Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
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
Price: Sold
This large, epically scaled, WPA-era beach scene is a wonderful fine art painting that takes the forms and themes of the regionalist art movement which was revolutionizing the American art scene in 1939 when this was created, and adapts them to the classic Connecticut shore. Recalling the work of Thomas Hart Benton, and George Bellows, this oil on board shows a group of friends looking on in a mix of shock and wonder at some roughhousing co-eds. Three men appear to have a bathing beauty and appear to be about to toss her into the ocean. Is it all in good fun, or is it something more sinister? By withholding the answer, the artwork takes the beach scene and gives it the provocative modernist spin and Ashcan School grittiness that defined art in the WPA regionalist era.
Artist: Alton Tobey
Price: S O L D
A poignant, large and decorative mural which reflects upon the devastation and loss caused by the Hartford, Connecticut floods of 1936. Workers from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program provided flood relief, patrolling city streets, and rescuing Hartford residents in row boats. This large iconic artwork captures the Great Depression’s bleak urgency and despair in muted banal tones from within the temporary government shelter with newly widowed survivors and children reeling in the devastation.
Artist: Alton Tobey
Price: Sold
A mixed media work by Alton S. Tobey in pencil and oils depicting a pair of African American Navy Midshipmen toiling at work. This work from the WPA era is handsomely framed in a period wide profile gesso frame behind glass.
Artist: Alton Tobey
Price: Sold
Featuring a Depression-era machinist at work creating a Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine, this 1940 artwork by WPA artist Alton Tobey combines the unusual muted palate and composition of the regionalist movement with the dystopian feel of the surrealists. This powerful oil on canvas was created for the East Hartford Pratt & Whitney plant, and presents a deeply moving picture of industrialism in the lead up to World War II.
Artist: Alton Tobey
Price: S O L D
