The Artists of the WPA
Officers
George S. Lowry
Chairman
Nicholas D. Lowry
President, Principal Auctioneer
924899
Andrew M. Ansorge
Vice President & Controller
Alexandra Mann-Nelson
Chief Marketing Officer
2030704
Todd Weyman
Vice President & Director, Prints & Drawings
1214107
Nigel Freeman
Vice President & Director, African American Art
Rick Stattler
Vice President & Director, Books & Manuscripts
Administration
Andrew M. Ansorge
Vice President & Controller
[email protected]
Ariel Kim
Client Accounting
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Diana Gibaldi
Operations Manager
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Kelsie Jankowski
Communications Manager
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Shannon Licitra
Shipping Manager
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Howard cook (1901-1980)
New England Valley (The Valley).
Etching. 303x252 mm; 11⅞x9⅞ inches, wide margins. Edition of 35 (from an intended edition of 50). Signed and inscribed "imp." in pencil, lower right. 1928.
A very good impression of this scarce etching. Duffy 88.
Howard Cook, most widely known for his lyrical prints of Manhattan, was born in Massachusetts and traveled the continental United States extensively. As a young man, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Students League. He studied printmaking there under Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) who, nearing the end of his life, was characterized by his atmospheric cityscape etchings. Cook's interest in the medium increased after a trip to Paris in 1925, where he spent time with fellow ex-pats and master printmakers James E. Allen (1894-1964) and Thomas Handforth (1897-1948).
Cook's career took off after a 1926 trip to Maine, when woodcuts he made there were picked up by Forum, one of the most widely-circulated American magazines at the time. The publication subsequently commissioned Cook to create woodcuts of the American Southwest, where he became enamored with New Mexico and the Taos artist's colony, returning throughout his life (he relocated there permanently in 1939 and ultimately died in Santa Fe). By the end of the 1920s, Cook's adept printmaking caught the interest of Carl Zigrosser (1891-1975), the esteemed director of the Weyhe Gallery in New York who supported many emerging artists. In 1929, Zigrosser both hosted Cook's first solo exhibition and encouraged him to travel to Paris, providing him entrée into the venerable lithography studio Atelier Desjobert. Despite experimenting in a range of printmaking techniques, the woodcut remained Cook's medium of choice.
At the peak of his career, from the late 1920s until his 1939 move to New Mexico, Cook feverishly depicted a rapidly-changing New York. Construction on skyscrapers flourished in the interwar period, with landmark towers like the Chrysler Building completed in 1930 and the Empire State Building completed the following year, while the Great Depression halted progress on other projects and construction sites remained commonplace. Cook was employed by the Works Progress Administration during this time. Artists like Cook, Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), and Samuel Margolies (1897-1974) embraced the evolving city as their subject, using exaggerated perspective to emphasize the grandeur of buildings, and portraying construction workers as everyday heroes.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
Howard cook (1901-1980)
The Checkerboard.
Bound volume with complete text and nine wood engravings on handmade paper. 230x155 mm; 9⅛x6⅛ inches (sheets), full margins, eight engravings bound as issued with Wood Interior, insert. The deluxe edition of 100. Checkerboard Tailpiece signed in ink on the back cover. Wood Interior signed, dated, titled and inscribed "100" in pencil, lower margin. Published by The Weyhe Gallery, New York. 1931.
Includes Checkerboard Cover, Window Plants, Skyscraper #2 (Chryser Tower), Chimneys, Bookstalls, Self-Portrait and Houses in Snow.
Very good impressions. Duffy 123, 141, 148, 150, 163, 169, 171, HH and JJ.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Walker evans (1903-1975)
Child’s Grave with Bottles and Jars on Plot, Hale County, Alabama.
Silver print, the image measuring 181x235 mm; 7⅛x9¼ inches, the mount 457.2x374.7 mm; 18x14¾ inches, with Evans' signature and the edition and other notations "X 89/100 1936-1971," all in pencil, on mount recto. 1936.
WITH—Message from the Interior. Afterword by John Szarkowski. Illustrated with 12 gravure reproductions of Evans' photographs. Folio, white-stamped black cloth with the printed title label on the front cover, lightly worn at the corners. Hasselblad 220. First Edition, Signed and inscribed by Evans "With Feeling" And his finger print. New York: The Eakins Press, (1966).
From the Collection of Bobbi Carrey, friend, fellow photographer, and Evans' assistant from 1973-74.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Marion post wolcott (1910-1990)
Barn and Silos, York County, Pennsylvania * City Jail, Mississippi Delta.
Together, 2 silver prints, the images measuring 241.3x181 mm; 9½x7⅛ inches and 158.8x206.4 mm; 6¼x8⅛ inches, the first sheet slightly larger, each with Wolcott’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp, numeric notations, in pencil, and a typed or handwritten caption, in pencil, on verso; the first accompanied by a label with a typed caption. 1939.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Adelaide lawson (gaylor) (1889-1986)
Untitled (Rural Landscape).
Oil on linen canvas. 737x889 mm; 29x35 inches. Signed in oil, lower right. Circa 1940.
Adelaide Lawson studied at the Arts Students League with Kenneth Hayes Miller and later worked in Maine. She began to exhibit in the late teens and early 1920's with other modernist artists at the J. Wannamaker Gallery of Modern Decorative Art and Gallery 134 and later she showed at the Midtown Gallery and the Whitney Studio Club. Lawson was a member, not only of the New York Society of Women Artists, but the Society of Independent Artists, the Salons of America and an early group of painters known as the Dialis.Lawson and her husband, the painter Wood Gaylor, were very active in the New York art world in the early part of the century and their friends included artists William and Marguerite Zorach, Jules Pascin, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Stefan Hirsch, Lawson and Gaylor moved to Glenwood Landing, Long Island in 1932 where they gave art classes and mounted exhibitions in their barn. Bio courtesy of Julie Heller Gallery and the New York Society of Women Artists.
Provenance: Private collection, Philadelphia.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Designers unknown
[Pennsylvania Game Commission / Department of Forests and Waters.]
Three color silkscreen posters printed on card. Sizes vary.
Includes Protect Field and Forest / Be Careful with Fire; Save Birds and Game / Control the Stray Cat, by Joe Wolf; and Use the Flushing Bar / Protect Game.
Images available upon request. Posters for the People p. 104.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Designers unknown
Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Four color silkscreen posters printed on card. Sizes vary.
Includes Winter Feeding / Provide Food for Game; Help Wildlife / Leave Cover Along Fence Rows; Help Wildlife! / Provide Food Plots Near Cover; and Help! Wildlife / Plant Trees, Shrubs and Vines.
Images available upon request. Posters for the People p. 104, 108.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Designers unknown
Pennsylvania Game Commission / [Birds & Wildlife.]
Five color silkscreen posters printed on card. Each approximately 355x280 mm, 14x11 inches.
Includes Shelter Our Game / Don't Cut the Brush; Birds Destroy Harmful Insects / Protect Them; Protect Our Birds / Birds Destroy Harmful Insects; Protect Birds / They Destroy Harmful Insects; and Protect Wildlife / Leave Briar Patches and Cover for Game.
Images available upon request. Posters for the People pp. 100-1, 108.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Lucile blanch (1895-1981)
Untitled, (EH Thompson Hose Company).
Oil on canvas. 457x610 mm; 18x24 inches. Signed, Lucile Blanch, lower left.
Funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA), Lucile Blanch created three post office murals, in Appalachia, VA, Flemingsburg, KY, and Tylertown, MS.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
John steuart curry (1897-1946)
Heart Ranch, Barber County, Kansas.
Oil on canvas. 508x660 mm; 20x26 inches. Signed and dated, lower right. 1929.
Provenance: Philip Evergood; thence by descent to Julia Vincent Cross; acquired from the Estate of Julia Vincent Cross, 1983, by a private collection, Washington, DC; private Collection, New York.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Peter hurd (1904-1984)
The Sentinel, Santa Fe Trail.
Lithograph. 335x500 mm; 13x19½ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. A very good impression. 1946.
Hurd was born in Roswell, New Mexico, then moved to the Philadelphia area, where he went to school and trained as an artist (he was a student of N. C. Wyeth). In the mid-1930s during the Great Depression, he and his family moved to San Patricio, New Mexico, settling on 40 acres, gradually acquiring more land, developing the 2,200-acre Sentinel Ranch, where he lived and worked most of the remainder of his career. Hurd became a war correspondent with the U.S. Air Force for Life magazine. He made lithographs and several murals (Dallas, Texas) under the auspices of the WPA.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Adolf dehn (1895-1968)
Farm Scene.
