Catalog: Fine Art (125)

An original antique American Impressionist Oil Painting still life of Roses in a Vase by Julian Alden Weir. Oil on canvas signed middle left side presented in a quality contemporary gold gallery frame. Canvas size 11.25" x 15.5" overall framed size 17" x 21". Artist Biography; The youngest of sixteen children of Robert W. Weir, artist and art instructor at West Point Military Academy, J. Alden Weir became one of the leading early American Impressionists. However, his art education began with training in the traditional basic styles and methods from his father. Throughout his career subject matter included landscape, still lifes, and portraits. Although his landscapes increasingly reflected his adoption of Impressionism, his portraits and still lifes remained more realistic and conservative. Weir also completed murals including ones in the Liberal Arts Building of the 1893 Chicago Exposition. They received much acclaim, but mural painting was not a specialty for him. At 18, he enrolled at the National Academy School in New York. From 1873 to 1877, he studied in Europe, part of the time in Paris with Jean Leon Gerome at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. From Gerome, he learned much about classical figure painting and the modeling of forms. Weir also had much admiration for the Old Masters such as Frans Hals and Hans Holbein. Friendship with Jules Bastien-Lepage, French plein-aire painter, encouraged Weir to work directly from nature, which became a modification of influences of the Beaux Arts training he was receiving at the Ecole. It was also the beginning of his path to Impressionism, although when first exposed to this revolutionary style, he was highly disapproving. Of his first encounter with it at an exhibition in Paris, he wrote home to his parents: "I never in my life saw more horrible things. . . .It was worse than the Chamber of Horrors. . . .I was mad for two or three days, not only having paid the money but for the demoralizing effect it must have....."(Gerdts 105) However, increasingly painting by Weir reflected this new style, beginning when he and Bastien-Lepage painted outdoors together, concerning themselves with atmospheric light and everyday subject matter such as peasants working in the fields. Another influence was friendship with James MacNeil Whistler, known for his loosening of style and dark tonalities. In the 1880s Weir focused on still-life painting along with landscape, especially florals in a rather dark palette, which at the time of their creation were counter to his increasing interest in Impressionism. He also was a portrait painter and in 1883, married one of his models, Anna Baker. After 1883, he had a New York studio at 51 West Tenth Street and supported himself and wife with portrait painting and teaching. He became associated with the first generation of American Impressionists that included Childe Hassam and John Twachtman. He and Twachtman traveled in Holland together and also held joint exhibitions including in 1888 at the Society of Painters in Pastel and the next year at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries. Weir's entries were still life, figure, and scenes from rural Connecticut, with obvious Barbizon School influence of Lepage and realistic tendencies of Gustave, but nothing that one could describe as Impressionism. He was part of the founding of the Society of American Artists, which was a rebellion of European-trained American artists against the constraints of those upholding the standards of the National Academy. Weir was a leading figure in the Society and became increasingly influential in promoting leading-edge French paintings including the collection in America of work by his friend Bastien-Lepage and also of Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet. However, by 1893, exhibited paintings by Weir were being labelled Impressionistic in what was described by one critic as their "rude style of handling" (Gerdts 106) including their casual attention to detail and atmospheric qualities. Between 1893 and 1897, Weir completed factory landscape paintings that were said to reflect his full commitment to Impressionism. His summer home from 1883 was in Windham, Connecticut, and his factory paintings depicted the thread factories of nearby Willimantic, Connecticut. These realistic, industrial subjects were a departure from pervasive serene, often idealized American landscape painting. Active in art circles, Weir was an organizer of the 1913 Armory Show in New York, which introduced avant-garde European art to the American public, and he was also President of the National Academy of Design from 1915 to 1917. Five years after his death in 1919, a memorial exhibition of his work was held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

