Germany - Figurative Paintings

A solitary back, stripped of identity, rendered in layers of translucent scumbling and incised abrasion. The flesh becomes terrain—scratched, weathered, elusive. In this fragment, R...

Man with Kitten, 2023 acrylic on canvas 235 H x 130 W cm 92 33/64 H x 51 3/16 W cm The painting by Alexandru Rădvan is about our moments of 'respiro' about the minutes/seconds when...

People with Small Crab, 2022 acrylic on canvas 170 H x 130 W cm 66 59/64 H x 51 3/16 W cm The painting by Alexandru Rădvan is about our moments of 'respiro' about the minutes/secon...

A lone cowboy figure emerges from a stark, sun-bleached desert, his face swallowed in shadow beneath the brim of a worn hat. The cinematic framing and mid-chest crop evoke the drama ...

After the Rain, 2023 acrylic on cardboard 119 H x 79 W cm 46 27/32 H x 31 7/64 W cm The series of painted cardboards by Alexandru Rădvan is about our moments of 'respiro' about the...

Hock Tee Tan was born in Malaysia and studied Fine Art at Nanyang Academy of Fine Art in Singapore. He came to London in 1976 and has been working as a Fine Artist ever since. He use...

"Bobby's Nightmare" by Rudolf Kosow is a striking blend of humor and surrealism, juxtaposing an exaggeratedly expressive pug with an intense military scene. The dog's bulging eyes, lolling tongue, and shocked expression contrast sharply with the highly detailed helicopter and soldiers descending from the sky, creating an absurd and unexpected composition. The painting plays on the idea of a pet's anxiety, turning an ordinary moment of canine surprise into an action-packed, almost cinematic spectacle. The hyperrealistic rendering of the pug’s fur and facial details enhances the surrealism, making the implausible scene feel eerily convincing. With its mix of realism and whimsy, Bobby’s Nightmare captures the chaotic energy of an overactive imagination—whether that of a dog startled by its surroundings or a playful human interpretation of a pet’s exaggerated emotions. keywords; painting on canvas, surrealist painting, americana...

"Kraftlinie No 4" ("Line of Force Nr. 4") is a new 2024 unique acrylic on canvas painting by German mid-career artist Michael Pröpper. It depicts a meditative force line going horizo...

My work is about dealing with the real world and above all using the images that surround us in everyday life. I often search for the unexpected. An ironic turn to images or things y...

Rudolf Kosow’s Film Still #3 continues his haunting exploration of the Western genre through a contemporary surrealist lens. A close-up of a stoic, rugged cowboy figure—likely inspired by Clint Eastwood—dominates the square composition. The figure’s face is heavily shadowed by a broad-brimmed hat, his lips...

Body in the Field 2, 2022 oil on canvas 55 1/8 H x 39 3/8 W in. 140 H x 100 W cm Zsolt Berszán embodies in his works the dissolution of the human body through the prism of the fragm...

South, 2020-2022 acrylic on canvas 27 9/16 H x 27 9/16 W in. 70 H x 70 W cm The torrid sun, the infinite blue of the sea, the warmth of summer days, and ordinary people caught in mo...

Nirvana, 2018 Oil on canvas (Signed on reverse) 27 9/16 H x 19 11/16 W in. 70 H x 50 W cm In his paintings, Radu Rodideal speaks about the concept of lo...

Women & Water, 2022 acrylic on canvas 19 11/16 H x 19 11/16 W in. 50 H x 50 W cm The torrid sun, the infinite blue of the sea, the warmth of summer days, and ordinary people caught...

keywords; surrealism, humour, uncanny, yellow dress, little girl, car wreck, car incident, earth tones, oil painting, figurative painting, strangeness, conte...

Spoils Of Love, 2021 Oil on canvas 23 5/8 H x 19 11/16 W in. 60 H x 50 W cm The painting imagines a city in a continuous present in which elements of the past intertwine with elemen...

Pair of decorative antique oil paintings, portraits. 19th century. Signed and dated. Dimensions with frame in cm EACH PAINTING 53 x 63

The Girl Whose Hair Smells Like Spring This contemporary portrait of a young woman captures a tender connection between femininity and nature. Her hair seems to carry the scent of e...