Watercolor on cream wove paper. 563x492 mm; 22½x19½ inches. Signed and dated in watercolor, lower right recto. 1941.
Provenance: Private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Adolf dehn (1895-1968)
Group of 3 lithographs.
Flamingoes. 240x337 mm; 9½x13¼ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 200. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1936 * Storm (A Storm on the Mountain). 238x327 mm, 9⅜x12⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Signed, titled and inscribed “100 prints” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by George Miller, New York. 1937 * Northern Lake (North Country Lake). 240x339 mm; 9½x13⅜ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1949.
Very good impressions. Lumsdaine/O’Sullivan 297, 308 and 462.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Rockwell kent (1882-1971)
Adirondack Cabin.
Lithograph. 245x316 mm; 9½x12½ inches, wide margins. Edition of 100. Signed and inscribed “Adirondack Log House,” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by George Miller, New York. Published by the Print Club of Rochester, New York. 1946.
A very good impression. Burne-Jones 140.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Thomas hart benton (1889-1975)
Rainy Day.
Lithograph. 222x340 mm; 8¾x13⅜ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1938.
A very good impression. Fath 23.
Benton was already seen as a leader in the Regionalist movement and a celebrated muralist by the time the WPA started the Federal Arts Program. He had been commissioned to paint murals of life in Indiana for the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago, which caused controversy. In 1934, his work was featured on the cover on Time magazine, which legitimized Regionalism as an art movement. His murals were influential for the artists hired as muralists under the WPA.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Thomas hart benton (1889-1975)
Flood.
Lithograph. 235x310 mm; 9⅛x12¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 196. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1937.
A very good impression. Fath 16.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Thomas hart benton (1889-1975)
The Prodigal Son.
Lithograph. 258x335 mm; 10⅛x13¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1939.
A very good impression.
Benton used a dilapidated house and surrounding landscape in Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, where he and his family summered, as the setting for this subject. Fath 29.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Martin lewis (1881-1962)
R.F.D.
Drypoint and sandpaper ground. 250x300 mm; 9⅞x11⅞ inches, full margins. Artist’s proof, included in the edition of approximately 148. Signed and inscribed “trial proof” in pencil, lower right. 1933.
A superb, richly-inked impression with all the tonal nuances distinct.
A view in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, where Lewis (1881-1962) resided during the Great Depression; the mailbox references his Connecticut neighbor, friend and fellow printmaker Armin Landeck (1905- 1984). According to McCarron, there were three trial proofs printed, which are included in the total recorded impressions of 148. McCarron 106.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Jackson pollock (1912-1956)
Stacking Hay.
Lithograph. 238x335 mm; 9½x13¼ inches, wide margins. Printer’s proof, aside from the edition of 60. Annotated in pencil, lower left. Circa 1935-36.
A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce print. We have found only two other impressions at auction in the past 30 years. Thaw/O’Connor 1060.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Grant wood (1891-1942)
Approaching Storm.
Lithograph. 297x225 mm; 11¾x8¾ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1940.
A very good impression. Cole 19.
Wood was one of the most well-known muralists of the WPA, having rose to celebrity status after his painting “American Gothic” won a bronze medal at the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood had always wished to re-create the midwest as an arts center and helped to found an artist colony in his native Cedar Rapids in 1932. In the Iowa University Parks Library in Ames, Iowa, Wood produced a series of murals in his archetypal American regionalist style (a first set for the Public Works of Art Project in 1934, a second in 1936 under the WPA). Wood also was involved in the production of another Iowan mural project at the Callanan Middle School in Des Moines for the Federal Arts Project.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Grant wood (1891-1942)
Seed Time and Harvest.
Lithograph. 188x307 mm; 7½x12¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1937.
A very good impression. Cole 2.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Grant wood (1891-1942)
December Afternoon.
Lithograph. 228x302 mm; 9x11⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1941.
A very good impression. Cole 16.
The artist's first lithograph. Wood was urged to make lithographs by the New York art dealer Reeves Lowenthal (founder of Associated American Artists) in 1934. Three years later, Wood created Tree Planting Group and subsequently, in several years following, the remaining 18 lithographs which comprise his entire printed oeuvre.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Dorothea lange (1895-1965)
Oklahoma mother of five children, now picking cotton in California, near Fresno * Wife and Child of Migrant Worker, near Winters, California.
Together, 2 silver prints, the images measuring 168.3x212.7 mm; 6⅝x8⅜ inches, the sheets slightly larger, each with an Acme Newspictures hand stamp, an N.E.A. hand stamp (with the date 10-11-37), a numeric notation, in pencil, and a typewritten caption, on verso. 1936.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Dorothea lange (1895-1965)
Mexican children playing in ditch which runs through company cotton camp near Corcoran, California.
Silver print, the image measuring 190.5x244.5 mm; 7½x9⅝ inches, the sheet slightly larger, with Lange’s Resettlement Administration credit hand stamp, an N.E.A. hand stamp (with the date 10-2-38), a MAG. hand stamp with the typed caption, RA number and additional numeric notations and a title in pencil, and a title label, on verso. 1936.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Marion post wolcott (1910-1990)
Mississippi Delta, Lelan * Preacher, Relative, and Friends of the deceased at a memorial meeting near Jackson, Breathitt County, Kentucky.
Together, 2 photographs. Silver prints, the images measuring 241.3x342.9 and 266.7x339.7 mm; 9½x13½ and 10½x13⅜ inches, the second sheet slightly larger, each with Wolcott’s signature, extended title, date, numeric notation, and notation “an original vintage F.S.A. print,” in pencil, and one with Wolcott’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp, on verso. 1939-40.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Russell lee (1903-1986)
A group of 5 photographs depicting children.
Silver prints, the images measuring 177.8x244.5 to 336.6x266.7 mm; 7x9⅝ to 13¼x10½ inches, four sheets slightly larger, each with Lee's signature and a numeric notation, in ink or pencil, one with the title, date, and notations, in pencil, and one with Lee's F.S.A. credit hand stamp and the typed title and date, in ink, on verso. 1937-40; three printed 1970s.
Coat rack in hall, grade school, San Augustine, Texas, 1939 * Young boy playing with truck, late 1930s * Two of the Bodray children in their home near Tipler, Wisconsin, 1937; printed 1970s * Children play with the goats at all day Sunday visiting, Pie Town, New Mexico, 1940; printed 1970s * Children at the blackboard, Lake Dick Project, Arkansas, 1938; printed 1970s.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Russell lee (1903-1986)
A group of 5 photographs depicting the Southern United States.
Silver prints, the images measuring 165.1x241.3 mm; 6½x9½ inches, and slightly larger, the sheets 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, all but one with Lee’s signature, and each with Lee’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp and the title, date, and numeric notation, in pencil or typed, on verso. 1938-39.
Southeast Missouri Farms. Son of sharecropper dressing in combination bedroom and corn crib, 1938 * Residents at Boothville, Louisiana sitting on dock, 1938 * Sewing cap into toe of boot. Cowboy bootmaking shop, Alpine, Texas, 1939 * Farmers in town, Spur, Texas, 1939 * Family living in Mays Avenue camp. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1939.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
(john vachon, john collier, et alia)
A group of 5 F.S.A. portrait photographs, including three by Vachon, one by Collier, and one unidentified.
Silver prints, the images measuring 190.5x241.3 mm; 7½x9½ inches and slightly smaller, and the reverse, the sheets 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, Vachon’s vintage prints with the typed title and date, and the numeric notation, in pencil, one with Vachon’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp; the unidentified print with a publication hand stamp with the title, date, and numeric notation, in pencil and ink; the later prints with the Library of Congress hand stamp, and the photographer’s credit, title, date, and numeric notation, in pencil, on verso. 1938-43; two printed 1960s-70s.
Vachon’s Rehabilitation Client, Guilford County, North Carolina, 1938 * Rehabilitation Client, Beaufort County, North Carolina, 1938 * Omaha Nebraska, 1938; printed later, Collier’s Juan Lopez, the Mayor of the Town, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943; printed later, and an unknown photographer, Pocatello Yardmaster, circa 1940.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Aaron bohrod (1907-1992)
Getting Ready for Auction.
Oil on Masonite. 686x889 mm; 27x35 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. 1942.
This work is to be published in Charles C. Eldridge's forthcoming We Gather Together: American Artists and the Harvest, University of California Press, 2022.