A beautiful original vintage Art Deco French bronze statue of a seated panther by Max Le Verrier Paris artist signed c.1930 measuring 11.75" W x 10.5" H x 4.75" D. Artist Biography Art Deco, which is widely considered to be an eclectic form of elegant and stylish modernism, was influenced by a variety of sources - among them were the so-called "primitive" arts of Africa; as well as historical styles such as Greco-Roman Classicism; and the art of Babylon, Assyria, and Ancient Egypt- updated by aerodynamic designs. At that time, the women's liberation movement was making significant progress. Bobbed hair and short skirts (to dance the lively Charleston) characterized the iconic figure of the "flapper" called garçonne in French, meaning "boy" with a feminine suffix. This new "in motion", slim and slender, shortly dressed, female silhouette, was an important source of inspiration for Max Le Verrier when he created his collection of dancers, gymnasts, and Art Deco lamps. He continued to work on this theme and also one concerning animals, using a precise linear fluidity and simple shapes. The captivating beauty of his creations, not only can be judged by the extreme detail of the hands and faces sculpted, but also by the elegance and charm of the poses of his sculptures. Louis Octave Maxime Le Verrier was born in Neuilly sur Seine on January 29, 1891. His mother was Belgian, and his father was a Parisian goldsmith and jeweler on Boulevard Malesherbes in Paris. His parents divorced when he was 7 years old. He attended several boarding schools including Collège de Verneuil sur Avre and was a brilliant student. His interest in drawing and sculpture occurred early, and he practiced his craft on wooden rulers, which he turned into little houses, churches, and other small items. His father thought that his future should be in farming; therefore he sent his son to St. Sever and La Reole to study agriculture against Max's wishes. However, Max Le Verrier kept alive his liking for sculpture during his spare time. At the age of 16, he returned to Paris and did odd jobs to escape farm-work and to provide for himself, and his father left him to fend for himself. In 1909, when he was 18, he left for England but As a foreigner, it was very difficult for him to find a job in London, so he returned to France. This period was an aviation era, which fascinated many youth of that time. He met a Frenchman named Jameson, who bought a plane on credit, and, together, they opened an aviation school in Rendon. The business was difficult. Jameson gave his part to a rich, well-off Englishman na

Oil painting on canvas of a nude female figure signed A Brook lower right- Alexander Brook (1898 – 1980) . Image size 22"x 30", overall dimensions 26.5" x34.5". Lightly textured. In Good Condition. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Alexander Brook was a realist painter, whose works consisted mostly of still-life subjects, landscapes, and figures, often of women. He was very successful in his day, winning second prize to Picasso's first prize at the Carnegie Institute International Exhibition of Modern Painting in 1930. In New York, he studied at the Art Students League between the years of 1914-1918. It was at the Art Students League that Brook developed significant relationships with Niles Spencer, Reginald Marsh, Kenneth Hays Miller, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and, perhaps most significantly, Peggy Bacon, whom he married in 1920. Along with Kenneth Hayes Miller, Brook studied with John C. Johansen, Frank V. DuMond, George Bridgeman and Dimitri Romanofski. Within this group lay the foundations of American Realism. Brook was a member of the Society of Independent Artists, who rebelled against the strictures of the National Academy of Design. In 1938 Brook traveled to Savannah, Georgia, there he did some of his most provocative work. After two years in the South, Bacon and Brook were divorced. Brook later married the painter Gina Knee. During the years 1928 through 1939, Alexander Brook had works in over one-hundred exhibitions, fifteen of which were one man shows. By 1942, Brook had resumed teaching at the Art Students League. Demand for the artist's work kept him in significant collections, galleries, and museums, including the Downtown Gallery (New York), the National Academy of Design, the Rehn Gallery, the Larcada and the Knoedler galleries. Brook received awards at the Art Institute of Chicago (1929), the Pennsylvania Academy (1931), the Guggenheim Fellowship (1931), and the San Francisco Art Association (1938).

An original antique French Art Nouveau bronze statue of a glamorous woman c.1905. Bronze mounted to a marble base signed on verso with the stamp medallion of Original Bronzes Society Paris France. Dimensions 3.5ʺW × 3ʺD × 7.5ʺH Georges Van der Straeten was a Belle Epoque sculptor born in Ghent, Belgium, on December 21, 1856. He studied under the Neo-Baroque sculptor Jef Lambeaux (1852-1908). In 1883, at the twenty-seven years old, Van der Straeten moved to Paris. While living in Paris he befriended Jean Marie Constantin Joseph "Jan" van Beers, a fellow painter and son of the Romantic poet Jan van Beers. He lived at 9 Hoche Avenue, Paris. Van der Straeten showed at his first Paris Salon in 1885 and continued to show until 1912. He won many awards for his work, including the silver medal at the 1900 World's Fair, Paris and a knight of the Legion of Honor in 1903. Van der Straeten's figures are detailed and inspired by the French artist Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) and similar in style to the Italian sculptor Emmanuel Villanis (1858-1914). The work is Art Nouveau with an emphasis on the figure. His works have been produced in large numbers by French foundries Paris Bronzes Society, Pinedo and by ceramsist Friedrich Goldscheider. The artist died in Ghent in 1928.