LOVERS AND AUTUMN LEAVES is a superbe original painting on canvas depicting a still life of a fall leaves next to a vintage black and white photograph of a couple in a loving embrace...

Whispers of Shadows captures a quiet and contemplative moment where the bare branches of a tree cast delicate shadows on the sunlit walls of an old building. Painted en plein air wit...

This painting reflects the subtle transformations we experience within ourselves. The flowers appear to dissolve and shift, symbolizing the ever-changing nature of our emotions and s...

Mythological VI (Panot and Blem), 2016 Acrylic marker on canvas sheet (signed and dated front left corner) 23 5/8 H x 17 3/4 W in. 60 H x 45 W cm (reproduced at page 43, in the catal...

Superbe original painting on canvas depicting a sleeping giant chimpanzee atop a drifting iceberg. keywords; chimpanzé, americana, surrealism, monkey, sleeping giant, iceberg, vin...

A surreal vertical oil painting titled Incident by Rudolf Kosow depicts an immense, detailed black horse's hoof dominating the majority of the composition, set against a muted, textured background. At the bottom right, a small man...

Small Christ 4, 2010 Acrylic on canvas (Signed on reverse) 7 9/10 H × 7 9/10 W in. 20 H × 20 W cm In the series of works "Small Christ", Alexandru Rădvan questions the human dimensi...

Cyclops, 2011 acrylic on canvas 7 7/8 H x 7 7/8 W in. 20 H x 20 W cm

Sunday, 2010 acrylic on canvas 27 9/16 H x 23 5/8 W in. 70 H x 60 W cm The artwork was exhibited in the solo show "Christ" from 2011.

Banana, 2012 Acrylic on canvas (Signed on reverse) 41 3/10 H × 28 55/64 W in 105 H × 73.3 W cm The artwork "Banana" was part of the solo show “Epic”. This exhibition, as the artist ...

Descriptive 1, 2013 Acrylic on canvas, (Signed, Front left lower end) 27 9/16 H x 19 11/16 W in. 70 H x 50 W cm The artwork "Descriptive 1" was part of ...

Birds, 2007 Acrylic on canvas (signed on reverse) 39.37 H x 6.69 W in. 100 H x 17 W cm

Kid, 2007 Acrylic on canvas (signed on reverse) 39 3/8 H x 6 11/16 W in. 100 H x 17 W cm

We love Rudolf's latest series and particularly this exquisitely comical and enigmatic painting. The artist says "Banal, everyday things meet in the middle of nowhere and present the...

"Oh Darling!" by Rudolf Kosow is a surreal and humorous exploration of romance, identity, and the unexpected. The painting depicts an intimate, almost cinematic embrace between a man and a woman, rendered in a vintage, film-noir aesthetic. However, Kosow subverts this classic imagery by replacing the man's hair with an oversized, glistening raspberry, adding an element of absurdity and playful surrealism. The color palette consists of soft blues, muted earth tones, and the striking red of the raspberry, which commands attention and contrasts with the subdued hues of the couple’s attire. The detailed rendering of the fruit—almost hyper-real in its texture—further heightens the surreal quality of the work. This unexpected fusion of realism and fantasy transforms an ordinary moment into a dreamlike narrative, inviting viewers to reflect on the interplay of love, desire, and the subconscious. This painting comes ready to hang with clean edges. keywords; painting on canvas, surrealist painting, americana...

Archaic Hercules Skinning a Rabbit, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 53.14 H x 55.11 W in. 135 H x 140 W cm In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and his numerous far-ra...

The painting is corresponding most closely to the first photo on the 1stdibs page. A professional photographer took this photo in his studio with good lighting. The other photos were...

The painting is corresponding most closely to the first photo on the 1stdibs page. A professional photographer took this photo in his studio with good lighting. The other photos were...

Strange women I, 2015 Acrylic on canvas pad 23.62 H x 17.71 W in. 60 H x 45 W cm "Strange women" is a cycle of eight canvases that represents a female b...

