Above: Full view of watercolor

Above: Detail of grotesques and satyrs

Above: Framed view in lovely gesso ornate period frame

A delightful if somewhat macabre and seemingly allegorical take on an interior nude harem scene. Eerily rendered grotesques, satyrs, nymphs, and a female nude in the forefront — ravished by age — cavort in a lush Middle Eastern aesthetic interior.

The watercolor is by well-listed Minneapolis regionalist painter Bob Brown. Brown was born in 1895 and played professional baseball as a young man before becoming enthralled in art. He studied in New York with Robert Henri in the early 1920s. A heavy drinker in his later life, Brown was found dead of exposure in the Seven Corners West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis in 1954.

Painting is unsigned but guaranteed to be an original work by this well-listed and exhibited artist. A fresh estate auction buy, where a large collection of Brown original paintings were sold over a several month period, straight from the artist’s descendents’ estate. Beautifully framed in a period, ornate gesso wood frame as seen and mounted on original suede as presented by artist and found.