Original antique watercolor floral botanical painting of a tulip 19th century c.1850. This lovely original watercolor is from a mid 19th century botanical watercolor album. While little is known about the work, it was clearly done by a highly skilled artist. The paper is Whatman watermarked and dated. . Presented matted with archival materials and framed.

Original Vintage French Nude Female Drawing by Aristide Maillol (1861 - 1944) Pastel Pencil Conte Crayon on paper signed lower right with the artists monogram as was typical of his drawings. Presented matted and framed in a quality gallery gold gilt frame. Drawing measuring sight 7.5" x 13.5" overall framed size 14.5" x 20". Aristide Maillol (1861 - 1944) was active/lived in France. Aristide Maillol is known for Female figure drawing, sculpture, painting, woodcut illustration. Aristide Maillol was born in Banyuls, France in 1861. Maillol's early career was spent mainly as a tapestry designer, but he also painted. In 1881, Aristide Maillol moved to Paris, where he first attended a drawing course at the École des Beaux-Arts as a student of the painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme. In the meantime, he took classes in sculpture at the arts college, before returning to the Academy, where he remained until 1893. Maillol's recognition as a sculptor grew only gradually, forcing him to earn his livelihood with the restoration of stucco work. Success ensued after an exhibition in 1902, in which Ambroise Vollard presented 33 of Maillol’s works. Two years later, he was included in a publication by Julius Meier-Graefe and made the acquaintance of his most important patron, the German art collector Harry Graf Kessler, with whom he traveled on several occasions and executed important commissions. In 1913, Maillol had his first exhibition abroad, in Rotterdam. This was followed by exhibitions at the Armory Show in New York and later at the Berlin gallery of Alfred Flechtheim, the Kunsthalle Basel, and the Petit Palais in Paris on the occasion of the World Exhibition in Paris. Maillol initially devoted himself to painting, was a member of the Nabis group, and created tapestries. From the mid-1890s on, he created primarily sculptures in plaster, wood, and bronze. The main theme of his sculptural oeuvre is the female body. Today Maillol's works can be found at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.

Modern charcoal drawing of a cosmic abstract. Signed indistinctly lower right and dated 2003. Presented in a minimalist blonde wood frame. Image size: 22 x 30”, overall dimensions: 27 x 34”.

A beautiful vintage set of three Chinese paintings on silk Muses of Music with Deer and Tiger with musical instruments. Presented beautifully framed and matted. Each measuring 16.5" W x 26.5" H x 0.75" D. Each artist signed with exquisite details.

Original vintage modernist abstract painting of books by Barry Nemett oil on canvas signed lower right and dated 1971. Presented in a natural oak wood frame. Measures 19ʺW × 1.5ʺD × 49ʺH in good condition minor touch ups. Biography: Barry Nemett, Chair of the Painting Department at Maryland Institute College of Art, studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, received his BFA at Pratt Institute and his MFA at Yale University. His awards include The Hugh Fraser Foundation, Ford Foundation Grant, MICA Trustee Grant for Excellence in Teaching, Maryland State Arts Council Individual Fellowship Grant, ITT International Travel Fellowship/Fulbright Hays Grant, Ely Harwood Schless Award for Excellence in Drawing and Painting at Yale University, Faculty Enrichment Grant, and the Berkeley T. Rulon Miller Award. Prof. Nemett has curated numerous traveling exhibitions, and has exhibited his own work at the National Academy Museum, Museum of Art, Rochefort-en-Terre, France, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan, Baltimore Museum of Art, Delaware Museum of Art, Institute of International Education, Washington County Museum of Art, Andre Zarre Gallery, Atlanta College of Art, Goucher College, Indiana University, Loyola College, New Jersey State Museum, University of North Carolina, Pratt Institute, St. John's University, University of Maryland, University of New Hampshire, University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College, College of William and Mary, and Yale University.

By Adolf Muller Crefeld (German 1863-1934) bronze art deco statue of a dancer a beautiful form with great patina a beautiful marble base. measuring overall approx. 14 inches tall. excellent condition. Berlin. Literature:
 “Bronzes, sculptors and founders” by H. Berman, Abage. 
“The dictionary of sculptors in bronze” by James Mackay. Antique collectors club. 


