Catalog: Fine Art (125)

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.

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.

William Keith original oil painting wooded landscape with cattle by a lake. Oil on panel signed lower right canvas measuring Approx 14 x 22 a magnificent example of this famed California and American artists work. William Keith rivalled Thomas Hill as the most accomplished and successful landscape painter working in California during the 19th century. After two years spent studying art in Düsseldorf, Paris and Boston, Keith returned to California in 1872 as a sophisticated painter whose work drew on several prevailing styles popular in the cultural centers of the world. Many of his paintings reflect the influence of the "Hudson River School" and depict sublime mountain scenery à la Church or Bierstadt. But at the same time as he was painting alpine panoramas, Keith also focused on the more intimate landscapes of the French Barbizon movement that had come to the forefront of Parisian art appreciation during the 1860s. Barbizon painters adopted a more natural and impressionistic style than that of the academic painters; their works often communicate a rougher and stronger presence of nature than sweeter, more sentimental academic landscapes. Major works of the English painter John Constable, exhibited at Paris Salons of the 1820s, influenced the Barbizon painters in the direction of this stronger style. Works held: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum; Crocker Museum (Sacramento); Art Institute of Chicago; Oakland Museum; Stanford University; Boston Museum; De Young Museum San Francisco; California State Capitol.

A rare color lithograph by Wayne Thiebaud titled Coronado signed, numbered 5 of 15 and dated 1956. overall sheet size 16 x25 12.5 x 21.5 inches. A beautiful colorful modernist image of sail boats off the San Diego coast with the old Coranado Hotel in the left of the image. A very scarce print in excellent condition some slight discoloration from a previous matte.

Biography

A painter of pop-art realism combined with a great respect for traditional methods and subject matter, Wayne Thiebaud is one of the most prominent of the Bay Area painters in California in the latter part of the 20th century. His reputation spread far beyond his own state. In his painting, he focuses on the commonplace in a way that suggests irony and objective distance from his subjects. He also makes a point of keeping an independent distance from the New York art scene. He was born in Mesa, Arizona, in 1920, and for one summer during his high school years he apprenticed at the Walt Disney Studio and then studied at an Los Angeles trade school the next summer. He earned a degree from Sacramento State College in 1941. From 1938 to 1949, he worked as a cartoonist and designer in California and New York and served as an artist in the United States Army. In 1950, at the age of thirty, he enrolled in Sacramento State where he earned a Master's Degree in 1952 and began teaching at Sacramento City College. In 1960, he became assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, where he remained through the 1970s and influenced numerous artist students. However, he did not have much following among Conceptualists because of his adherence to basically traditional disciplines, emphasis on hard work rather than creativity, and love of realism. On a leave of absence, he spent time in New York City where he became friends with Willem De Kooning and Franz Kline and was much influenced by these abstractionists as well as Pop Artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. During this time, he began a series of very small paintings based on images of food displayed in windows, and he focused on their basic shapes. Returning to California, he pursued this subject matter and style, isolating triangles, circles, squares, etc. He also co-founded the Artists Cooperative gallery, now Artists Contemporary Gallery, and other cooperatives including Pond Farm, having been exposed to the concept of cooperatives in New York. In 1960, he had his first one-man shows in San Francisco at the Museum of Art and New York at the Staempfli and Tanager galleries. These shows received little notice, but two years later, a 1962 New York Sidney Janis Gallery exhibition officially launching Pop Art, brought him national recognition although he disclaimed being anything other than a painter of illusionistic form. In 1963, he turned increasingly to figure painting, wooden and rigid with each detail sharply emphasized; in 1967 his work was shown at the Biennale Internationale, and in 1985, he was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

A very fine original antique Dutch Master School oil painting a portrait of a boy late 19th century. Oil on panel presented in the original antique period frame. Panel measures 5.75" x 8.5" overall framed size 99" x 12"

Antique oil painting on canvas of fireworks, likely of Bastille day from the Seine in Paris. The work depicts a dark evening nocturne offset by bright red and yellow fireworks with multiple figures in 18th century period attire in the foreground. Thickly applied paint is used throughout the painting to provide texture. The painting has been professionally relined, and is from the late 19th-early 20th century. Signed “Roybal,” bottom right, and presented in a black and gilt wood frame. Canvas size: 24" x 30".

David Cox Original oil painting 1844 signed lower right titled on reverse Manorbier Castle South Wales. Oil on board measuring approx. 30 x 40 inches. Biography

David Cox was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of impressionism.

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

Richard Bonington original oil on canvas of a old English town view signed very faintly lower right measuring approx. 9 x 12 inches framed in a contemporary gallery frame. Provenance: British Consulate San Francisco.