In 1941 the president of American Tobacco Company approached then director of the New York gallery, Associated American Artists, Reeves Lewenthal to select leading American scene painters to travel to the American southeast to capture in paintings the planting, harvesting, curing and auction of tobacco crops. Amongst the nineteen artists who received the commissions for this project were Arnold Blanch, Aaron Bohrod, and Ernest Fiene. These paintings appeared in adds for Lucky Strike brand cigarettes from 1942 - 1947. In the 1940s over 1.5 million American farms were dedicated to supplying the tobacco industry.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,000
Ernest fiene (1894-1965)
Farmers in the Grading Room.
Oil on canvas. 711x965 mm; 28x38 inches. Signed lower right. 1942.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Arnold blanch (1896-1968)
A Stick of Tobacco After Curing.
Oil on canvas. 641x940 mm; 25¼x37 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. 1942.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Robert gwathmey (1903-1988)
Tobacco Farmers.
Color screenprint. 345x267 mm; 13⅝x10⅝ inches, full margins. Edition of 300. Signed twice in ink, lower margin. Published by the National Serigraph Society. 1947.
A very good impression with strong colors. Williams 8.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Robert gwathmey (19003-1988)
Non-Fiction.
Color screenprint. 455x355 mm; 17½x14 inches, full margins. Signed in ink lower left. 1945.
A very good impression of this scarce print with strong colors. Williams 5.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Jack delano (1914-1997)
Interior of a Negro Rural House, Greene County, Georgia.
Silver print, the image measuring 187.3x238.1 mm; 7⅜x9⅜ inches, with Delano’s signature, in ink, on verso. 1941; printed 1960s.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Marion post wolcott (1910-1990)
Farmers exchange news and greetings in front of Court House on Saturday afternoon, Versailles, Kentucky.
Silver print, the image measuring 165.1x241.3 mm; 6½x9½ inches, the sheet 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, with Wolcott’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp, a typed caption, and numeric notations, in pencil, on verso. 1940.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Georges schreiber (1904-1977)
Two lithographs.
Cotton Pickers. 237x335 mm; 9⅜x13⅛ inches, full margins. 1943. * Evening in South Carolina. 243x336 mm; 9½x13⅛ inches, full margins. 1947. Both an edition of 250. Both signed in pencil, lower right. Both printed by George C. Miller & Son, New York. Both published by Associated American Artists, New York.
Both very good impressions.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Georges schreiber (1904-1977)
In Tennessee.
Lithograph. 232x330 mm; 9⅛x13 inches, wide margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by the Associated American Artists, New York.
A very good impression.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Russell lee (1903-1986)
Game of cards, bunkhouse of strawberry pickers near Hammond, Louisiana * Gathering Lettuce, Yuma County, Arizona.
Together, 2 silver prints, the images measuring 177.8x238.1 and 250.8x330.2 mm; 7x9⅜ and 9⅞x13 inches, the first on a trimmed United States Department of Agriculture exhibition mount 196.9x260.4 mm; 7¾x10¼ inches, with a numeric hand stamp; the second with Lee’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp, title, in red pencil, and numeric notation, in pencil, on verso. 1939.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Carl mydans (1907-2004)
Cotton patch in stony soil which is characteristic of a good part of the Crabtree Creek recreational demonstration area near Raleigh, North Carolina.
Silver print, the image measuring 187.3x244.5 mm; 7⅜x9⅝ inches, the sheet slightly larger, with Mydans’ Resettlement Administration hand stamp, an N.E.A. hand stamp (with the date 6-2-36), the title and RA number, in pencil, and an RA number hand stamp, on verso. 1936.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Arthur rothstein (1915-1985)
Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma.
Silver print, the image measuring 254 mm; 10 inches square, the sheet 355.6x279.4 mm; 14x11 inches, with Rothstein’s signature, in pencil, on recto, and the partial title and negative date, in pencil, on verso. 1936; printed 1960s.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(farm security administration)
A portfolio of 10 F.S.A. photographs, including images by Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, and Ben Shahn.
With 10 (of 10) iconic photographs from the Farm Security Administration, each printed under the supervision of Arthur Rothstein. Silver prints, the images measuring 203.2 mm square to 301.6x209.6 mm; 8 to 11⅞x8¼ inches, the sheets 279.4x355.6 mm; 11x14 inches, each with a credit, title, date, and RA number hand stamp, and all but three with the printer’s portfolio hand stamp, on verso; not including original printed paper title folder. FROM A LIMITED EDITION. The Photographic Historical Society of New York Inc., 1975
Dorothea Lange’s Hoe Culture, 1936 * Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936; Arthur Rothstein’s Farmer and Wife, Colorado, 1939 * Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936 * Sharecropper’s Wife and Child, Arkansas, 1935 * Badlands, South Dakota, 1936; Walker Evans’ Bud Fields Family, Alabama, 1936 * Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1935; and Ben Shahn’s Sheriff’s Deputy, Morgantown, W. Va., 1935 * Linworth, Ohio, 1935.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Margaret bourke-white (1904-1971)
Scene at a dam-workers’ bar, Fort Peck, Montana.
Silver print, the image measuring 181x235 mm; 7⅛x9¼ inches, the sheet 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, with a Works Progress Administration notation, in ink, a date hand stamp, and lengthy typewritten caption with Bourke-White’s credit, on verso. 1936.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Dorothea lange (1895-1965)
String of Five Housecars * Squatters Along the Highway, Near Bakersfield, California * Facilities of Kern County Migratory Camp, California * Exterior shower unit, FSA camp Merrill, Klamath County, Oregon.
Together, 4 silver prints, the images measuring 168.3x212.7 to177.8x235 mm; 6⅝x8⅜ to 7x9¼ inches, three with sheets slightly larger, one with a numeric notation, in ink, on recto, and each with an N.E.A. hand stamp (with the date) and numeric notations, in pencil, three with Acme Newspictures hand stamps, three with captions, typed or in pencil, one with Lange’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp, one with an RA number, in pencil, and three with typed caption labels, on verso. 1935-39.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,500
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
Bread Line.
Etching. 129x230 mm; 5x9 inches, wide margins. Fourth state (of 4). Edition of 50. Signed and numbered 15/50 in pencil, lower right. 1929.
A superb, dark impression of this extremely scarce etching. Sasowsky 63.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the modern artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey.
He participated in the federal art programs under the WPA, painting two murals in Washington, DC, and, funded by the Treasury Relief Art Project, completed a series of frescoes in the New York Customs House, now the National Museum of the American Indian, that depict eight New York Harbor scenes and eight portraits of great navigators. It is one of the most celebrated mural installations created under the New Deal in New York City.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Raphael soyer (1899-1987)
Union Square.
Lithograph. 180x220 mm; 7⅛x8⅝ inches, wide margins. Edition of approximately 10. Signed in crayon, lower right. Printed by Jacob Friedland, New York, with the partial blind stamp, lower margin. 1929.
A very good impression of this scarce lithograph. Cole 17A.
Soyer is known for his social realist depictions of daily life around New York City. He participated in the WPA as a muralist, completing the murals at the Kingsessing Station Post Office in Philadelphia with his brother Moses (1899-1974) in 1939, and painting two murals for the Queens Borough Public Library in 1936. He was also engaged as a printmaker, and the WPA published many of his lithographs during that time.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Frank cohen kirk (1889-1963)
All That He Left.
Oil on linen. 641x762 mm; 25¼x30 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto. Circa 1933.
A variant of this secular ex-voto is in the collection of the National Academy Museum, New York, published in Philpott, The Life and Work of Frank C. Kirk, New York, 1938, page 3 (illustrated). This variant also published in Kleeblatt, Painting a Place in America: Jewish Artists in New York 1900-1945, New York, 1991, page 137.
A related painting, Homecoming, also from the early months of the Great Depression during which Kirk sojourned in the Anthracite Coal Mining Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania, is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Frank cohen kirk (1889-1963)
My Inheritance.
Oil on linen. 800x864mm; 31½x34 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto. Circa 1933.
Provenance: Sold Doyle, New York, March 18, 2003, lot 35; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: Members Exhibition, Boston Art Club, Boston, MA, May 2 - 25, nd; Society of Washington Artists 50th Annual Exhibition, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, February 1 - 23, 1941, with the labels on the frame back.
Literature: Philpott, A.J., Frank C. Kirk, 1964, illus. p. 54.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
John sloan (1871-1951)
The Wake on the Ferry.
Etching. 125x178 mm; 5x7 inches, wide margins. Edition of 350 (from an intended edition of 200). Signed, titled and inscribed “200 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Ernest Roth, New York for the Art Students League. 1949.
A very good impression. Morse 313.