An original vintage charcoal drawing of Christmas Carolers in winter snow by William Gropper. Charcoal on paper signed lower right presented matted and framed. Image size 13 x 17" overall framed size 19 x 25". Biography: William Gropper was a painter and political cartoonist who is best remembered for his striking social commentary. He was born in 1897 on the Lower East Side in New York City to a large, poor immigrant family. Due to the family's financial difficulties, Gropper was forced to leave school at a very young age and work in a garment sweatshop with his mother and siblings. Several years later, he enrolled in art classes at the socially progressive Ferrer School where he received instruction from noted Ashcan artists Robert Henri and George Bellows. Gropper later recalled the influence of these men saying, "Right then, I began to realize that you don't paint with color—you paint with conviction, freedom, love and heartaches, with what you have." Following his time at the Ferrer School, Gropper continued his education at the Chase School, later known as Parson's School of Design. After graduation, Gropper briefly illustrated for the New York Tribune, during which time he began contributing to socialist publications, such as The New Masses, Labor Defender and The Nation. In 1924, he began a long career as a regular cartoonist for the Freiheit, a left-wing Yiddish daily newspaper. As his career progressed in the 1930s, Gropper turned his attention more towards painting. In addition to the early influence of Henri and Bellows, he also looked to Cubism for inspiration and incorporated sharp angles and exaggerated figures in his paintings. In the 1930s and 1940s, Gropper completed several murals for New York businesses, and for post offices in Detroit and on Long Island. In 1937, Gropper was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship which he used to travel to the Great Plains and to the Southeast. In 1942, he painted Field Workers, based on sketches made while in the South. It was completed during the height of his career as a painter and the saturated coloring and exaggerated angles are characteristic of his mature painting style. Though Gropper worked in different mediums his subject was always people, and he is often referred to as "the workingman's protector." In an interview, Gropper explained his motivations for exposing the wrongs committed against workers, "That's my heritage. I'm from the old school, defending the underdog. Maybe because I've been an underdog or still am. I put myself in their position. I feel for the people . . . . I become involved."

A beautiful antique original American tonalist landscape painting. Oil on academy panel circa 1900 unsigned presented in the original carved gilt wood frame. Measuring overall 17.5" W x 14.5" H x 1.5" the panel measures 9" x 12".

Original antique 16th Century woodcut Engraving by Virgil Solis C.1550 signed with monogram lower left. Text on versoImage measures 4.25" x 3" Presented Matted and framed overall size 7" x 9". Bio. Virgil Solis or Virgilius Solis (1514 – 1 August 1562), a member of a prolific family of artists, was a German draughtsman and printmaker in engraving, etching and woodcut who worked in his native city of Nuremberg. Solis’ early drawing style employed strong outlines and simple hatching and he aimed to produce popular, commercially successful prints on many subjects. The most notable aspect of Solis’ work is his skillful absorption and re-interpretation of other artist’s styles, particularly Albrecht Dürer, Peter Flötner, Sebald Beham and many others of French, German, and Italian origin. Solis’ woodcuts illustrating Ovid were especially influential, though partly borrowing from earlier illustrations by the French artist Bernard Salomon

Original French master portrait of a woman wearing braids from a portfolio of drawings dated 1847. Displayed in a giltwood frame.

19th Century pastoral landscape oil on canvas. Golden age, old master influenced painting depicting a shepherd with his sheep and a cottage. Signed Wayland, lower right. Wax Relined and presented in an intentionally distressed gold wood frame. Image size, 16 x 20 overall framed size 24.5ʺW × 2.5ʺD × 20.5ʺH.

