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Period: 1940s
Le Pont Neuf Painting in Giltwood Frame by Ansaloni, Dated 1944
Located in Dallas, TX
Le Pont Neuf, the oldest existing bridge to span the Seine in Paris, is the subject of this painted board in giltwood frame, signed and dated in the lower left corner by the artist, ...
Category
French Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood, Giltwood, Paint
Abraham Van Der Zee, Seasight, 1940, Oil on Canvas, Framed
Located in Kampen, NL
Oil on canvas painting by Dutch artist Abraham van der Zee (1882–1958), elegantly presented in its original wooden frame. A distinguished figure of early 20th-century Dutch art, van ...
Category
Dutch Mid-Century Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Hardwood, Canvas
c.1940/50s Norwegian Oil Painting "Winter Mood" by A. SCHREINER, Oil on Canvas
Located in Skien, NO
Stunning Norwegian / Scandinavian Art-- "Winter Mood" by A. SCHREINER. Oil on canvas, A Museum Quality antique art from Norway.
Title: "Winter Mood / Vinterstemning"
Medium: Oil on ...
Category
Norwegian Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Pine
$1,120 Sale Price
20% Off
"Waiting at the Station" Superb 1943 American Scene Painting, Indianapolis
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Highly atmospheric and winning, this American Scene painting of three young men waiting for the next train in downtown Indianapolis -- perhaps...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
$10,000 Sale Price
20% Off
1940s Signed Realist WPA Banana Flower Oil Painting
Located in Miami, FL
1940s Signed Realist WPA Banana Flower Oil Painting
Offered for sale is a stunning 1940s realist WPA oil painting oil on board. The painting is signed a...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood, Masonite, Paint
Mid-Century French Peonies Oil Painting Still Life Circa 1948
Located in Austin, TX
Mid-Century French Peonies Oil Painting Still Life.
Signed A. Bonquet dated 1948.
Lavender colors.
30 inches W by 24 inches H
Category
French Mid-Century Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood
Signed M. Coloman Framed Oil Painting on Canvas Titled Venice Italy 1940
By Coloman
Located in Miami, FL
VENICE oil painting, featuring the Doges Palacio, Italian School, circa 1940s in its original 1940s frame.
Signed M. Coloman, 20th century.
Category
Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood, Paint, Canvas
"Portrait of Ingeborg Ten Haeff" by Paul Lester Wiener
Located in New York, NY
This 1940s, unsigned oil-on-canvas portrait, newly restored and framed, came from the estate of scholar John Githens (1937-2024) and artist Ingeborg ten Haeff (1915-2011). The couple lived and hosted lively dinner parties at their Washington Square bohemian townhouse, where many of the furnishings were designed by ten Haeff’s first husband, the architect Paul Lester Wiener...
Category
American Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Linen, Wood, Paint
Antique American Portrait of Native American Chief
Located in Boca Raton, FL
Antique American portrait on canvas board of a Native American chief, signed lower left.
Category
American Native American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood
Huts in Landeck – European Alps - oil on canvas
Located in Vo
, Veneto
Huts in Landeck – Oberinntal
Work dimensions: 30 x 40 cm
Dimensions with frame: 37 x 47 cm
Technique: oil on canvas
Period: 1942
Description:
Summer view of some huts with classic ...
Category
German Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas
1940s Three Oil on Oval Canvas WPA Paintings of Trains w. Ribbons Surrealist
Located in Miami, FL
WPA era (1930s/1940s ) Oil on Oval Canvas Grouping of 3 Paintings of Trains with a Ribbon and Floating Ball, a bit Surrealist. Inspired by Thomas ...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Paint
Rolph Scarlett watercolor, and ink on paper.
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Rolph Scarlett 1889-1984. Watercolor and ink on paper.c-1940. Eric Firestone Gallery label fixed to back.. in very good condition. Colors are vibrant. Paper is very secure with some ...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paper
White/Pink Magnolia Watercolor Painting on Paper Signed Shirrell Graves, Framed
Located in Van Nuys, CA
Original 1940s White/Pink Magnolia Watercolor Painting on Paper Signed by Shirrell Graves. The painting features its original white wood frame with a white mat.
Shirrell Graves (188...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Glass, Wood, Paper
"Terrace, " Brilliant, Cubist-Expressionist Masterpiece by Virginia True, 1946
By Virginia True
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Best known for her depictions of New Mexico and the Southwest, here Virginia True painted a brilliantly-hued Cubist scene reflecting her years in New York. Showing the influence of P...