The WPA gave opportunities and financial help to many artists who were struggling during the Depression. Sloan, already an established artist and teacher at the Art Students League (who taught many artists who particapted in the WPA programs), did not fit that profile, but he did participate in the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, which hired well-known artists for its projects. He painted the mural The Arrival of the First Mail in Bronxville in 1846 for the post office in Bronxville, New York. He also created two paintings for the WPA, one The Wigwam, Old Tammany Hall, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the other Fourteenth Street at Sixth Avenue, originally hung the office of U.S. Sen. Royal Copeland and now is exhibited at the Detroit Insitute of Arts.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Designer unknown
“Early” Is the Watchword! Cancer is Curable.
Color silkscreen poster on board. 356x279 mm, 14x11 inches. New York State Department of Health, WPA Art Project NYC. Circa 1937.
One in a series of public service announcements informing the American public about cancer, in this specific instance advising early treatment.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Designer unknown
Long Island Tercentenary Celebration / Suffolk County.
Color screenprint poster, 559x355 mm, 22x14 inches. Federal Art Project, WPA, Nassau Country. 1936.
A rare and unrecorded WPA poster promoting the two month long celebration of Long Island's 300th anniversary. One of several posters promoting the event, this one shows a split scene of images from the previous two centuries; the first, early settlers arriving on Long Island, and then cozy colonialists, fireside, with an infant and spinning wheel.
Not in the Library of Congress.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Paul landacre (1893-1963)
Three Kids and a Horse.
Wood engraving on Japan. 190x256 mm; 7½x10 inches, full margins. Signed, titled and numbered 20/100 in pencil, lower margin. Published by Erwin H. Furman, The Print Rooms, Los Angeles. From Three Fine Prints by California Artists. With the original paper folder issued by The Print Rooms. 1941.
A very good impression. Wien 246.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Paul landacre (1893-1963)
Children’s Carnival.
Wood engraving on thin Japan paper. 215x305 mm; 8½x12 inches, wide margins. Edition of 265. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. 1946.
With—Happy New Year, woodcut on Japan paper. 145x83 mm; 5⅜x3⅜ inches, full margins. Circa 1950.
Very good impressions. Wien 275.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Howard cook (1901-1980)
Bremen #2.
Wood engraving. 281x203 mm; 11¼x8 inches, small margins. Edition of only 30 (from an intended edition of 50). 1931.
Cook, most widely known for his lyrical prints of Manhattan, was born in Massachusetts and traveled the continental United States extensively. As a young man, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Students League. He studied printmaking there under Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) who, nearing the end of his life, was characterized by his atmospheric cityscape etchings. Cook’s interest in the medium increased after a trip to Paris in 1925, where he spent time with fellow ex-pats and master printmakers James E. Allen (1894-1964) and Thomas Handforth (1897-1948).
Cook’s career took off after a 1926 trip to Maine, when woodcuts he made there were picked up by Forum, one of the most widely-circulated American magazines at the time. The publication subsequently commissioned Cook to create woodcuts of the American Southwest, where he became enamored with New Mexico and the Taos artist’s colony, returning throughout his life (he relocated there permanently in 1939 and ultimately died in Santa Fe). By the end of the 1920s, Cook’s adept printmaking caught the interest of Carl Zigrosser (1891-1975), the esteemed director of the Weyhe Gallery in New York who supported many emerging artists. In 1929, Zigrosser both hosted Cook’s first solo exhibition and encouraged him to travel to Paris, providing him entrée into the venerable lithography studio Atelier Desjobert. Despite experimenting in a range of printmaking techniques, the woodcut remained Cook’s medium of choice.
At the peak of his career, from the late 1920s until his 1939 move to New Mexico, Cook feverishly depicted a rapidly-changing New York. Construction on skyscrapers flourished in the interwar period, with landmark towers like the Chrysler Building completed in 1930 and the Empire State Building completed the following year, while the Great Depression halted progress on other projects and construction sites remained commonplace. Cook was employed by the Works Progress Administration during this time. Artists like Cook, Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), and Samuel Margolies (1897-1974) embraced the evolving city as their subject, using exaggerated perspective to emphasize the grandeur of buildings, and portraying construction workers as everyday heroes.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
James e. allen (1894-1964)
The Wreck.
Color lithograph. 360x245 mm; 14⅛x9⅝ inches, wide margins. Edition of 40. Signed and inscribed “Ed/40” in pencil, lower margin. 1937.
A very good impression of this scarce lithograph.
We have found only two other impressions at auction in the past 30 years. Ryan 45.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Martin lewis (1881-1962)
From the River Front.
Etching and aquatint. 378x303 mm; 14¾x11⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately only 19. Signed and inscribed “imp” in pencil, lower right. 1916.
A superb impression of this extremely scarce, early etching.
A view of lower Manhattan, near what is now the South Street Seaport. McCarron 10.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
Tug at Battery.
Etching with hand coloring in watercolor. 200x250 mm; 8x9⅞ inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Edition of approximately only 20 (few of which were hand colored). Signed and inscribed “4” in pencil, lower margin. 1934.
A superb, crisp and dark impression with strong contrasts and before any of the corrosion on the plate cited by Sasowsky; extremely scarce. Sarkowsky 145.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
Skyline from Governor’s Island.
Etching. 130x288 mm; 5x11¼ inches, wide margins. Fourth state (of 7). One of only 16 proofs aside from the published edition of 50. Numbered "8" and signed by the artist’s wife, Felicia Marsh, in pencil, lower margin. 1929.
A very good impression. Sasowsky 69.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Riva helfond (1910-2002)
Barges on Canal.
Color lithograph. 320x465 mm; 12½x18¼ inches, full margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Published by the Works Progress Administration, with the ink stamp lower left. 1935-43.
A very good impression.
Helfond taught at the Federal Art Project’s Harlem Community Art Center in the late 1930s before working in the Works Progress Administration’s graphics division. Helfond worked in traditional printing techniques such as lithography as well as the new fine art medium, the screenprint, alongside Anthony Velonis (1911-1997).
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Louis lozowick (1892-1973)
Barge Canal—Harlem.
Color woodcut. 232x142 mm; 9¼x5⅝ inches, full margins. Edition of only 15. Signed, dated and numbered 5/15 in pencil, lower right. 1940.
A very good impression of this extremely scarce woodcut. Flint 172.
In the 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression, Lozowick turned toward depicting the social reality of New York City and its residents who were affected by economic despair. He also worked for public programs that supported artists, such as the New York Graphic Arts Division of the WPA and the Treasury Relief Art Project creating numerous prints and, most notably, in 1936, a mural for the New York City General Post Office.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
James turnbull (1909-1976)
Deck Scene with Canopy.
Watercolor and charcoal on paper. 394x285 mm; 15½x11¼ inches. Signed, Jim Turnbull, lower right. Signed, James B. Turnbull, and inscribed #47, verso.
James Turnbull was awarded two mural projects funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA). In 1939 he completed, The Lead Belt, for the Fredericktown, MO Post Office, and in 1940, Loading Cattle for the Jackson, MO Post Office. The latter is now the Chamber of Commerce building, and the mural has been moved to the new post office serving Jackson.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
James turnbull (1909-1976)
Coal Mine Rail Road.
Watercolor on paper. 285x394 mm; 11¼x15½ inches. Signed, Jim Turnbull, lower left. Inscribed, Coal Mine RR, and, #223, verso. Stamped, Jim Turnbull, verso.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Peter sekaer (1901-1950)
Youngstown, Ohio, Gibson Street * New Orleans * St. Louis Street.
Together, 3 photographs. Silver prints, the first image measuring 114.3x158.7 mm; 4½x6¼ inches and the other two 120.7x95.2 mm; 4¾x3¾ inches, and the reverse, the sheets 177.8x127 mm; 7x5 inches, each with Elizabeth Sekaer Rothschild’s (the photographer’s widow) signature, and her notations, including Sekaer’s credit, the title, and date, in pencil, on verso. Circa 1938-39.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,500
Walker evans (1903-1975)
Cherokee Parts Store Garage Work, Atlanta, Georgia * Street scene, Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Together, 2 photographs. Silver prints, the images measuring 190.5x241.3 mm; 7½x9½ inches, the sheets 260.3x336.5 mm; 10¼x13¼ inches, each with the Library of Congress hand stamp and numeric notations, in pencil, on verso. 1936; printed 1970s.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,500
Walker evans (1903-1975)
Steelmill and workers’ houses, Birmingham, Alabama.
Silver print, the image measuring 184.1x235 mm; 7¼x9¼ inches, the sheet 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, with the Library of Congress hand stamp and numeric notations, in pencil, on verso. 1936; printed circa 1960-70.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Berenice abbott (1898-1991)
Sobol Gas Station.