Strange women VI, 2015 Acrylic on canvas pad 23.62 H x 17.71 W in. 60 H x 45 W cm "Strange women" is a cycle of eight canvases that represents a female ...

Strange women VII, 2015 Acrylic on canvas pad 23.62 H x 17.71 W in. 60 H x 45 W cm "Strange women" is a cycle of eight canvases that represents a female...

Self-portrait at the Beginning of History, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 88 31/32 H x 34 29/64 in. 226 H x 87.5 W cm Rădvan's multifaceted self-portraits are also a reference to Narcissus...

The painting is corresponding most closely to the first photo on the 1stdibs page. A professional photographer took this photo in his studio with good lighting. The other photos were...

"Alexandria" is a 2019 unique oil on canvas painting by German mid-career artist Michael Pröpper. Comes with certificate on back. It depicts a backdrop of the bay and cityscape of ...

Hercules after Carracci (Triptych), 2014 Acrylic on canvas (Signed) 39.37 H x 82.67 W in. (39.37 H x 27.55 W in. each) 100 H x 210 W cm (100 H x 70 W cm each) Contemporary art uses...

Staring, 2012 Oil on canvas (Signed on reverse) 19.68 H x 23.62 W in 50 H x 60 W cm The painting represents two children in the playground. One child is painted eating a banana and...

Watermelon, 2013 Acrylic on canvas (Signed on reverse) 41 3/10 H × 28 1/2 W in 105 H × 72.5 W cm The artwork "Watermelon" was part of the solo show “Epic”. This exhibition, as the a...

Constantin.Fides, 2006 Acrylic on canvas (Signed on reverse) 66 9/10 H × 47 1/5 W in 170 H × 120 W cm "Constantin's Memoirs" project represents the questions posed by the artist Alexandru Rădvan regarding the personality of the great Emperor Constantine...

Useful Object Cover, 2009 oil on canvas, plexiglass box, umbrella 47.24 H x 27.55 W x 11.81 D in 120 H x 70 W x 30 D cm In the "Useful Objects" series, the woman is identified with...

Rudolf Kosow’s Magic is a striking contemporary surrealistic painting that intertwines the mystical with the unsettling. A man, dressed in formal attire, stands upon a rocky terrain,...