Category
American Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
$15,600 Sale Price
20% Off
Vintage French Framed Oil Painting " The Veiled Woman" 1940
s
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
5183 Vintage French painting of a vailed dark haired beauty
Framed in a modernict gilt frame
Image size 19.5x 15.5"
Category
Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
Oil on Canvas Parisian Portrait of a Friend by Jeanne Kostich
Located in Port Jervis, NY
Colorful and impressionist depiction of a woman with hat and scarf. A friend of the artist in Paris. Unframed.
Category
French Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Antique Italian oil Painting After The Bath Nude by Rosati
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
3308 Oil on canvas in a custom gilt wood frame
Image size 15.5x11.5"
Category
Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
"Justice Triumphant", Mural Study for Queens, Ny Courthouse, circa 1941-1942
Located in Philadelphia, PA
A striking example of WPA mural art, this study for one of the murals proposed for the new Queens Supreme Courthouse -- a 1930s Works Progress Administration project in Queens, New York -- was painted by Eugene Savage. Like many paintings from the period, the study is teeming with allegory and symbolism, surmounted at the top by the figure of Justice with a long sword, spurning businesspeople at her feet who offer gifts and favors. Savage is best known for a spectacular set of murals illustrating the history and lore of Hawaii commissioned by Matson Shipping Line for the S.S. Lurline, executed in the 1940s but not installed until the 1950s. The artist also painted other series of murals and paintings, include an enormous mural...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
$6,000 Sale Price
20% Off
"Arturo The Clown" Painting By Umberto Romano ca
1940
s
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
An unusual painting by Umberto Romano, (1906-1982).
Small in scale, but powerfull image entitled " Arturo The Clown".
The sculptural portrait is further enhanced by an original overs...
Category
American Mid-Century Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
"Leda and the Swan, " Important Painting by Rene Buthaud
By René Buthaud
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Like many of his contemporaries in the 1920s and 1930s, in both America and France, Buthaud was fascinated with figures from classic mythology. Leda and the Swan was a motif he retu...
Category
French Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paper
"Redhead, " Striking 1940s Portrait of Young Man by John Menihan
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This portrait of a young man with vivid red hair, blue eyes and a ruddy complexion was painted by John C. Menihan, one of the most renowned portraitists and watercolorists of his day...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
1947 Una Mañana En Enero by Antonio Ballerini Framed Painting
Located in Stamford, CT
1947 Una Mañana En Enero by Antonio Ballerini Painting. Newly framed in gold giltwood frame.
Painting includes COA and artist information from the gallery it was purchased from in Bu...
Category
Chilean Spanish Colonial Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood, Paint
Large American Abstract Oil On Canvas By Donald Taitt
Located in Kent, Dover
A large American abstract oil on canvas depicting nature in blues and greens, by American artist Donald Tait (1923-2018), who later lived and painted in Paris.
Category
American Mid-Century Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Beech
Mid-Century Modern Cubist Artist James Koenig Buffalo NY1948 Titled
Tangent
By James Koenig
Located in Port Jervis, NY
Titled 'Tangent' - Buffalo artist James Koenig paintings reflected many phases of American painting Styles including scenes from The WPA period, abstrac...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Paint, Hardwood
Signed Winter Church Scene by F. Michaels
Located in Redding, CT
Signed Winter Church Scene by F. Michaels. Nice New England winter scene composition. Framed in a solid wooden frame. Signed lower right.
Category
Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood
$785 Sale Price
47% Off
1940
s Oil Painting - Portrait of a Child - Hubert Glansdorff - Belgium
By Hubert Glansdorff
Located in Casteren, Noord-Brabant
A beautiful oil painting by the Belgian artist Hubert Glansdorff.
It is a portrait of a young child. The child wears a kimono and looks at the viewer...
Category
Belgian Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Pine, Paint
American Modernist Acrylic On Board Painting By Zoute’ C.1948
Located in Bernville, PA
Beautiful American modernist abstract acrylic painting on board in a beautiful new silver wood frame By Zoute’. Bold graphic imagery and vibrant colors. Signed lower right corner Z...
Category
American Mid-Century Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Acrylic
Antique Framed Impressionist Oil Painting on Board
Located in Houston, TX
Antique framed impressionist oil painting on board.
Lovely artist signed antique framed impressionist oil painting on board. This beauty d...
