R. Holstein Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Early 20th Century Japanese Landscape Watercolor with Torii Gate Beautiful early 20th century Japanese landscape watercolor featuring a torii gate by Shumi...

"Times Square" Mid 20th Century 1937 Modernism Broadway Drawing NYC Cityscape Philip Goodwin (20th Century) "Times Square," 23 ½ x 17 ¼ inches. Gouache...

St. Peter's Basilica from the Edge of the City - Roman Lansdcape Lush watercolor of a sunset behind St. Peter's Basilica by Gaetano Facciola (Italian, 1868-1949). From a road at the edge of town...

L'Ile des Oiseaux by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Watercolour and charcoal on paper 23 x 31 cm (9 x 12 ¹/₄ inches) Signed lower right, Paulémile Pissarro Provenance Private collec...

Artist: Georges d’Espagnat, French (1870 - 1950) Title: Boats on the Shore Year: circa 1910 Medium: Watercolor on Paper, signed Size: 4.5 x 7 in. (11.43 x 17.78 cm) Frame Size: 13.5 ...

A significant early 20th century landscape watercolor of the paradisical gardens at San Anton Palace in Attard, Malta by Nicholas Krasnoff, 1920 (Russian, 1864-1939). This beautiful piece is a wonderful example of the renowned Russian architect's prized watercolors, created while he was exiled to Malta in the early 1920's. Depicting a lush garden full of blooming, colorful flowers and a stately fountain at the San Anton Palace in Malta, one can see the deft hand and attention to detail rendered by the proficient artist and architect's hand. Signed "N. Krasnoff" lower right. Titled and dated "Malta, St. Antonio 1920". Unframed. Measures 10.25"H x 14.25"W. Right corner has a crease from being bent. Nikolay Petrovich Krasnov, also known as Nicholas Krasnoff or Peter Nicholas Krasnoff, was a Russian Serbian architect and painter. He served as Chief Architect of Yalta, Crimea (1887-1899). From 1922 he lived and worked in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and was a key figure in the architectural development of Belgrade. Attending the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1876, aged 12. As a young artist he received patronage from Sergey Tretyakov, brother of the founder of Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, and entrepreneur Petar Gubonyin. In 1887 Krasnov became Chief Architect in Yalta. At the age of 23, Krasnov had large responsibility for the rapid growth of the city. He expanded the promenade, which by 1913 became the city's main street, before creating a new city plan in 1889 (including a new sewer system, planning regulations, new streets, prevention of unregulated construction, a school and children's hospital, and the construction of the Pushkin Boulevard). Two concrete bridges were built over the river, and the embankment strengthened. Krasnov also ran a private practice in Yalta until 1911. Among his most famous work is the Livadia Palace, later the location of the 1945 Yalta Conference. Designed over 60 buildings in Crimea, blending a modernist style with local traditions. Also of note: Dulber Palace, Koreiz (1895-97), Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Yalta (1902), Yusupov Palace, Koreiz (1909), Kokkoz Jami Mosque, Sokolyne (1910). In 1913, he presented a collection of illustrations he had produced of his works to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he held the title of academician. An opponent of the Russian Revolution, he left Yalta with his family in 1919 for Malta, alongside the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, sister of Queen Alexandra, and over 600 members of the Russian aristocracy. Nikolay was in a group housed in the empty Villa St Ignatius, which had been a Jesuit college and then a hospital during World War I. To earn money, Nikolay painted many scenes of Malta, signing his paintings as N. Krasnoff. He is known as Nicholas Krasnoff in Malta. In May 2016 MaltaPost issued a commemorative set of stamps in his honor. In 1922 Krasnov moved to Belgrade, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where he became head of the Department of Monumental Architectural Developments and Monuments. His building designs in Serbia number around 60, and were created under the name Nikola Krasnov, as a mark of respect to his adopted homeland. His key works in Belgrade include: Ministry of Forestry building (now Ministry of Foreign Affairs) (1923) which bears a memorial plaque...

"Three Pyramids + Blue Ball" is a gouache on paper by Alexander Calder. The work is signed in the lower right, "Calder 73”. Although renowned for his innovative and groundbreaking sculptures, Alexander Calder started his artistic career as an abstract painter, preferring to use gouache. What is gouache? Gouache is a water-soluble paint – a type of opaque watercolor. As Calder returned to gouache painting towards the end of his life, he was now armed with a lifetime of experience as a sculptor. He explored the three-dimensional vocabulary of sculptural forms he had developed onto the two-dimensional surface of the paper. Certain shapes and colors recur throughout his gouaches and sculptures. Circles, ovals, and other geometric forms dominate the space. There is the same sense of energy and fluidity. The shapes do not sit on the surface but vibrate giving a feeling of movement in contrast to the static nature of painting. Like his sculpture, Calder’s gouache...