Silver print, the image measuring 193.7x244.5 mm; 7⅝x9⅝ inches, with Abbott’s signature, in pencil, and her Photograph by Berenice Abbott hand stamp, on verso. Circa 1937.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,500
Carl mydans (1907-2004)
Manhattan From Brooklyn Heights.
Silver print, the image measuring 250.8x336.6 mm; 9⅞x13¼ inches, the mount slightly larger, with Mydans’ signature, title, and date, in ink, on mount recto, and his credit hand stamp, on mount verso. 1937.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Morris kantor (1896-1974)
Union Square.
Oil on linen canvas. 584x381 mm; 23x15 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right. 1931.
Provenance: Rehn Gallery, New York; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: College Art Association, New York, with the label on the frame back.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Louis lozowick (1892-1973)
57th Street.
Lithograph. 374x190 mm; 14¾x7½ inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Signed, dated “ ‘30” and titled in pencil, lower margin. Printed by George Miller, New York. 1929.
A superb, luminous impression of this scarce lithograph, with strong contrasts and all the details distinct. Flint 26.
In the 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression, Lozowick turned toward depicting the social reality of New York City and its residents who were affected by economic despair. He also worked for public programs that supported artists, such as the New York Graphic Arts Division of the WPA and the Treasury Relief Art Project creating numerous prints and, most notably, in 1936, a mural for the New York City General Post Office.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Louis lozowick (1892-1973)
Above the City.
Lithograph. 435x195 mm; 17x7¾ inches, full margins. Signed “Louis Lozowick (A.L.)” and numbered 100/200 by the artist’s wife in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Burr Miller, New York. 1932.
A very good impression. Flint 88.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Ernest fiene (1894-1965)
City Lights (Madison Square Park, New York).
Etching and drypoint. 303x233 mm; 11⅞x9⅛ inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Signed in pencil, lower right. 1932.
A very good impression.
Fiene, born in Germany, came to the United States in 1912, and settled in New York City, spending the majority of his life and career split between there and Woodstock. Known for his scenes of New York, during the WPA years, Fiene worked as a muralist on projects such as the Canton, Massachusetts Post Office and a set of four oil on canvas murals for The Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior in Washington, DC.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Louis lozowick (1892-1973)
Distant Manhattan from Brooklyn.
Lithograph. 202x334 mm; 8x13¼ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 200. Published by the American Artists Group, New York. 1937.
A very good impression. Flint 145.
In the 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression, Lozowick turned toward depicting the social reality of New York City and its residents who were affected by economic despair. He also worked for public programs that supported artists, such as the New York Graphic Arts Division of the WPA and the Treasury Relief Art Project creating numerous prints and, most notably, in 1936, a mural for the New York City General Post Office.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Werner drewes (1899-1985)
Three woodcuts.
Skyscrapers. 340x215 mm; 13⅜x8½ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered I/XXX. 1930 * Self-Portrait. 410x295 mm; 16⅛x11½ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered I/XXX. 1932 *It Can’t Happen Here. 155x262 mm; 6⅛x10¼ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered I/XXXV. From the same-titled portfolio. 1934.
Very good impressions. Rose 48, 78 and 97.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Harry gottlieb (1895-1922)
Statue of Liberty.
Color screenprint. 392x478 mm; 15⅜x18¾ inches, full margins. Artist’s proof. Signed, inscribed “artist’s proof” and numbered 1/1 in pencil, lower margin. Circa 1945.
A very good impression of this scarce screenprint.
Gottlieb was born in Bucharest, but immigrated to Minnesota with his family when he was twelve years old and studied at the Minneapolis Institue of Art. He served as an illustrator for the Navy during World War I, then moved to New York City where, influenced by the Ashcan School, he began painting in a social realist style. In 1935, he joined the Federal Art Project in the Silk Screen Unit where he was first introduced to the silkscreen method of printmaking. The WPA was integral in the promotion of silkscreening as an artistic technique; developed in the early 1900s it had been used mostly for commercial purposes. Gottlieb continued to be a pioneer of the medium beyond his work with the WPA.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Robert philipp (1895-1981)
In Central Park, NY.
Oil on masonite board. 356x597 mm; 14x23½ inches. Signed in oil, lower right. Circa 1938.
Exhibited: Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS, The Neglected Generation of American Realist Painters: 1930-1948, May 2 - June 14, 1981.
Literature: Wooden, Howard E., The Neglected Generation of American Realist Painters: 1930-1948,1981, illus., p.48.
Robert Philipp participated in the Easel Project division of the WPA/FAP.
Provenance: Raydon Gallery, New York, with the label verso; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Bertram hartman (1882-1960)
Repairs on a Steeple.
Oil on canvas. 915x685 mm; 36x27 inches. Signed in oil, lower center recto.
In 1939, Hartman completed his mural, View from Johnson's Bluff, for the Dayton Post Office, Dayton, TN. The mural is still in place, however the post office facilities are now used to house Dayton Water and Electric. This project was funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA).
Provenance: [Doyle, New York, February 28, 2007, lot 3018]; Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Frank di gioia (1900-1981)
Day.
Oil on canvas. 1015x765 mm; 40x30 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto. 1950.
Frank di Gioia created a companion piece to this painting, titled Night, measuring the same as this painting. Night is in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, and was gifted to the collection by Mrs. John W. Ames, 1961, (1961:1).
Provenance: Milch Galleries, New York, with the label on the stretcher; [Hindman, Chicago, September 11, 2011, lot 132]; Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Louis ribak (1902-1979)
City at Night.
Oil on linen. 305x610 mm; 12x24 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. Circa 1940s.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Joseph solman (1909-2008)
New York Nocturne, Sixth Avenue.
Gouache on black wove paper. 262x365 mm; 10¼x14⅜ inches. Initialed twice in ink and gouache, lower right recto and titled in white pencil verso. 1936.
Sidney Paul Schectman was the co-owner of Mercury Galleries, New York and was instrumental in exhibiting The Ten, a group of New York Expressionist painters (also called the “Whitney Dissenters,” including Ben-Zion, Ilya Bolotowsky, David Burliuk, Earl Kerkam, Mark Rothko, Louis Shanker, and Joseph Solman in the mid to late 1930s.
Provenance: A.M. Adler Fine Arts, Inc., New York, with the label; Collection of Sidney Paul Schectman and Helen Schectman, New York; sold Swann Galleries, New York, June 14, 2014, sale 2354, lot 178; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: Cornell Collects: A Celebration of American Art from the Collections of Alumni and Friends, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York, August 21-November 4, 1990, number 134, with the label.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Jules halfant (1909-2001)
Gryphon Peddlar, Harlem.
Oil on canvasboard. 305x406 mm; 12x16 inches. Signed, Halfant, lower left. Signed, Jules Halfant, and inscribed, 0-1375, verso.
Exhibited: “The New York Group,” ACA Gallery, New York, 1938.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Claude clark (1915-2001)
Old Swedes’ Church.
Lithograph. 292x228 mm; 11½x9 inches, full margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Published by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), PA. 1940.
Another impression of this scarce WPA print is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Isaac friedlander (1890-1968)
Ruins in Brooklyn.
Etching. 175x240 mm; 7x9½ inches, full margins. Artist’s proof. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed “Trial proof No. 4” in pencil, lower margin. 1939.
A superb, richly-inked impression of this very scarce etching.
Friedlander was born in Latvia. In 1912, he went to Italy where he met and worked with the Russian artist Maxim Gorky. During this period he also received his only art training, studying etching, drawing and relief printing at the Academy of Rome. In 1937, he emigrated to New York where he worked full time as an artist until his death. He is best known for his woodcuts and etchings, many of which are embued with a sharp social commentary reflecting the despair of the WPA era. His work is in many major American museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, and the Brooklyn Museum, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Will barnet (1911-2012)
Swing Shift.
Etching and aquatint. 249x270 mm; 9⅞x10⅝ inches, wide margins. Artist’s proof, aside from the edition of 30. Signed and inscribed “Artist’s Proof” in pencil, lower margin. Printed and published by the artist, New York. 1937.
A superb, richly-inked impression of this etching made by Will Barnet while he was working as a printer in the Graphic Division of the Federal Art Project in New York. Szoke 41.
Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, Barnet attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston from 1928-30. He later won a 3 year scholarship to the Art Students League, New York, where he focused on printmaking. Throughout his career, he mastered a variety of techniques, including etching, woodcut and lithography. An extremely dynamic artist, Barnet changed his style significantly throughout his career. His earliest graphic works captured the social and economic despair which resulted from the Great Depression; during these years he also worked for the WPA, producing prints for the graphics arts division.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
William gropper (1897-1977)
Sweatshop.