Category
Barbizon School Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Masonite
"Kublai Khan", Large Art Deco Painting Masterpiece with Male Nudes, 1943
By Milton Bond
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Inspired by "Kublai Khan," the famed Romantic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and one of a series painted by Milton Bond dating from the 1940s and 1950s, this depiction of a nude youth...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
$12,000 Sale Price
20% Off
20th Century Expressionism Oil on Canvas by Alphonse Vermeir
Located in Casteren, NL
20th century oil on canvas painted and signed by the Belgium artist Alphonse Vermeir (1905-1994.)
Depicting a Belgium townview.
Originates Belgium, dating, circa 1940.
Category
Belgian Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas
$900 Sale Price
39% Off
Charles Cobelle Painting - Paris
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Beautiful signed original painting on canvas by Charles Cobelle of Paris. Charles Cobelle was a studio assistant to Raoul Dufy prior to his own prolific career as an artist in Paris....
Category
French Mid-Century Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood
"Provincetown Ice House, 1940s" by Bruce McKain
Located in New York, NY
"Provincetown Ice House, 1940s"
Bruce McKain (American, 1900-1990)
C. 1940s
Oil on Canvas
Canvas Dimensions:
41.5 in. Width
31.5 in Height
Frame Dimension...
Category
American Mid-Century Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
Jay Arnold Marine Painting of Kobenhavn
Located in Norwell, MA
Well executed watercolor/gouache showing the great windjammer Kobenhaven under sail. The massive four masted barque has most sails set. Matted and framed. Titled lower left “Kobenhav...
Category
North American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas
"Rehabilitation", Impressive, Large Art Deco Study for Queens, NYC Courthouse
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Teeming with allegory and symbolism, this large and elaborate study by Eugene Savage for a major mural to be executed in mosaic was painted for the new Queens Supreme Courthouse -- a...
Category
Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
"Abstraction in Blue, Red
Yellow", Divisionist Painting, attr. Severini
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Boldly painted in vivid hues of red, deep pink, yellow and shades of blue, this abstract painting is attributed to Gino Severini, Italy's leading Modernist painter, who executed work...
Category
Italian Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
$32,000 Sale Price
20% Off
Swedish Landscape, Painting
By T. Lorentzson
Located in New York, NY
More peaceful than a feng shui fountain, this post-impressionist oil on canvas shows a stunningly normal scene from the Swedish forest. Stands of linden trees, fir and aspen frame a ...
Category
Swedish Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Arnold Turtle Oil on Board Painting
Located in Miami, FL
A beautiful oil on board by Arnold Turtle.
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
"Dance Around Crystal Mountain, " Remarkable Art Deco Painting with Nudes, 1945
By Milton Bond
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Perhaps the most remarkable of all the crystal paintings made by Milton Bond in the 1940s, this depiction of beautiful nude figures, male and female, forming a symmetrical circle aro...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
$10,000 Sale Price
20% Off
Depisis Style Midcentury Oil Panting Vase Rose Flowers 1940s Classic Frame
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Depisis style midcentury oil panting vase rose flowers signed T.Rossi 1940s classic frame.
Elegant and refined as a picture of Depisis.
Category
European Mid-Century Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Jute, Wood, Paint
$2,072 Sale Price
30% Off
Leonard Maurer Oil Painting, 1948
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
A charming oil painting by noted Washington DC artist Leonard Maurer, ca' 1948. Depicting children climbing trees. Wonderful sense of color and a real m...
Category
American Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Oil Painting Haffseene on the Italian Adriatic Orange Hrvest, Italy 1940s
Located in Hannover, DE
This lovely painting from 1940 beautifully captures the atmosphere that prevailed at the Italian harbor during the orange harvest. It was painted by a German artist in 1940 in Italy,...
Category
Italian Romantic Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Oak, Pine
Cornwall Iron Banks Original Oil Painting
Located in Annville, PA
A very interesting and unusual Cornwall Iron Banks Original Oil Painting by artist J. Earle Pfoutz. The painting is produced on canvas and comes complete wit...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
Lancaster Covered Bridge Original Oil Painting
Located in Annville, PA
A very interesting and unusual Lancaster Covered Bridge Original Oil Painting by artist J. Earle Pfoutz. The painting is produced on artist board and comes complete with what appears to be an original artist decorated/painted frame. The painting is signed on the front by the artist and is dated 1936 on the rear.
Overall frame Size approximately 28″ wide x 2″ deep x 22″ high
J. Earle Pfoutz had a long and distinguished career as a self trained artist. More can be learned about him from reading this article produced by Gary Hawbaker at askART
Earle Pfoutz Born: 1891 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Died: 1957
Known for: Landscape, figure, still life painting
An image of J Earle Pfoutz
Biography from the Archives of askART
J. Earle Pfoutz (John Earle Pfoutz) – (Oct 23, 1891-Nov 9, 1957)
“A seventh generation descendant of a Swiss family which arrived in America early in the 17th Century, J. Earle Pfoutz was born in Lancaster, PA, son of John Bachman and Susan Allison Pfoutz. He painted houses for a living and pictures for a life.