Biography

Richard Parkes Bonington was born in the town of Arnold, 4 miles from Nottingham in England. His father was successively a gaoler, a drawing master and lace-maker, and his mother a teacher. Bonington learned watercolour painting from his father and exhibited paintings at the Liverpool Academy at age 11. In 1817, Bonington's family moved to Calais, France where his father had set up a lace factory. At this time, Bonington started taking lessons from the painter François Louis Thomas Francia, who trained him in English watercolour painting. In 1818, the family moved to Paris to open a lace retail outlet. It was Paris where he first met Eugène Delacroix, who he became friends with. He worked for a time producing copies of Dutch and Flemish landscapes in the Louvre. In 1820, he started attending the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied under Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros. It was around this time that Bonington started going on sketching tours in the suburbs of Paris and the surrounding countryside. His first paintings were exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1822. He also began to work in lithography, illustrating Baron Taylor’s "Voyages pittoresques dans l'ancienne France" and his own architectural series Restes et Fragmens". In 1824, he won a gold medal at the Paris Salon along with John Constable and Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding. Bonington died of tuberculosis on 23 September 1828 at 29 Tottenham Street in London, only 25 years old.

Winter Landscape Oil on canvas by Fred Wagner 24" L x 36"W. overall framed size 27 x 33. Signed lower right. Wagner exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy over 35 times from 1906-1940, winning prizes in 1914 and 1922. Wagner exhibited at the Carnegie 14 times from 1898 - 1925. He showed two works at the Armory Show, and exhibited 11 times at the Corcoran between 1907 - 1935. He had a special exhibit of 100 pastels, at the Corcoran in April 1924. Wagner exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1884, 1907, 1925 and 1928.

Vintage original etching "The Four Horsemen" by Edward Borein etching on paper signed lower right. Presented matted and framed provenance from The Old Print Shop New York City label on verso. This etching is in the Galvin catalogue number 32 titled the Four Horsemen #2 The overall framed size is 16" tall x 18"wide the image is aproximately 10" x 12". A fine impression. Biography Edward (John Edward) Borein (1872 - 1945) Born in San Leandro, California, Edward Borein became one of the most popular artists of western scene painting, equally adept at ink drawing, watercolor, and etching. He was raised in San Leandro, a western cow town, in a family where his father was a county politician. Edward had many childhood memories of herded cattle and their cowboys, which he began sketching at the age of five. He was educated in the Oakland, California schools, and at the age of 17 began working on a ranch near Oakland and then drifted and sketched as a working cowboy throughout the Southwest, Mexico, and Guatemala. It was said that he practiced his art on anything he could find from bunkhouse walls to scraps of paper. At age 19, he enrolled at the San Francisco Art School, his only formal art training, and there he met Jimmy Swinnerton and Maynard Dixon who encouraged him in his art career. The first person to purchase his work was Charles Lummis, editor of The Land and Sunshine magazine in California, and the two became life-long friends. Borein and Lucille Maxwell were married in the Lummis home. Borein, a typical westerner in dress and manner, also became close friends with Charles Russell, actor Will Rogers, and President Theodore Roosevelt. Borein often traveled north to visit Russell in Great Falls, Montana and to travel among Indian tribes. In 1899, Borein visited Arizona while returning from Mexico. By 1902, he was a successful illustrator in San Francisco for the San Francisco Call, and in 1907 to enhance his illustration skills, went to New York to learn etching techniques. There he enrolled in the Art Students League and was a student of Child Hassam. In the theatre district, he opened a studio that became a gathering place for 'lonesome' westerners such as Charles Russell, Will Rogers, Olaf Seltzer and Oscar Borg. But Borein did not feel at home in New York, so he moved to Santa Barbara, California in 1921. This was a final move. He and his wife built a Hopi-style home, and he taught at the Santa Barbara School of the Arts until his death, and also turned increasingly from oil to watercolor painting. "On occasion Borein would decorate place cards for dinners with small watercolor skeches of cowboys, vaqueros, Indians and Bucking horses". (Santa Fe Auction) From his studio, which again attracted many of his friends, he depicted Indians, cowboys, and California ranch life and was financially successful.