Impressionist oil painting of a Mother Child Titled "Family Outing" at Mast Cove Kennebunkport Maine by Harry Barton. Oil on 24 x 30 panel signed lower left and with estate of the artists stamp on verso. Harry Lang Barton, artist and illustrator May 12, 1908 - August 12, 2001 Born in Cleveland and raised in Seattle, Harry Barton spent his life doing the thing he truly loved--painting. Whether in the Pacific Northwest around Seattle, Hood Canal, and Puget Sound, or in the Art Students League, Central Park, and the parks and beaches of Long Island, or in Pennsylvania and New England (he often summered in Rockport, Massachusetts, and Kennebunkport, Maine), Harry's life was art. Harry's career as an artist embraced almost every medium and a great many genres: from charcoal and pen and ink to watercolor, tempura, and oil; from his early work in Seattle as a silk-screen artist and an illustrator for the Sterling Theatres and the telephone company, to his New York work as an illustrator of Western pulp fiction, detective and mystery novels, and movie and fashion advertisements, and finally to his extensive activity as a portrait and landscape painter. In the spring of 1945, he decided to study for the summer at the Art Students League in New York with Frank Reilly, and in the fall of that year he was offered work in New York as an illustrator for Gale Phillips Associates. Moving his family from Seattle, he--along with his wife Pauline and his daughters Joan and Linda--took up residence in Bayside, Queens, and soon moved to the Auburndale area of Flushing, where he had his own freelance studio and where he lived the rest of his life. Over the years his illustrations were featured in The Saturday Evening Post, Argosy, Boy's Life, Down East, and American Artist, as well as on movie billboards for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and in fashion advertising for Lord & Taylor and Gertz department stores. But his main body of work as an illustrator can be found in hard-cover and paperback novels published by such major firms as Dell, Ace Books, Dial Press, and Farrar Straus & Giroux. Harry's paintings and sketches were exhibited in the Philadelphia Museum of Art; in the Salmagundi Club, Lord & Taylor, the Smith Gallery, and Illustration House in New York in the Blue Heron Gallery in Wellfleet, Cape Cod; in the Schaff Gallery in Cincinnati; and in Mast Cove Gallery in Kennebunkport. He received a number of prizes for his work, and his paintings are held in private collections in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Harry was a member of the American Artists Professional League, the Salmagundi Club, and the Art Students League of New York, where he kept on working throughout his life, studying with--in addition to Frank Reilly--Samuel Edmund Oppenheini, William Draper, and Everett Raymond Kintsler. Harry loved the Art Students League and was very proud of being a Life Member. His Saturday jaunts to the League continued right up to the time when the League closed for the summer three months before he died. He was fortunate in being able to do what he enjoyed most to the very end of his life

Post impressionist oil painting of a partial nude in blue tones. Reminiscent of Picasso's Blue Period. Signed lower right and presented in original dark wood frame with white insert. Masonite panel measures 20 x 30 inches.

A fine original oil on canvas by Alexis Podchernikoff of Mt. Tamalpais from Mill valley California. A beautiful scene with lupine wildflowers and cows in the distance. Signed lower left and on reverse dated 1915. In excellent all original condition in the original art nouveau frame the painting measures approx. 20 x 30 inches. A fine example of this artists work.

BIOGRAPHY

Landscape painter,BIOGRAPHY Landscape painter, Alexis Matthew Podchernikoff was born in Vladimir, Russia in 1886 into a family of artists. Podchernikoff first studied art with his grandfather Dmitri Zolotarieff and later with Ilya Repin and Verestchagin. In Moscow he was awarded a gold medal and his work "My Beloved Russian Woods" was purchased by the Royal Art Commission. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War and settled in San Francisco. In February of 1901, he married fellow-painter Ida Working. In 1913 an art dealer from Santa Barbara convinced Podchernikoff to move there. A painting of his Santa Barbara studio appeared on the front cover of Literary Digest, March 10, 1928. Although he spent the last 20 years of his life in Southern California he returned often to San Francisco to paint scenes of Marin and the northern coast. He is well-known in California for his landscapes done in the manner of Corot. His last years were spent in Pasadena where he died on Oct. 31, 1933 of tuberculosis. Works held: Oakland Museum; Royal Art Commission, Moscow.was born in Vladimir, Russia in 1886 into a family of artists. Podchernikoff first studied art with his grandfather Dmitri Zolotarieff and later with Ilya Repin and Verestchagin. In Moscow he was awarded a gold medal and his work "My Beloved Russian Woods" was purchased by the Royal Art Commission. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War and settled in San Francisco. In February of 1901, he married fellow-painter Ida Working. In 1913 an art dealer from Santa Barbara convinced Podchernikoff to move there. A painting of his Santa Barbara studio appeared on the front cover of Literary Digest, March 10, 1928. Although he spent the last 20 years of his life in Southern California he returned often to San Francisco to paint scenes of Marin and the northern coast. He is well-known in California for his landscapes done in the manner of Corot. His last years were spent in Pasadena where he died on Oct. 31, 1933 of tuberculosis. Works held: Oakland Museum; Royal Art Commission, Moscow.