Lithograph. 240x305 mm; 9½x12 inches, wide margins. Edition of 300. Signed in pencil, lower right. Printed by George C. Miller & Son, New York. Published by Contemporary Print Group, New York. From The American Scene, no. 2. 1934.
A very good impression.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Alicia wiencek (fiene) (1918-1961)
The Painter.
Oil on board. 610x457 mm; 24x18 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right, recto. Signed, titled and inscribed “215 West 57th Street, New York City” in pencil, verso. 1936.
Wiencek was a muralist in the WPA - she painted the mural North Carolina Cotton Industry in 1937 for the Mooresville Post Office, NC, now in the Moorseville Graded School District for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. She also assisted the artist Louis Fiene, whom she later married, on two WPA murals - one for the post office in Canton, Mass., and the other in the Department of the Interior Building, Washington, DC.
A native of Chicopee, Massachusetts, Winecek studied at the Art Students League of New York. Her paintings were exhibited at the International Carnegie Institute, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the National Association of Women Artists and the National Academy of Design. Fiene was also a member of the National Association of Women Artists.
Provenance: Private collection, Washington, DC.
Exhibited: Annual Exhibition for Michigan Artists, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI, with the label verso.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Alicia wiencek (fiene) (1918-1961)
Mural Study, (Cane Workers).
Oil on Masonite. 610x610 mm; 24x24 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left. 1937.
Provenance: Private collection, Washington, DC.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Albert gold (1916-2006)
Fish Packing, Crisfield, MD.
Watercolor on paper. 330x463 mm; 13x18¼ inches. Signed, Albert Gold, lower left. 1938.
Provenance: The artist; private collection, Georgia; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Albert gold (1916-2006)
Circus Workers.
Pencil and watercolor on paper. 495x648 mm; 19½x25½ inches. Signed, Albert Gold, lower right. 1939.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist, 1990; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$400 – $600
James turnbull (1909-1976)
Coal Miner’s Locker Room, West Virginia.
Watercolor on paper. 394x285 mm; 15½x11¼ inches. Signed, Jim Turnbull, lower left. Inscribed, #72, on verso. 1941.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Harry sternberg (1904-2001)
Blast Furnaces #1.
Etching and aquatint. 300x212 mm; 11⅞x8⅜ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1937.
A very good impression.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Harry sternberg (1904-2001)
Steel Workers.
Color screenprint. 550x280 mm; 21½x11 inches, full margins. Signed in ink, lower right. 1950.
A very good impression with strong colors.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Claude clark (1915-2001)
Drill Press.
Carbograph (carborundum etching) on cream wove paper. 241 mm; 9½ inches diameter (tondo), wide margins. Signed in ball point pen and ink, lower right. Published by the Pennsylvania Art Program, WPA, Philadelphia. 1941.
A very good, dark impression. We have found only one other impression of this scarce WPA print at auction in the past 20 years.
Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection, Texas.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Claude clark (1915 - 2001)
Tanning a Machine Gun Barrel.
Lithograph on cream wove paper. 254x330 mm; 10x13 inches, 1¼-inch margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower edge. Published by Works Progress Administration (WPA), Federal Art Project, Philadelphia. 1941.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Edward arthur wilson (1886-1970)
Two lithographs.
Hard Work. 280x330 mm; 11x13 inches. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Circa 1940 * Pipe Jungle. 280x334 mm; 11x13¼ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered 15/50 in pencil, lower margin. 1941.
Both very good impressions.
Wilson was born in Glasgow and moved to New York as a young man in 1893. Wilson was a sought-after illustrator of over 77 books and an accomplished printmaker. His WPA prints depicted the heroic efforts of industrial workers.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Edward arthur wilson (1886-1970)
Two lithographs.
Raising a Pipe. 285x316 mm; 11¼x12½ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower margin. 1941 * Pipe Jungle. 280x334 mm; 11x13¼ inches, full margins. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin. 1941.
Both very good impressions.
Wilson was born in Glasgow and moved to New York as a young man in 1893. Wilson was a sought-after illustrator of over 77 books and an accomplished printmaker. His WPA prints depicted the heroic efforts of industrial workers.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Raphael soyer (1899-1987)
Waitresses.
Lithograph. 292x240 mm; 11½x9½ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1954.
A very good impression. Cole 71.
Soyer is known for his social realist depictions of daily life around New York City. He participated in the WPA as a muralist, completing the murals at the Kingsessing Station Post Office in Philadelphia with his brother Moses (1899-1974) in 1939, and painting two murals for the Queens Borough Public Library in 1936. He was also engaged as a printmaker, and the WPA published many of his lithographs during that time.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Josef presser (1907-1967)
Stevedores.
Charcoal, pastel and gouache on cream wove paper. 507x339 mm; 20x13⅜ inches. Signed in charcoal, lower right. Circa 1940.
Sold Swann Galleries, New York, June 4, 2009, sale 2182, lot 115.
Born in Lublin, Poland, Presser (1907-1967) attended the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and thereafter maintined residency in the American northeast. He was a member of the Philadelphia Watercolor Club as well as the New Haven Paint and Clay Club.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Robert gildersleeve (1924 - )
Mural Study.
Gouache and pen and ink on buff wove paper. 355x483 mm; 14x19 inches. Signed in ink, center edge, and signed and dated "1/32/20" in ink, lower right. 1932.
Provenance: the Michael and Marilyn Gould collection, Connecticut; thence by descent, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$200 – $300
Charles turzak (1899 - 1985)
Harvest.
Gouache and pencil on wove paper. 95x483 mm; 3¾x19 inches. Signed in ink, lower right. Circa 1935.
Provenance: Susan Teller Gallery, New York, with the label on the frame back; the Michael and Marilyn Gould collection, Connecticut; thence by descent, private collection, New York.
Exhibited: American Modern Art, 35th Annual Wilton Historical Society Antiques Show, Wilton Historical Society, Wilton, CT, March 2002; The Michael and Marilyn Gould Collection of American Modern Art (1918-1949), New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, July 13-November 4, 2007, with the labels on the frame back.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Michael loew (1907-1985)
Project for Mural, Agriculture.
Tempera on black illustration board. 355x578 mm; 14x22¾ inches. Signed, Michael Loew, and inscribed as titled on label affixed to frame backing.
Michael Loew was awarded mural projects funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA), completing the Amherst, OH Post Office in 1941, and the Belle Vernon, PA Post Office in 1942.
Provenance: Private collection, Washington, DC.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Lois north (b. 1908)
Life of Hiawatha, (Pair of Mural Studies).
i) Charcoal and graphite on paper. 24x52 inches. ii) Charcoal, graphite, and colored pencil on paper. 23x50 inches.
These drawings are studies for a mural completed by Lois North for the Edgewood School Library, New Haven CT. The mural was exceuted in tempera on plaster, and measured six feet three inches high by fifty-seven feet three inches wide. The mural was destroyed in 1997.
Estimate
$700 – $900
James daugherty (1887-1974)
Maquette for the Social Room of Fairfield Court Housing Project, Stamford, CT..
Gouache on thin artist board, on four separate panels. 222x610 mm; 8¾x24 inches (2); 222x394 mm; 8¾x15½ inches (2). Each with the artist's estate ink stamp, verso. 1936.
James Daugherty completed many murals in the state of Connecticut under the Public Works Art Project, (PWAP), including: Junior Senior High School, (now Town Hall) Darien, CT; Stamford High School, Stamford, CT. He also created a mural for the Greenwich Town Hall under the Federal Arts Project, (FAP), completed in 1935. This mural now hangs in the Greenwich Public Library, Greenwich, CT. His one project awarded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA) was completed in 1939 for the Virden, IL Post Office.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,000
James daugherty (1887-1974)
Untitled (Mural Study/Summer Activities)..
Watercolor, charcoal and pencil on cream wove paper. 356x535 mm; 14x21 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, upper left recto. With the artist’s estate ink stamp, lower left verso. 1930.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
James daugherty (1887-1974)
Untitled (Study for a Mural/Flat Tire).
Watercolor, gouache and pencil on cream wove paper. 317x330 mm; 12½x13 inches. With the artist’s estate ink stamp, lower right verso. Circa 1935-37.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
James michael newell (1900 - 1985)
Two Mural Studies.
Color pastels, wash and crayon on wove paper. Both 114x368 mm; 4¼x14½ inches. Circa 1938-39.
Newell was a WPA muralist in the New York Federal Art Project who worked in fresco.
Provenance: the Michael and Marilyn Gould collection, Connecticut; thence by descent, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$200 – $300
Jean swiggett (1910-1990)
Exploration and Mining, Kellogg, Idaho, (Mural Study).