A self-taught artist, described as a primitive, he was distinctive for his vivid imagination and bold color application. He painted hundreds of Lancaster County scenes. Pfoutz traveled through the hills near his home and along the Susquehanna River in search of scenes. He began painting with a brush when he was fourteen, but added a palette knife after suffering an eye injury. He completed eighth grade in the Lancaster Public Schools and there his formal education ended. However, the Department of Public Instruction of the State of Pennsylvania thought so highly of his work as an artist that officials certified him as an art instructor and he taught for a year in the York (PA) public schools. He also was an art instructor under the program for disabled veterans, sponsored by the Veterans Administration, when he gave private instruction to veterans in their homes.
In 1947, J. Earle Pfoutz finally earned national recognition as an artist. His painting, Opalescent October, was chosen by the Museum of Art of Dayton Ohio, to travel all over the country for a year with its Group Exhibition. Described as a “very colorful, calm scene, iridescent in color, sweeping in design,” the painting started on its journey around the country early in 1948. In an interview with the Sunday News (Lancaster, PA – Nov 2, 1947), Pfoutz stated that he didn’t know whether he was a “primitive” or an “impressionist.” No master taught him, no school channeled his style. “Sometimes I didn’t eat, but I always managed to paint,” he recalled. Many of his hundreds of canvases -most of them not sold, but given away to friends – found their way to other parts of the country. “I never remember the day when I did not love color,” Pfoutz said. “I was about 12 years old when I saw my first palette – a string of different colored paint paddles that graced the stores of that day. As a boy I had two great desires. One was to be able to eat all the strawberry jam I could, and the other to possess a string of those beautiful paint paddles. Well, I’ve got my fill of jelly, but I’ve never yet got my fill of beautiful colors.”
In 1950, Pfoutz’s one man show of paintings made front page headlines in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal: “Most of the twenty oil paintings on exhibition are landscapes, although there are several interesting figure studies. Colors again, as in all Pfoutziana are rich and full-bodied, but for the most part not as startlingly as in some of the earlier work. Most of the paintings were done during the past year, and also reveal the painter’s characteristic heavy impasto technique, in which the rich swirls of paint carry their own message. Among the figures, The Banjo Picker, and The Magician, are the most provocative. Both are character studies; the first being of a tramp musician whose drab clothing is set-off by a luminous aqua blue background. Modern in feeling and treatment is The Magician, a clown-faced wizard whose spinning ball in the air suggests the fourth dimension – space. The use of the primary colors in this picture serves to emphasize the theme effectively.
A large colorful landscape, Opalescent October, depicting rolling hills against a late afternoon sky is new to Lancastrians, as it has just returned from Dayton, Ohio, where it hung in the Dayton Art Institute. Another landscape with soft dreamy colors is Fantasie D’Autumne, and one of the loveliest pictures in the show. Pennsylvania Dutch Country is another with eye appeal, and was one of the works which was hung in the Old Customs House in Philadelphia during Pennsylvania Week, and before that in a collection of Pfoutz work in the same place. In deep contrast to the sunny skies and brilliant foliage of many of the pictures, is the somewhat morbid Worry, in which the center of interest is a tremendous rat. This, the painter explains, was symbolic of 1948 in China, which was ‘The Year of The Rat’ in the Chinese calendar. Background material for the picture was furnished to Pfoutz by author Pearl Buck.
Other pictures include Autumn Prelude, Miners Village, painted at Cornwall, PA; Humid Day, Saint Peters Kierch, at Middletown, PA; Lady Pfoutz, inspired by the painter’s wife; Sun Flowers, Sentimental Journey, Gyne, Luzon Woman, Old Bridge, The Cow Path. Lemures, based on Roman mythology, and Ethiopian, painted from an ebony wood carving from Kenya Province, S. Africa.”
In 1953, Pfoutz was installed as President of the Lancaster County Art Association. A. Z. Kruse, New York City artist, writer and member of the faculty of the Brooklyn College and the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, Manhattan, was the guest speaker. In January of 1953, thirty-five Pfoutz oils were exhibited at the Old Custom House in Philadelphia, PA under the sponsorship of the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation. Several Lancaster County landscapes and covered bridges were included as well as Katy, a Pennsylvania Dutch scene. Symbolic paintings included End of the Second Day, the artist’s visualization of the second coming of Christ, and Twilight, typifying the grief of mothers of all lands for sons lost in battle.