Gustl Stark (1917 Mainz - 2009 ibid.), Small Nude, 1946. Oil on canvas, marouflaged, 54 x 25 cm (picture), 30 x 60 cm (frame), signed "Stark" top left, verso twice signed "Gustav Stark", inscribed by hand as "Small Nude" and dated by hand "1946". With label of the exhibition of the Bundeshaus Bonn from 1956. - Rubbed area in the lower third of the body, at the same level a retouch in the ochre background. I provisional frame. - Abstract Figurativity - About the artwork During the war, Gustl Stark suffered a particularly severe blow for an artist: he lost his right arm. Nevertheless, he continued to devote himself to art, and the painting, created in 1946, immediately after the end of the Nazi reign of terror, testifies to the dawn of a new era. At the same time, the work is a rare example of the artist's early figurative work, as Stark turned entirely to abstract painting as early as 1950. And even this painting is by no means purely figurative; rather, it already illustrates Stark's turn toward abstraction. We see a female nude, but one that remains faceless. This can be read symbolically and in relation to the immediate past epoch, which, in the face of horrors, silences and blinds - literally renders faceless. In this sense, the figure is positioned to 'look back'. But she does not look. While this meaning may resonate and make the painting an important work of the immediate postwar period, Gustl Stark is primarily concerned with something else here, namely art itself. The absence of the face leads to the body becoming something flat. Due to the de-individualization, we do not see a concrete person with his individual features, but a body surface. And indeed, the body is constructed through an extremely planar design. Even the contour lines that form the corporeality have a planar rather than a linear character, especially where they merge into shadow zones of almost the same color. And the surfaces themselves are not modeled. The incarnate parts do not show any plastic gradations; the corporeality is completely withdrawn into the plane, which is also true for the hair. In addition, there is no uniform background against which the figure could appear; rather, the area next to the hair is kept bluish, creating a succession of earth-toned colored areas, which again binds the figure to the surface. Last but not least, the flatness is also forced by the painting technique. Gustl Stark paints directly, a la prima, onto the coarse canvas, whereby the structure of the painting support remains visible in the picture, and in places - around the hair, for example - the canvas itself can be seen. This structural all-over lends the picture a certain flatness. Gustl Stark thus uses the very motif that stands for the corporeality of art par excellence - the female nude - to transform the spatiality of the traditional picture into a flatness characteristic of modern art. And yet, a strong impression of corporeality is created, without being produced by a painterly modeling of the body. The oscillation between flatness and corporeality creates the intense tension of this groundbreaking painting. In Gustl Stark's oeuvre, as a consequence of the abstraction we see here, the figurative is completely stripped away in a further step, which is also a loss when looking at this early key work. About the artist Gustl Stark was the son of a woodcarver and, after an apprenticeship as a decorative painter, attended the State School of Arts and Crafts in Mainz from 1936 to 1937. Although he was severely wounded in the war and lost his right arm, he studied at the Würzburg School of Painting and Drawing from 1943-1944 and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg from 1944-1948. He won a state scholarship at the state art competition in Bad Ischl. Numerous study trips to Sylt, Paris, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Holland and Belgium followed. Gustl Stark worked in Mainz and was the first artist there to focus on abstract painting. His work quickly gained international recognition, including the Salon Réaliés Nouvelles in Paris. From 1963-1970 he taught at the State University Institute for Art and Work Education in Mainz and from 1970-1975 at the Johannes Gutenberg University. Gustl Stark became particularly famous for his color embossed prints, for which he invented his own technique. Gustl Stark received numerous awards for his work. He received the Art Prize for Painting of the City of Mainz in 1962, the State Prize of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1984, and the Gutenberg Bust of the City of Mainz in 1987. Selected Bibliography Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler des XX. Jahrhunderts, Vierter Band, Leipzig 1958, S. 344. Hans H...

Apollo touches Daphne, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 82.67 H × 47.24 W in. 210 H × 120 W cm Signed front right corner Alexandru RĂDVAN reinterprets the myths of Apollo and Daphne from the...

Small Christ 6, 2010 Acrylic on canvas (Signed on reverse) 7 9/10 H × 7 9/10 W in 20 H × 20 W cm In the series of works "Small Christ", Alexandru Rădvan questions the human dimensio...

Honey, 2012 Acrylic on canvas (Signed on front ) 59 1/10 H × 28 W in 150 H × 71 W cm The artwork "Honey" was part of the solo show “Epic”. This exhibition, as the artist confessed, ...

Looking for Blue by Rudolf Kosow is a delicate and thought-provoking oil painting that captures a moment of curiosity and wonder. The artwork depicts a young girl standing on tiptoe,...

In "Investigation I", banal, everyday things meet in this painting to create an unusual, strange, absurd and ironical situation derived by the disproportional scale size of things. keywords; surrealism, animals, bat, oil painting, earth tones, figurative painting, strangeness, contemporary surrealistic, unsettling, contemporary figurative painting, dreams, symbolic composition, giant bat...

Klaus Oldenburg (*1942 Berlin), Eccentric discharges of a turquoise-yellow core, around 1975. paint and cast resin on chipboard, 39 x 59 cm (inside dim...

Atmospheric oil painting on plywood, titled “Markt in Venedig” (Market in Venice) on the reverse and signed lower right (signature indistinct). The composition vividly portrays a bus...

Absurd scenery in the middle of nowhere: head of a chicken, seemingly alive ... and an elderly man ... do they belong together, are they probably old...

shipped in roll “Spring Bloom II” captures a quiet moment of connection between two young women surrounded by blooming spring trees. Soft dresses, fresh greens, and gentle light crea...

**The actual color of this piece is a monochrome off-white and dark grey palette. Rudolf Kosow’s Instantly is a striking monochrome oil painting that blends contemporary surrealism w...

Painting, 19th century, oil on canvas, "Young woman with flower basket" Signed, F.Bach. Dimensions with frame 52cm x 72.5cm