An original vintage circa 1930 oil painting a portrait of the Sailing Ship "The Canton Packet" by Harry Hambro Howe. Oil on canvas measuring 16 x 20" signed lower right titled and inscribed on the verso information about the ship. Presented in the original antique frame. Written on verso: "A famous ship which preceded the true clipper ships she was built at Boston in 1841 was commanded by Captain John Land and proved very fast. Her success set the builders New York, Boston and Portsmouth to turning out clipper ships. She carried cannons for protection against pirates". Artist Biography The son of Captain T Bailey Howe, master of a Nantucket whaler and painter, Harry Howe became an oil painter of marine and landscape subjects. He was born in Boston and remained based there most of his life, although he traveled widely. He took art lessons from his father. One of his favorite subjects was clipper ships such as his "John Bertram" and "Witchcraft", which were built respectively in Medford, Massachusetts in 1851 and Boston in 1850. This subject was popular in the East among persons who appreciated their importance to the history of that city. Among his landscape subjects were Mount Chocorua in New Hampshire, Gloucester in Massachusetts, Clearwater in Florida, and the Upper Kennebec River in Maine. Exhibition cities included Houston, Texas in 1940 at the Rose Room of the Rice Hotel. According to The Houston Chronicle review of that show, February 4, 1940: "Harry Howe . . .would rather paint boats than anything. . . he studied in Maine and New Hampshire" . . . His landscapes are mostly of the Maine country and scenes of the Presidential Range, Mounts Monroe, Washington, Adams, Baldface and Chocorua". In that same review, the artist was quoted as saying: "When my father taught my brother and me to paint, the darker, heavier paints were the vogue of the day. I always wanted to get into the lighter tones, and when I began to express my own ideas rather than those of my father, I developed brighter, more cheerful scenes. Today economics influences art. The modern trend of building has reduced the size of rooms, therefore, the heavy dark paintings which had to be viewed from a distance to be appreciated are becoming passe. . .Such pictures are only appropriate for museums exhibits, where there is plenty of room." When asked for an opinion on modern art, Mr. Howe's only response was that if he "were hit real hard on the head with a hammer, he might be able to produce something in the abstract, but so long as he remained normal, he just couldn't see it."

An original antique monotype oil on paper of a path through a forest by Joseph Henry Sharp. Signed lower right presented in a vintage period frame. Measuring overall size 17.5" x 22.5". Biography, Born in Bridgeport, OH on Sept. 27, 1859, Joseph Henry Sharp was raised in Ironton and Cincinnati. He began art studies at the Cincinnati Art Academy at age 14. In 1882 he was a pupil of Charles Verlat in Antwerp; the following year he made his first trip to the West to sketch the Indian tribes of New Mexico, California, and the Columbia River. In 1886 he again was in Europe accompanied by Frank Duveneck. While in Munich, he was a pupil of Karl Marr and had further study with Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant in Paris. Sharp taught at the Cincinnati Art Academy from 1892 until 1902, and then resigned to devote full time to painting. Summers were spent in Montana at Crow Agency in a cabin and studio at the foot of the Custer Battlefield. As well as a home in Pasadena, he also had a studio in Taos, NM which was opposite Kit Carson's old home. During the 1930s he made several painting trips to Hawaii. Sharp died in Pasadena, CA on Aug. 29, 1953. Eleven of his paintings of famous Indians were purchased by the U.S. Government in 1900 and now hang in the Smithsonian Institution. A collection of 80 Indian portraits and pictures were purchased by Phoebe Hearst in 1902 for UC Berkeley. Memberships: Cincinnati Art Club; Prairie Printmakers Club of Los Angeles; Salmagundi Club; American Fine Art Association; Southwest Society of Artists; Taos Society of Artists; California Art Club. Exhibitions: Pan-American Expo (Buffalo), 1901 (silver medal); Cincinnati Art Club, 1901 (1st prize); Panama-California Expo (San Diego), 1915 (gold medal); Southwest Expo (Long Beach), 1928; California Artists, Pasadena Art Institute 1930 (1st prize). Museum Collections: Houston Museum; Orange Co. (CA) Museum; Butler Museum (Youngstown, OH); Southwest Museum (LA); Museum of NM (Santa Fe); Cincinnati Museum; Herron Art Inst. (Indianapolis).

A beautiful original 18th century drawing of a woman gazing upward Attributed to Francois Boucher measuring 24.5 x 31 cm. on wove paper mounted at corners to matte board. A beautiful drawing would be a fine addition to any collection.

Biography

François Boucher (September 29, 1703 - May 30, 1770) was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, and intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture. He also painted several portraits of his illustrious patroness, Madame de Pompadour. Born in Paris, the son of a lace designer Nicolas Boucher, François Boucher was perhaps the most celebrated decorative artist of the 18th century, with most of his work reflecting the Rococo style. At the young age of 17, Boucher was apprenticed by his father to François Lemoyne, however after only 3 months he went to work for the engraver Jean-François Cars. Within 3 years Boucher had already won the elite Grand Prix de Rome, although he did not take up the consequential opportunity to study in Italy until 4 years later. On his return from studying in Italy in 1731, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture as a historical painter, and became a faculty member in 1734.