Pencil and watercolor on artists board. 400x921 mm; 15¾x36¼ inches. Signed, Jean Swiggett, lower right. Inscribed, Kellogg, Idaho / oil on canvas, on verso.
There is no evidence this mural nor any other was executed for a project in Kellogg, Idaho. Jean Swiggett was awarded two other murals: while working under the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, Local Industry, a work on canvas, was completed in 1940 for the Franklin Post Office, Franklin, IN, and in 1938 under the Federal Art Project, Swiggett and Ivan Bartlett completed a casein tempera fresco for the Longbeach Polytechnic High School titled, Industrial Activities in Long beach.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Twentieth century school
Mural Study, Five Panels.
Gouache and pencil on wove paper. (1-2) approx. 95x337 mm; 4¼x13¼ inches; (3-5) approx. 95x362 mm; 4¼x14¼ inches. Circa 1937-40.
Provenance: the Michael and Marilyn Gould collection, Connecticut; thence by descent, private collection, New York.
Exhibited: The Michael and Marilyn Gould Collection of American Modern Art (1918-1949), New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, July 13-November 4, 2007, with the label on the frame back.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Robert l. lambdin (1886-1981)
Sketch for Proposed Mural Panel, the Beekman Downtown Hospital.
Gouache on paper. 95x362 mm; 11x14 inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto. Signed and titled in ink, on the artist’s label on the frame back. Circa 1937-40.
Provenance: the Michael and Marilyn Gould collection, Connecticut; thence by descent, private collection, New York.
Exhibited: The Michael and Marilyn Gould Collection of American Modern Art (1918-1949), New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, July 13- November 4, 2007, with the label on the frame back.
Estimate
$500 – $700
Anton refregier (1905-1979)
The ‘34 Strike: Calling out the National Guard.
Color screenprint. 205x460 mm; 8x18⅛ inches, full margins. Proof, likely from an unrealized edition. Titled in pencil, lower left and inscribed “L Gilbert” in colored pencil, lower right. Circa 1948.
A very good impression of this extremely scarce screenprint with strong colors.
We have not found another impression at auction in the past 30 years.
Based on the dockworkers’ strike in San Francisco in 1934, one of the subjects of Refregier’s 1941-48 mural entitled “History of California” for the Rincon Annex Post Office in San Francisco commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Art.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Hugo gellert (1892-1985)
Two prints.
Roosevelt and his Two Wives, lithograph. 305x295 mm; 12x11½ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. From Aesop Said So. Circa 1936 * Curse of the Modern World, screenprint and lithograph. 415x335 mm; 16⅜x13⅛ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 54. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by International Workers Order. From Century of the Common Man: Two Speeches by Henry A. Wallace. 1943.
Very good impressions.
Gellert was born in Budapest and immigrated to New York in 1906. He studied at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. During World War I, he became interested in politics and began making illustrations for radical political publications. A member of the Communist Party of America, he focused his career on making artwork that was accessible to the public, such as illustrations in newspapers and magazines, murals and posters. In 1938, he painted the murals at the Communications Building at the New York World’s Fair; during the fair’s planning he also oversaw he formation of a labor union to protect the rights of artists as it was being planned. He continued to remain loyal to the Communist Party throughout his career and life, founding the American Artist’s Congress, a Communist organization, and eventually facing investigation by the House of Un-American Activities Committee.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
William gropper (1897-1977)
“Wage Standard.”
New Deal/WPA-themed political cartoon published in Freiheit. Pen and ink with wash on paper. 394x285 mm; 15½x11¼ inches, sheet. Signed "Gropper" in lower right.
Provenance: Collection of the artist, thence by descent.
Estimate
$400 – $600
William gropper (1897-1977)
“WPA Wage Cuts” * “Economize! Cut W.P.A..
Together, two New Deal/WPA-themed political cartoons published in Freiheit. Pen and ink with blue pencil tracing on paper. First measures 390x286 mm; 15¼x11¼ inches, sheet, unsigned. Second measures 290x387mm; 11½x15½ inches, sheet, signed “Gropper” in lower right. Both with blue pencil printing notations in margins.
Provenance: Collection of the artist, thence by descent.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
William gropper (1897-1977)
“Down with the New Deal-We’ll Fight Roosevelt-Cut the W.P.A.”
New Deal/WPA-themed political cartoon of Uncle Sam getting head-smacked by anti-Dealers, published in Freiheit. Pen and ink with wash on paper. 407x293 mm; 16x11½ inches, sheet. Signed “Gropper” in lower right.
Provenance: Collection of the artist, thence by descent.
Estimate
$400 – $600
William gropper (1897-1977)
Untitled (Four Men Seated at a Table).
Gouache on cream wove paper. 635x508 mm; 25x20 inches. Signed in gouache, lower right. Circa 1940.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$700 – $900
William gropper (1897-1977)
Destruction.
Oil on canvas. 405x507 mm; 16x20 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Eugene higgins (1874-1958)
Revolution.
Charcoal and pastel on paper. 381x610 mm;15x24 inches. Signed in charcoal, lower center edge. Circa late 1930s.
Exhibited: Clayton-Liberatore Gallery, NY, 1971, Eugene Higgins: Exhibition of Oil Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Etchings, illus. plate 6 in the accompanying catalog.
Eugene Higgins was born and raised in Missouri and studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts before continuing his studies in Paris at l'École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian. In Paris, his painting was greatly influenced by the realist masters Jean-François Millet and Honoré Daumier. After returning to the United States, Higgins set up his studio in New York. He worked in a social realist style, while depicting sympathetic portrayals of the downtrodden. In the late 1930s and early 1940s he was engaged by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts to paint murals in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee and Shawano, Wisconsin.
Provenance: Clayton-Liberatore Gallery, New York, with label on the frame back; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Harry sternberg (1904-2001)
Enough.
Aquatint. 380x300 mm; 15x11¾ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1947.
A very good impression.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Remo farruggio (1904-1981)
Surrealist Landscape with Christ.
Oil on canvas. 610x762 mm; 24x30 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto. 1945.
Provenance: Zero Mostel, New York, thence by descent; sold Swann Galleries, New York, June 7, 2007, sale 2117, lot 75; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Ivan “le lorraine” albright (1897-1983)
Self Portrait at 55 East Division Street.
Lithograph. 363x260 mm; 14¼x10¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1947.
A superb, richly-inked impression. Grayson 13.
Albright was a native of Chicago and an American painter, sculptor and printmaker most renowned for his self-portraits, character studies and still lifes. He honed a fiercely independent style which focused on highlighting the minute detail and texture of every surface, often requiring him to spend years or even decades on a single work. Though he worked under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) in 1933-34 and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for a few months in 1936, Albright generally seemed to disdain the contemporary work of many other American Regionalist and Realist artists who worked in these governement supported programs. His oil on canvas, The Farmer’s Kitchen, 1933-34, now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, which comes closest to capturing the feeling in the works of American Regionalist artists, shows a weary woman seated and peeling a bunch of radishes in a hard-scrabble farm kitchen. The scene is almost a parody of works by Grant Wood (1891-1942) or John Steuart Curry (1897-1946). Albright summed up his view of the American Regionalists popular at the time, observing, “There is that group of American Sceners whose pictures are more news bulletins than art. They picture the tornado, the flood, the drought lands, the TVA, but pathetically enough are six months behind the newspaper headlines and photographs.”
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Ivan “le lorraine” albright (1897-1983)
Fleeting Time Thou Hast Left Me Old.
Lithograph. 347x243 mm; 13⅝x9⅝ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1945.
A very good impression. Grayson 11.
Albright was a native of Chicago and an American painter, sculptor and printmaker most renowned for his self-portraits, character studies and still lifes. He honed a fiercely independent style which focused on highlighting the minute detail and texture of every surface, often requiring him to spend years or even decades on a single work. Though he worked under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) in 1933-34 and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for a few months in 1936, Albright generally seemed to disdain the contemporary work of many other American Regionalist and Realist artists who worked in these governement supported programs. His oil on canvas, The Farmer’s Kitchen, 1933-34, now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, which comes closest to capturing the feeling in the works of American Regionalist artists, shows a weary woman seated and peeling a bunch of radishes in a hard-scrabble farm kitchen. The scene is almost a parody of works by Grant Wood (1891-1942) or John Steuart Curry (1897-1946). Albright summed up his view of the American Regionalists popular at the time, observing, “There is that group of American Sceners whose pictures are more news bulletins than art. They picture the tornado, the flood, the drought lands, the TVA, but pathetically enough are six months behind the newspaper headlines and photographs.”