In June of 1953, a Pfoutz oil made history in Lancaster. From the Lancaster New Era: “For the first in local art history, a painting has been withdrawn from an exhibition because of objections from viewers and hostesses serving at the show. The painting, Jeune Fille, a standing nude done by Pfoutz, was one of the paintings in the annual spring exhibition of the Art Association and had become the center of the controversy. Pfoutz said he took the painting down… ‘graciously but reluctantly.’ ‘From an artistic standpoint, there is nothing offensive about the painting,’ Pfoutz said. ‘This community just wants its nudes with clothes on.’ “It is most brilliant in color, and because it is so brilliant I thought it would make a nice lively spot for the show. This is the first time I’ve had to take a picture off the walls. I substituted a seascape for it.’ Pfoutz said he felt the painting brought a lot of viewers to the show because it was so controversial. It had never been exhibited before. ‘If this had been shown in a metropolitan city,’ he commented, ‘people wouldn’t have given it a second glance. But the viewpoint here is more conservative, even though I don’t think moderns would have minded.’ He said he felt the painting was neither ‘objectionable nor pornographic,’ but had complied with the wishes of fellow members of the Art Association who telephoned him to relay the protests they had received. The art controversy was the first to arise here publicly since the showing of Amish Grandmother, an oil by William Gropper which was part of the Gimbel Pennsylvania exhibit at the Griest Building several years ago. — Numerous viewers of Amish Grandmother, [a painting showing an Amish woman holding a white goose], expressed themselves quite vocally, calling it an affront to the Plain Folk. But it stayed on exhibit throughout the length of the Gimbel show. Pfoutz expressed no rancor, implying that if Gropper could take it so could he.”
After his death, there were several shows of Pfoutz’ work organized by his son J. Earle, Jr. J. Earle, Jr. also saw to it that President Eisenhower would receive an oil called The Cow’s Path. The president first saw the painting in 1950 when, as president of Columbia University, he visited Lancaster to address a student assembly at Franklin and Marshall College. After his address was over, the then Gen. Eisenhower stopped at the Fackenthal Library on the campus to view an exhibition of Pfoutz’s paintings. The Cow’s Path intrigued him. For some time, as his aides fumed to get him back on his time schedule, Eisenhower and Pfoutz talked, as artist to artist. Prior to his death, Pfoutz requested that The Cow’s Path be given to the President if he wanted it. The painting was presented to Ike at the White House in November of 1959. Mrs. Eisenhower owned a Pfoutz painting titled, In the Manor.
Though house painting was his livelihood, he worked for Millersville State Teachers College (now a university) for a time during World War II, and called himself “the Chimney Sweep of MSTC.” During that period he knocked out a dizzying canvas in the surrealist style (he thought it was terrible) and got into the campus newspaper when one of the students spotted it.
Earle Pfoutz was not the humble, downtrodden artist, not the Douanier Rousseau type at all. As he developed his skill and style through the years, he also fashioned a resilient confidence in himself as an artist. Whether he was building his own home (he built two) or painting one for somebody else, he never lost faith in his ultimate recognition—though he was never sure he would live to see it.
Whether he was working as a rigger for a hoisting company, in the Stehli Silk Mill of Lancaster, carving Cloister-style chairs, decorating old chests, cementing bricks from the old Safe...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
John Cuthbert Hare Watercolor Paintings - Cape Cod and Provencetown
Located in Savannah, GA
John Hare
(American, 1908-1978)
A pair of watercolor paintings: "Provencetown Rooftops” and “Afternoon Light - Cape Cod”, circa 1940s.
sight: 8 by 6 ¾ inches
frame: 17 ⅝ by 16 ½ in...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Glass, Wood, Paper
20th Century Oil on Panel Italian Landscape Painting Sacra di San Michele, 1948
Located in Vicoforte, Piedmont
Italian painting dated 1948. Framework oil on panel depicting a view of the famous Sacra di San Michele (seen from Avigliana) of good pictorial quality. Small framework with frame in...
Category
Italian Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood
Pfoutz Original Farm Scene Oil Painting
Located in Annville, PA
A very interesting and unusual Pfoutz Original Farm Scene Oil Painting by artist J. Earle Pfoutz. The painting is produced on artist and comes complete with what appears to be an original artist decorated/painted frame. The Pfoutz Original Farm Scene Oil Painting is signed on the front by the artist and appears to be dated 1948 on the rear. Known for his unusual subjects Pfoutz outdid himself with this effort, capturing the essence of a Lancaster County farm but with the startling twist of portraying a large turkey vulture in the foreground. Definitely unique.