A original abstract expressionist oil painting on canvas signed lower left dated 1984 and on verso by Ken Stabler. Canvas size22 x 28" overall framed size 23 x 29 presented in a gallery frame ready to hang. A beautiful detailed painting in soft pastel colors

Original Albrecht Dürer woodblock print "The Flight into Egypt", from: The Life of the Virgin (B. 89; M., Holl. 201; S.M.S. 179) woodcut, circa 1504, This impression on laid paper with a Fleur de Lis watermark (Meder 122) it is an original 16th century print after the Italian edition with narrow margins with a 1 cm repaired tear top left otherwise in very good condition B. 11¾ x 8 5/16 in. (299 x 211 mm.) S. 11 7/8 x 8 5/16 in. (301 x 212 mm.) Archival framing the print is tiped to archival matte at top. An exqusite example of this important artists work.

A beautiful rare antique French Gilt Bronze Dore bust of a young woman by Jean-Baptiste Greuze Paris circa 1799. Dor'e or bronze finish signed on reverse on a marble base. Dimensions 4ʺW × 2.5ʺD × 6.5ʺH in good antique condition minor imperfections commensurate of age. Biography; An 18th-century artist of melodramatic genre, morality lessons, female figures and portraits whose subjects included Mozart and Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Baptiste Greuze was born in the Burgundy region of France. He spent most of his career in Paris, where he was mentored by a portrait artist from Lyon named Grandon (Grondom). This artist was an advocate for the young Greuze, whose father had discouraged him from following his art talents. In Paris, Greuze worked from the live model at the Royal Academy. Gradually his work attracted the attention of members of the nobility such as the family of Madame d'Epinay, a French writer whose love affairs included Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot. In 1755, Greuze's painting, Father Reading the Bible, was judged accomplished enough to merit much encouragement from Academicians. That same year, he went to Italy with Abbé Louis Gougenot, who had influence among fine art professionals, which led to Greuze being elected him an honorary member of the Royal Academy in Italy because of his accomplishments in allegory and mythology. However, he was not encouraged by the exposure he got in Italy, and returned to Paris in search of better training for portraiture, genre and figure work. Beginning in the late 1850s, he received increasing accolades for his painting, which influenced by Rousseau, was getting increasingly naturalistic. By 1765, he had reached a great high point with the exhibition of thirteen paintings at the Academy's Salon. However, members gave him a tough time because they demanded that he show them a diploma from an accredited art institution, something he did not have. The Academy finally received him as a new member with all honours but as a genre painter, meaning he was not officially recognized for his portraits or history canvases. In 1769, Salon organizers rejected his painting, Septimius Severus Reproaching Caracalla, and Greuze was so angered that he did not exhibit again until 1804, when the Academy was much less rigid because of the Revolution breaking down aristocratic barriers. However, by that time his subjects and Neo-Classical style had waned in popularity. The next year, 1805, Jean-Baptiste Greuze died in the Louvre. He was impoverished, having been wealthy but having squandered his fortune and also losing money to an embezelling wife. During his last years, he was desperate for commissions but diminished in talent, which meant that much of his late work was lacking in the quality for which he had been known. One of his last paintings was an 1804 portrait of Napolean Bonaparte. Greuze left many paintings, many which are in the Louvre as well as the Wallace Collection in London, the Musée Fabre in Montpellier and a museum dedicated to him in his hometown of Tournus.

An original vintage Chinese ink painting of a Running Horse in the manner of Xu Beihong signed to the center right. Ink on a mottled colored paper presented matted and in a thin wood frame. Overall framed size 16.5" W x 23.5" H x 1.0" D. In good condition minor surface wear and very light crease to the paper. The most influential Chinese artist and art educator in twentieth-century China, Xu Beihong is widely known as the father of modern Chinese painting. Born into a poor family in 1895 in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, he learned Chinese classics and traditional Chinese painting from his father, a self-taught artist. Xu Beihong gained a government scholarship to study in France and attended the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts. Between 1919 and 1927, he studied sketching and oil painting in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland. Returning to China in 1927, he successfully integrated Western painting methods and techniques with traditional Chinese painting in order to develop Chinese painting. He demonstrated two fundamental ways to improve Chinese painting: “focusing on human activities” and rejuvenating the tradition of “learning from nature.” His creative work and extensive teaching offered a new direction for Chinese artists and art educators. He was the first to systematically incorporate high-standard Western sketching from life and oil painting into the curricula at China’s major art institutions. From 1927 until his death in 1953, Xu Beihong trained several generations of students. Many became accomplished artists and leading art educators who have continued to influence Chinese art in the twenty-first century. Since 1954, more than 1200 of his original drawings, sketches, oils, and Chinese ink brush paintings have been kept and displayed by the Xu Beihong Memorial Museum in Beijing.