by acclaimed American artist Doris Emrick Lee depicts a vibrant Colorado mountain town bathed in warm summer light. T...