Overall frame Size approximately 33″ wide x 3″ deep x 26″ high
J. Earle Pfoutz had a long and distinguished career as a self trained artist. More can be learned about him from reading this article produced by Gary Hawbaker at askART
Earle Pfoutz Born: 1891 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Died: 1957
Known for: Landscape, figure, still life painting
An image of J Earle Pfoutz
Biography from the Archives of askART
J. Earle Pfoutz (John Earle Pfoutz) – (Oct 23, 1891-Nov 9, 1957)
“A seventh generation descendant of a Swiss family which arrived in America early in the 17th Century, J. Earle Pfoutz was born in Lancaster, PA, son of John Bachman and Susan Allison Pfoutz. He painted houses for a living and pictures for a life.
A self-taught artist, described as a primitive, he was distinctive for his vivid imagination and bold color application. He painted hundreds of Lancaster County scenes. Pfoutz traveled through the hills near his home and along the Susquehanna River in search of scenes. He began painting with a brush when he was fourteen, but added a palette knife after suffering an eye injury. He completed eighth grade in the Lancaster Public Schools and there his formal education ended. However, the Department of Public Instruction of the State of Pennsylvania thought so highly of his work as an artist that officials certified him as an art instructor and he taught for a year in the York (PA) public schools. He also was an art instructor under the program for disabled veterans, sponsored by the Veterans Administration, when he gave private instruction to veterans in their homes.
In 1947, J. Earle Pfoutz finally earned national recognition as an artist. His painting, Opalescent October, was chosen by the Museum of Art of Dayton Ohio, to travel all over the country for a year with its Group Exhibition. Described as a “very colorful, calm scene, iridescent in color, sweeping in design,” the painting started on its journey around the country early in 1948. In an interview with the Sunday News (Lancaster, PA – Nov 2, 1947), Pfoutz stated that he didn’t know whether he was a “primitive” or an “impressionist.” No master taught him, no school channeled his style. “Sometimes I didn’t eat, but I always managed to paint,” he recalled. Many of his hundreds of canvases -most of them not sold, but given away to friends – found their way to other parts of the country. “I never remember the day when I did not love color,” Pfoutz said. “I was about 12 years old when I saw my first palette – a string of different colored paint paddles that graced the stores of that day. As a boy I had two great desires. One was to be able to eat all the strawberry jam I could, and the other to possess a string of those beautiful paint paddles. Well, I’ve got my fill of jelly, but I’ve never yet got my fill of beautiful colors.”
In 1950, Pfoutz’s one man show of paintings made front page headlines in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal: “Most of the twenty oil paintings on exhibition are landscapes, although there are several interesting figure studies. Colors again, as in all Pfoutziana are rich and full-bodied, but for the most part not as startlingly as in some of the earlier work. Most of the paintings were done during the past year, and also reveal the painter’s characteristic heavy impasto technique, in which the rich swirls of paint carry their own message. Among the figures, The Banjo Picker, and The Magician, are the most provocative. Both are character studies; the first being of a tramp musician whose drab clothing is set-off by a luminous aqua blue background. Modern in feeling and treatment is The Magician, a clown-faced wizard whose spinning ball in the air suggests the fourth dimension – space. The use of the primary colors in this picture serves to emphasize the theme effectively.
A large colorful landscape, Opalescent October, depicting rolling hills against a late afternoon sky is new to Lancastrians, as it has just returned from Dayton, Ohio, where it hung in the Dayton Art Institute. Another landscape with soft dreamy colors is Fantasie D’Autumne, and one of the loveliest pictures in the show. Pennsylvania Dutch Country is another with eye appeal, and was one of the works which was hung in the Old Customs House in Philadelphia during Pennsylvania Week, and before that in a collection of Pfoutz work in the same place. In deep contrast to the sunny skies and brilliant foliage of many of the pictures, is the somewhat morbid Worry, in which the center of interest is a tremendous rat. This, the painter explains, was symbolic of 1948 in China, which was ‘The Year of The Rat’ in the Chinese calendar. Background material for the picture was furnished to Pfoutz by author Pearl Buck.
Other pictures include Autumn Prelude, Miners Village, painted at Cornwall, PA; Humid Day, Saint Peters Kierch, at Middletown, PA; Lady Pfoutz, inspired by the painter’s wife; Sun Flowers, Sentimental Journey, Gyne, Luzon Woman, Old Bridge, The Cow Path. Lemures, based on Roman mythology, and Ethiopian, painted from an ebony wood carving from Kenya Province, S. Africa.”