Delicate watercolor of lilies in a pond by an unknown artist (20th Century). Two flowers are blooming above lily pads in a pond. The flowers are rendered in a soft pink, whereas the ...

A beautiful and rare double-sided watercolor by the prolific contemporary Italian painter Marco Sassone (Italian, b.1942). In this early work, created in 1969, Sassone depicts two different sunset harbor scenes on each side of the paper. On the front, the artist uses a warm color palette of orange and yellow hues to depict a glowing sunset illuminating boats in a harbor. A second view of the harbor with small boats in the foreground on verso. Sassone's signature painterly impressionistic brushstrokes can be seen in the way the artist depicts the water in both watercolors. Signed and dated on verso, "M. Sassone 69". Displayed in a dark wood frame with mat. Image size: 10.5"H x 17"W. “One of the foremost colorists working in America today, Sassone is an artist who developed his own personal, expressive vision early in his career, and who has steadfastly remained faithful to it while refining and developing it to the full power and maturity that is seen in his works today.”Janet Dominik, Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1988. Marco Sassone was born in Campi Bisenzio, a Tuscan village, in 1942. The family moved to Florence in 1954, and there he met painters Ottone Rosai and Ugo Maturo, who encouraged him to follow his interest in art. In 1959 he enrolled at the Istituto Galileo Galilei, where he studied architectural drafting for several years. In 1963 he studied with painter Silvio Loffredo, a professor of art at the Accademia in Florence, himself a pupil of the Austrian master Oskar Kokoschka. Loffredo encouraged him to develop his own style and vision. For inspiration, Sassone studied the works of the 19th century Italian impressionists, the Macchiaioli – Giovanni Fattori, Vito D’Ancona and Silvestro Lega. He began exhibiting his first works at Lo Sprone Cultural Center in Florence. In November 1967, soon after the flood had devastated his city, Sassone moved to California. He exhibited for the first time in the United States at the Dalzell-Hatfield Galleries in Los Angeles and became a regular exhibitor at the annual Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach. Throughout the seventies, he exhibited extensively in the U.S. and abroad. In 1976 he collaborated with director John Wilson to produce an autobiographical documentary. The following year his work was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York. Marco Sassone received a gold medal in 1978 from the Italian Academy of Arts, Literature and Science. In 1979 the monograph Sassone by art historian Donelson Hoopes was published in concurrence with the artist’s exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum. With prescience, Hoopes had observed: “Sassone’s art has evolved from within, and such an organic, psychological and spiritual process may take his work along new and unforeseen paths.” In 1981 Sassone moved his studio to San Francisco. During the 80’s his exhibition schedule continued along with his numerous lectures. In 1982 Marco Sassone was knighted by the president of Italy, Sandro Pertini, into the “Order of the Merit of the Italian Republic”. In 1987 Sassone received a commendation from Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley for his “contribution to the community through his art.” In March 1988, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery mounted his solo exhibition titled Sassone with the publication of a catalogue authored by Janet Dominik. The show travelled to Paris and was installed at the historic Bernheim-Jeune Gallery for the month of April. By the late eighties, the artist had become increasingly concerned with social themes. He began extensive and personal research on the homeless and painted a series of large canvasses and charcoal drawings portraying the life he observed on the streets of San Francisco. A number of these works were exhibited at the Chicago International Art Exposition, the Basel Art Fair in Switzerland, Body Politic at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and Issue of Choice at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition (LACE). In March of 1994, his exhibition “Home on the Streets” opened at the Museo ItaloAmericano in San Francisco. Kenneth Baker, art critic for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about his work: “There is true technical brilliance here…In the drawings, his technique seems to discover fresh descriptive possibilities each time out.” The exhibition traveled to Los Angeles in 1996 and Florence, Italy in 1997, where it was installed in the Cloisters of the Santa Croce Church. Paola Bortolotti, art critic for La Nazione, wrote: “The persistent theme however does not carry a denunciation of a social problem, but it is rather the pretext to pour forth onto canvas the urgency of the brush strokes loaded with pigment and light.” In 1997 Marco Sassone received a commission to create a 200 square foot mural in downtown San Francisco. The finished work comprised five canvasses dedicated to the theme of Il Palio...

Wonderfully vibrant mid-century autumnal landscape watercolor of rolling mountains and river by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century). The artis...

The Nailsmith Houses, Late 19th Century Rattenberg Austria Historical Landscape Exquisitely detailed 1888 watercolor of The Nailsmith Houses, a historical building in Rattenberg, A...

Dramatic seascape by an unknown artist (20th Century). Dark clouds are parting over the sea, allowing beams of light to pass through, falling on rocky outcroppings. Two small sailboa...