1940s Wall Decorations

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...

Original photographic production still for the 1947 Film Noir Johnny O'clock starring Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Lee J. Cobb and John Kellogg. This film was directed by Robert Rosse...

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 ...

This drawing is a highly important and rare window into a relationship that impacted the larger world of Abstract Expressionism in New York just a few years after it was made in 1949...

Original vintage post World War Two poster celebrating the first anniversary of the Allied liberation of the Dodecanese islands from the occupying Na...

Original vintage World War Two propaganda poster - Train to be a nurse... a distinguished career - featuring an illustration by Clixby Watson (Charles Clixby Watson; 1906-1964) depic...

A wonderfull painterly painting by Olivier Foss (1920-2002). A Parisian street scene with a solitary figure-a quintessence of modern existence. done with palette knife and brush the painting has a great feeling and high quality of execution. In a high quality frame with gold leaf edge. Here is a quick note about the artist, courtesy of Kodner Gallery...

Robert William Wood (1889-1979) Robert William Wood was an American landscape painter. He was born in England, emigrated to the United States and rose to prominence in the 1950s wi...

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 ...

Original vintage Soviet World War Two propaganda poster - Comrade! Remember that a well-prepared and warmly dressed fighter will strike the enemy even str...

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.

Paintings by 19th century and Contemporary American Artists, from the Collection of The Late Samuel T. Shaw, NY: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Nov. 21, 1945. Softcover, 89 pp. 15 b&w plate...

Original vintage winter sports poster for the Swiss alpine resort of Kandersteg Schweiz Suisse Switzerland located in the Bernese Oberlan...

A fantastic gouache and ink drawing on paper, mounted on board by Vaclav Vytlacil, ca' 1945. Highly reflective of the style of the period, with influences of African art and NY Abstr...

Original British trade advertisement Kinematograph weekly July 15th 1948 The film directed by the famous duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and is considered to be one of the...

This is an original WWII poster by Allen Saalburg, published in 1942. The poster features a tattered American flag at half-mast, with billowing smoke, flames, and a partially obscur...

Original vintage World War Two poster - This is our Strength Labour and Management are pooling their strength to give us the means for victory in war ... and progress in peace - feat...

3308 Oil on canvas in a custom gilt wood frame Image size 15.5x11.5"

Original vintage Soviet propaganda poster - Let us glorify our homeland, comrades, with work! / ????????? ???? ??????, ????????, ??????! - featuring an illustration of a young blond ...

5183 Vintage French painting of a vailed dark haired beauty Framed in a modernict gilt frame Image size 19.5x 15.5"

Original vintage World War Two anti-Soviet German Nazi political propaganda poster depicting a smiling lady against a blue background with the text in Russ...

Collection of midcentury African multicolored wooden masks. Red/brown 30cmx18cmx 12cm Black/white 38cmx19cmx20cm Brown 30cmx17cmx10cm Brown/shell brass dia ...

Original vintage World War Two propaganda poster - Your Help Will Bring Victory - featuring artwork by Alfred John Nunney (1897-1966) depicting dock workers unloading goods from a la...

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...

Jeanne D' Arc on horseback by Georges Rouault. Color Print number 4004 published by New York Graphic Society, Fine Art Publishers circa 1940. It is mounted in a gold-painted frame wi...

Original vintage World War Two recruitment poster for the USCG United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve (known as SPARS from the Latin USCG motto Semper Paratus / Always Ready) - Enlist in the Coast Guard Spars Release a man to fight at sea Apply to your nearest Navy Recruiting Station or Office of Naval Officer Procurement - featuring a patriotic design depicting a smartly dressed lady in a US Coast Guard uniform raising the stars and stripes flag of the United States of America with the text below. Artwork by Charles John Andres...

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...

A beautiful oil on board by Arnold Turtle.

5118 Antique Scandinavian portrait of a beatiful young pigtailed beauty Framed Image size 11.5x19 Signed C.Keskulla 1941

Original black and white photographic production still used to send out to the press to advertise The 1940 comedy romance drama The Shop Around the Corner...

Large and impressive, carved in a naive-sophisticated way that suggests folk art as well as WPA sculptures which glorified the worker, this large bas re...

Original vintage World War Two poster: Civil Defence, Women wanted for Evacuation Service, offer your services to your local council or any branch of Women's Voluntary Services. Imag...

Original vintage World War Two propaganda poster - New Zealand fights - featuring a colorful bold design depicting a New Zealand soldier in uniform and wearing a helmet leaning on hi...

Original vintage World War Two propaganda poster - A British submarine torpedoed two large Japanese supply ships in the Malacca Straits / Smash Japanese Aggression! - featuring a dyn...

Original vintage poster - Life in Britain To-Day A Typical Department Store - published by the Central Office of Information featuring a fascinating detailed illustration by the Engl...

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...

Original vintage winter travel and ski poster for Sun Valley Idaho in the United States of America featuring a great design depicting a photo of a fashionably dressed lady in a white...

French faience oyster plate with Bird Moustiers style signed Martres Tolosane, circa 1940.  

Original American production still for Walt Disney's second animated feature film it was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Pinocchio, the world’s most...

Exceptionally rare original Italian film poster for The Wizard of Oz 1939. Due to World War II The film had its first release in Italy 1949. The art work on this piece is unique to t...

Original vintage World War Two poster - Food is a weapon Don't waste it! Buy wisely Cook Carefully Eat it all Follow the National Wartime Nutrition Program - featuring a great design...

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...

Petite French Faience Quimper cup Circa 1940.

Set of 2 wall consoles in gilded wood, Italy, 1940s. In the 90s they underwent a conservative restoration and a new gilding was done.

Original vintage World War Two home front poster - "She sails at midnight..." He Talked ... This Happened Careless Talk Costs Lives - featuring photo images of two men drinking beer ...

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...

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...

Original vintage Soviet propaganda poster - Vsichni do boje proti Fasismu! Everyone join the fight against Fascism - featuring a dynamic illustration of a soldier in uniform with a r...

exceptionally rare and important original Italian film poster for Roberto Rossellini's land mark Italian Neo-Realism film. This film starred Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani and Marcello P...

Original vintage post-World War Two map poster for Yorkshire East Riding featuring a colourful design by Ernest Costain Clegg (1876-1954) of the county in north east England with ill...

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.

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...

Karl Blossfeldt — Framed Photogravure: Natural Grace, 1942 A striking Karl Blossfeldt photogravure from the 1942 edition of Wunder in der Natur. Retaining its original condition, i...

Karl Blossfeldt — Framed Photogravure: Natural Grace, 1942 A striking Karl Blossfeldt photogravure from the 1942 edition of Wunder in der Natur. Retaining its original condition, i...

Aaron Sopher, Ink Wash, Untitled, (Subject is a Man in stride.) Exact date unknown. Fading to matte, denting and chipping to older wood picture frame. Will ship as you see it in th...

Aaron Sopher, Ink Wash, Untitled, (Subject is a Woman in headress.) Exact date unknown. Chipping and denting to old frame. Will ship as you see it in this frame. Frame W 12.5 x H ...

Lovely and atmospheric, this drawing of a series of male nude figures at the swimming pool -- one diving, one readying to dive, others at the mirr...

Northele is a sloop, length 14 m, made by Berthon Boats in Lymington Dorset in 1949 on shipyard project. Measures: 103.5 x 61.3 (H) cm, inches 40.74 x 24.13 (H). Project coming from ...

Rare original vintage World War Two period advertising poster - Ah! Bisto For War Workers Meals - featuring a smiling man wearing a brown jacket with a red tie and flat cap, rubbing ...

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...