In 1953, Pfoutz was installed as President of the Lancaster County Art Association. A. Z. Kruse, New York City artist, writer and member of the faculty of the Brooklyn College and the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, Manhattan, was the guest speaker. In January of 1953, thirty-five Pfoutz oils were exhibited at the Old Custom House in Philadelphia, PA under the sponsorship of the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation. Several Lancaster County landscapes and covered bridges were included as well as Katy, a Pennsylvania Dutch scene. Symbolic paintings included End of the Second Day, the artist’s visualization of the second coming of Christ, and Twilight, typifying the grief of mothers of all lands for sons lost in battle.
In June of 1953, a Pfoutz oil made history in Lancaster. From the Lancaster New Era: “For the first in local art history, a painting has been withdrawn from an exhibition because of objections from viewers and hostesses serving at the show. The painting, Jeune Fille, a standing nude done by Pfoutz, was one of the paintings in the annual spring exhibition of the Art Association and had become the center of the controversy. Pfoutz said he took the painting down… ‘graciously but reluctantly.’ ‘From an artistic standpoint, there is nothing offensive about the painting,’ Pfoutz said. ‘This community just wants its nudes with clothes on.’ “It is most brilliant in color, and because it is so brilliant I thought it would make a nice lively spot for the show. This is the first time I’ve had to take a picture off the walls. I substituted a seascape for it.’ Pfoutz said he felt the painting brought a lot of viewers to the show because it was so controversial. It had never been exhibited before. ‘If this had been shown in a metropolitan city,’ he commented, ‘people wouldn’t have given it a second glance. But the viewpoint here is more conservative, even though I don’t think moderns would have minded.’ He said he felt the painting was neither ‘objectionable nor pornographic,’ but had complied with the wishes of fellow members of the Art Association who telephoned him to relay the protests they had received. The art controversy was the first to arise here publicly since the showing of Amish Grandmother, an oil by William Gropper which was part of the Gimbel Pennsylvania exhibit at the Griest Building several years ago. — Numerous viewers of Amish Grandmother, [a painting showing an Amish woman holding a white goose], expressed themselves quite vocally, calling it an affront to the Plain Folk. But it stayed on exhibit throughout the length of the Gimbel show. Pfoutz expressed no rancor, implying that if Gropper could take it so could he.”
After his death, there were several shows of Pfoutz’ work organized by his son J. Earle, Jr. J. Earle, Jr. also saw to it that President Eisenhower would receive an oil called The Cow’s Path. The president first saw the painting in 1950 when, as president of Columbia University, he visited Lancaster to address a student assembly at Franklin and Marshall College. After his address was over, the then Gen. Eisenhower stopped at the Fackenthal Library on the campus to view an exhibition of Pfoutz’s paintings. The Cow’s Path intrigued him. For some time, as his aides fumed to get him back on his time schedule, Eisenhower and Pfoutz talked, as artist to artist. Prior to his death, Pfoutz requested that The Cow’s Path be given to the President if he wanted it. The painting was presented to Ike at the White House in November of 1959. Mrs. Eisenhower owned a Pfoutz painting titled, In the Manor.
Though house painting was his livelihood, he worked for Millersville State Teachers College (now a university) for a time during World War II, and called himself “the Chimney Sweep of MSTC.” During that period he knocked out a dizzying canvas in the surrealist style (he thought it was terrible) and got into the campus newspaper when one of the students spotted it.
Earle Pfoutz was not the humble, downtrodden artist, not the Douanier Rousseau type at all. As he developed his skill and style through the years, he also fashioned a resilient confidence in himself as an artist. Whether he was building his own home (he built two) or painting one for somebody else, he never lost faith in his ultimate recognition—though he was never sure he would live to see it.
Whether he was working as a rigger for a hoisting company, in the Stehli Silk Mill of Lancaster, carving Cloister-style chairs, decorating old chests, cementing bricks from the old Safe...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
"Tony, " Superb 1940s Portrait of Male Youth by Marion Huse, Hawthorne Pupil
By Marion Huse
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Striking in conception and execution, this half-portrait of a handsome, blue-eyed young man -- his back to a mirror and his arm folded over a chair -- was painted by Marion Huse, who...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
French Oil Painting titled Le Dance, 1944
Located in Palm Springs, CA
Whimsical oil painting titled Le Dance dated 1944. Painting measures 25" wide, 2.25" deep and 37" high.
