Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
Along with developments in lithography that led many leading talents of the day into careers as illustrators, the 20th century saw innovations in photography, printmaking, and design that revolutionized fine, public, and decorative art. Below, you will see showcased original artworks from the Art Nouveau, American Arts & Crafts, Art Deco, WPA-era and beyond.
A moody and stirring work by Alton S. Tobey lamenting the loss of souls on February 3rd 1943 in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Work commemorates the lives of four World War II chaplains who made the ultimate sacrifice to save others as their stricken ship went down after coming under attack from German torpedo fire.
Artist: Alton Tobey
A very well executed WPA in aesthetic moody tonalist 1930s to early 1940s fine art oil painting by the Lithuanian-American artist Jack Levitz. The artist was a Jewish immigrant who settled in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens. Levitz’s Social Realist/Ashcan School style recalls George Luks and Everett Shinn. This oil on masonite painting shows a New […]
Artist: Jack Levitz
A grotesque and unsavory gathering of creatures is assembled in this inventive signed work which is disguised as a children’s fairy tale – in this mixed medium drawing from the German expressionist artist Heinrich Kley. Here two nude nymphs shower yellow flowers upon the body of an upright champion in the heroic mold, while an […]
Artist: Heinrich Kley
In this whimsically imaginative drawing from the German expressionist and Jugendstil artist Heinrich Kley, a nude water nymph, whose form and pose evoke Venus, frightens away a sea demon as her consort, a dolphin of sorts, looks on laughing. In this mixed medium detailed work, Kley inverts the viewers expectation of women’s sensuality in […]
Artist: Heinrich Kley
A bustling street scene of the artist’s native Brooklyn New York, with tenements and street vendors on view on a picturesque busy New York corner. The painting is signed lower left F. Krieger, and was painted in a regionalist, WPA aesthetic in the 1930s by Florence Krieger, a well listed and exhibited Brooklyn artist who worked in a variety of mediums. Painting is framed in a rough hewn wide profile wood frame and is ready to hang.
Artist: Florence Krieger
A moody, evocotive, fantasy laden American Impressionist painting by the well-listed painter and illustrator Charles Allan Winter. Titled on verso The Island Castle. A fresh, untouched find directly from the artist’s estate.
Artist: Charles Winter
What is Man That Thou Art Mindful of Him? asks this inspirational and spiritual large male nude oil painting by the well-listed New Rochelle based illustrator and artist Walter Beach Humphrey. This new to the market, prize-winning ‘Rock of Ages’ scene was owned for many years by the artist’s daughter, Constance June Humphrey. As a young child in the late 1920s, Constance was a favored model of her father’s friend Norman Rockwell. Humphrey and Rockwell shared a New Rochelle hayloft when they were both starting out. The exceptional provenance and history of the painting evoke the spirit of when it was painted and the special talents and life of the painter.
Artist: Walter Beach Humphrey
An epic and poignant large allegorical preparatory painting by Eugene Savage for the mural titled Armistice, which was created for and still resides in the front reception room at The Elks Veteran Memorial in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Artist: Eugene Savage
An inventive example of modern abstract art by the prolific pulp artist Virgil Finlay, signed and dated 1966 and titled on verso “Gambling Man”. Notations found on the back of the painting in Virgil Finlay’s handwriting read “The buttons of the jailer,”January 6, 1966, on reading Brian Moore re Caffey.)
Artist: Virgil Finlay
From a recent east coast estate auction, Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to have acquired a previously unseen collection of American Impressionist oil paintings dating to the 1940s and executed in a WPA, Regionalist, and often times stark Ashcan School design aesthetic. These are the work of the important American photo-journalist Alfred Statler, who was […]
Artist: Alfred Statler