Category
French Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas
United States Battalion "300th Engineers by Michael Marsden
Located in Pomona, CA
United States Combat Battalion "300th Engineers". Artist Michael Marsden 1902-1994 is known for painting flowers this painting was painted during the war or veteran reunion.
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood
Pál Fried, well listed Hungarian artist. Oil on canvas. Portrait of a ballerina.
Located in København, Copenhagen
Pál Fried (1893-1976), a well listed Hungarian artist.
Oil on canvas.
Portrait of a ballerina in a pink dress.
Ca. 1940.
Signed and stamped with gallery stamp on the back.
Perfect co...
Category
Hungarian Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Mid 20th Century Oil Painting - Fisherman on the River - C. Vanderstraeten
Located in Casteren, Noord-Brabant
An interesting oil painting depicting a fisherman on the bank of a river. It is a somewhat curious representation, with the man shown from the back, but that is precisely why the pai...
Category
Belgian Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood
Joshua Felise Ziro Brevio
American, 1900-xxx
"Market in Milan"
Located in Philadelphia, PA
"Market In Milan" on verso, signed and dated lower right '48, unframed.
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas
1940s Landscape Painting
Located in New York, NY
Created in the 1940s, this painting has an air of nostalgia and foreboding. It depicts a house set against the backdrop of not-so-distant skyscrapers. The city fades into gray in con...
Category
Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood, Paint
$1,895
Fishermen Painting, 1940s
Located in Savannah, GA
An oil on canvas of a fishing charter boat at sea with fishermen. Likely an illustration for a publication circa 1940s.
canvas: 27 by 21 inches
frame: 31 by 25 inches
Fair overall...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
"Young Woman in Blue Dress", Stunning 1940s Portrait of Blonde Female
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This fresh and vibrant portrait of a young woman with glowing blond hair and a blue 1940s frock is one of the finest World War II vintage portraits we have ever offered. Her complex...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Paint
Large Impasto Painting of House on the Water by Lephe Kingsley Holden
Located in Redding, CT
Large Impasto Painting of House on the Water by Lephe Kingsley Holden. Signed lower right.
Lephe Kingsley Holden (1881 - 1973) was active/lived in Connecticut, New York. Lephe Holden was a painter and art teacher. She was born in Hadley, Massachusetts on May 1, 1881. She was the daughter of Elbridge Kingsley and Elizabeth (Cook) Kingsley. Elbridge Kingsley was a painter, wood engraver and illustrator for the Century Co.
Lephe was a graduate of Hopkins Academy, Hadley, Massachusetts and the Art Student's League, New York. She studied privately with Augustus V. Tack, Dwight Tryon, Guy Wiggins, George E. Browne, Hippolito Hidalgo, and Ed Carviedes. Holden taught art at Maxwell Training College, New York (1908-1912). She married Samuel M. Holden on October 1912, and they were married until his death in January 1936.
Holden also served as the Director of Art Instruction in Westport, Connecticut School System (1927-1947). Initially she was the only art teacher, but at the time of her retirement there were five assistant instructors. She exhibited with the American Watercolor Society
Education: Pratt Institute; Art Students League, NYC; With George Elmer Browne; Guy Wiggins Summer Art School, Essex, Connecticut, 1936. Membership: Key West Art and Historical Society; Key West Artists...
Category
Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood, Masonite, Paint
Post War White Orchid Airbrush Painting on Paper by Tip Freeman, Framed
Located in Van Nuys, CA
Vintage Wood Framed Painting with White Orchid Motif, by Tip Freeman
This painting by American artist Tip Freeman depicts a White Orchid. This artwork has...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Glass, Wood, Paper
Oil on Cardboard Boats on the Sea in 1940 with Lacquered Frame
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Oil on cardboard boats on the sea in 1940 with lacquered frame.
Category
Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood
$663 Sale Price
30% Off
Icelandic Countryside, Watercolor by Thomas B. Gay c. 1943
Located in Savannah, GA
A watercolor landscape depicting a farm in the Icelandic countryside. The painting was a gift from the artist Thomas B. Gay, who was stationed with the 624th Eng. Camouflage Company...
Category
American Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Glass, Wood, Paper
Signed coastal beach painting by Frank Proschwitzky Freyburg
Located in Redding, CT
Signed coastal beach painting by Frank Proschwitzky Freyburg. (1862 -1940)
Of British-German descent but lived in the United States. Please confirm dimensions prior to purchase.
Category
Vintage 1940s Paintings
Materials
Wood, Masonite, Paint
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