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
George biddle (1885-1973)
Three Beggars.
Oil on canvas. 762x508 mm; 30x20 inches. Signed, Biddle, and dated, 1929, lower right. Signed, Biddle, inscribed, 203, and as titled on verso.
The Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA) awarded two mural projects to George Biddle: in 1936 he completed Society Freed through Justice, as part of a large arts project at the Kennedy Department of Justice Building, Washington, D.C.; and in 1939 he created three panels for the New Brunswick Post Office, New Brunswick, NJ.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Isaac soyer (1902-1981)
The Refugee.
Oil on canvas. 812x607 mm; 32x24 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto and verso.
Provenance: Private collection, Philadelphia; thence by descent to currrent owner, private collection, Philadelphia.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Abram tromka (1896-1954)
The Tailor.
Oil on artists board. 285x235 mm; 11¼x9¼ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Estimate
$400 – $600
William gropper (1897-1977)
Despair.
Oil on canvas. 402x505 mm; 15¾x19⅞ inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Working in oil on canvas, Gropper completed three mural projects: Two canvases for the Freeport, New York Post Office, 1938; Three canvases for the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior building, Washington, DC, 1936-7 and installed in 1940; One canvas, painted for the Northwestern Branch post Office, Detroit, later moved and installed at Wayne State University Student Center, Detroit, Michigan.
Provenance: Private collection, Philadelphia; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, Philadelphia.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Elizabeth olds (1897-1991)
Harlem W.P.A. Street Dance.
Gouache on paper. 350x572 mm; 13¾x22½ inches. Signed, Elizabeth Olds, lower right recto . Circa 1937.
With a painting of a steel mill scene on the verso.
This double-sided art work relates to the same-titled 1937 lithograph Olds created for the Federal Art Project, and is most probably a preliminary work made before the print was excecuted.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Ward lockwood (1894-1963)
Untitled, (Boy in Winter Hat).
Charcoal on paper. 489x368 mm; 19¼x14½ inches. Signed, WL, lower right.
Remarkably, Ward Lockwood was awarded four mural projects between 1934 and 1942. His first project, funded through the Public Works of Art Project, (PWAP) created murals for the Taos County Courthouse along side Emil Bisttram, Bert Phillips, and Victor Higgins. Second, he and Richard Haines created murals for the courthouse in Wichita, KS, 1935-36 under the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA). Third, he partook in the grand decoration project of the Clinton Federal Building, 1937, (TSFA). Fourth, He created a mural for the Hamilton, TX Post Office, 1942, (TSFA).
Estimate
$500 – $700
Lawrence lebduska (1894-1966)
Untitled.
Oil on card laid to Masonite. 356x215 mm; 14x8½ inches. Signed, Lebduska, and dated, 59, lower left. 1959.
Provenance: The Collection of Gladys and Tully Filmus; thence by descent to the current owner.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Rockwell kent (1882-1971)
Starry Night.
Wood engraving. 177x125 mm; 7x5 inches, full margins. Edition of 1750. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by the Literary Guild of America. 1933.
A very good, evenly-printed and dark impression. Burne-Jones 103.
Kent was a WPA muralist whose commission for the Post Office in Washington, DC (now the Clinton Federal Building) was highly controversial. The mural portrayed Puerto Rico’s first airmail delivery and seemed to sympathize with the cause for Puerto Rican independence. A woman is shown with a letter in Kuskokwim Eskimo dialect that reads “To the people of Puerto Rico, our friends! Let us change chiefs. That alone can make us equal and free!”
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Rockwell kent (1882-1971)
Hero.
Lithograph. 310x230 mm; 12⅛x9 inches, full margins. Edition of 150. Signed in pencil, lower right. 1931.
With– Dirty Deborah. Lithograph. 226x170 mm; 8⅞x6⅝ inches, full margins. Edition of 150. Signed in pencil, lower right. 1933.
Both very good impressions. Burne-Jones 69 and 96.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Rockwell kent (1882-1971)
And Now Where?
Lithograph. 335x240 mm; 13⅛x9⅜ inches, full margins. Published by the American Artists Group, New York. 1936.
A very good impression. Burne-Jones 110.
Kent’s And Now Where? originally appeared to the public in The New York Woman magazine in 1936. Kent was a WPA muralist who was then known for his controversial commission for the Post Office in Washington, DC (now the Clinton Federal Building). The mural portrayed Puerto Rico’s first airmail delivery and seemed to sympathize with the cause for Puerto Rican independence. A woman is shown with a letter in Kuskokwim Eskimo dialect that reads “To the people of Puerto Rico, our friends! Let us change chiefs. That alone can make us equal and free!”
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John steuart curry (1897-1946)
The Plainsman.
Lithograph. 396x245 mm; 15⅝x9⅝ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. A very good impression. 1945. Cole 40.
A key Regionalist at the time the New Deal was implemented, Curry participated as a muralist for the The Treasury Section of Fine Arts, a merit based program rather than a relief program. He was commissioned to create the murals for the Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, DC in 1937, and the Norwalk City Hall, in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1936.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Ben shahn (1898-1969)
Maynardville, Tennessee.
Silver print, the image measuring 165.1x215.9 mm; 6½x8½ inches, the sheet 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, with a Library of Congress hand stamp and numeric notations, in pencil, on verso. 1935; printed circa 1960-70.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Ben shahn (1898-1969)
Scene at Smithland, Kentucky.
Silver print, the image measuring 158.7x215.9 mm; 6¼x8½ inches, the sheet 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, with a Library of Congress hand stamp and numeric notations, in pencil, on verso. 1935; printed circa 1960-70.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Ben shahn (1898-1969)
Study of Man and Woman in Hats.
Gouache and watercolor on wove paper, circa 1935. 405x267 mm; 15 ⅞x10½ inches.
Provenance: the artist; private collection, Tokyo; sold Swann Galleries, New York, May 23, 2002, sale 1937, lot 307; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Margaret bourke-white (1904-1971)
Taxi dancers, Fort Peck, Montana.
Silver print, the image measuring 333.4x431.8 mm; 13⅛x17 inches, the sheet 406.4x508 mm; 16x20 inches, with Bourke-White’s facsimile signature blind stamp and edition notation 23/250, in ink, on recto, and the Life Gallery of Photography/Estate of Margaret Bourke-White hand stamp and her credit, title, negative date, printing notations, and Time In. copyright, in pencil, in an unknown hand, on verso. 1936; printed 1990s.
Fort Peck was a major project of the Public Works Administration (PWA), itself part of the New Deal. Construction of Fort Peck Dam started in 1933, and at its peak in July 1936 employed 10,546 workers. Assigned by Henry Luce to cover the massive New Deal project, Bourke-White photographed the dam, the spillway, and daily life in the surrounding boomtown. Her image Fort Peck Dam, Montana was published on the cover of the inaugural issue of LIFE magazine on November 23, 1936.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,500
Dorothea lange (1895-1965)
Matriarch, South Dakota.
Silver print, the image measuring 257.2x323.9 mm; 10⅛x12¾ inches, the sheet 279.4x349.3 mm; 11x13¾ inches, flush mounted, with Lange’s Euclid Avenue hand stamp, on verso. 1939; printed 1950s.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Arthur rothstein (1915-1985)
Girl at Gee’s Bend, Alabama * Sheepherder’s Camp, Madison County, Montana.
Together, 2 silver prints, the images measuring 228.6x304.8 mm; 9x12 inches, the sheets 279.4x355.6 mm; 11x14 inches, each with Rothstein’s signature, in pencil, on recto, and a numeric notation, in pencil, on verso. 1937 and 1939; printed 1980s.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,500
Arthur rothstein (1915-1985)
Christmas Window, Oswego County, New York * Hotel de Paris, Exterior, Georgetown Colorado.
Together, 2 silver prints, the images measuring 330.2x254 and 266.7x342.9 mm; 13x10 and 10½x13½ inches, the sheets 355.6x279.4 mm;14x11 inches, the first with Rothstein’s signature, on recto, and the second with his signature, in pencil, and credit hand stamp, on verso, each with the title, date, and numeric notations, in pencil, on verso. 1937 and 1939; printed 1970s.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,500
Raphael soyer (1899-1987)
Old Man Warming His Hands.
Etching. 250x150 mm; 9¾x5⅞ inches, full margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Published by the Federal Art Project, Works Progress Administration, New York City, with the ink stamp lower left. 1937.
A very good impression. Cole 45.
Soyer is known for his social realist depictions of daily life around New York City. He participated in the WPA as a muralist, completing the murals at the Kingsessing Station Post Office in Philadelphia with his brother Moses (1899-1974) in 1939, and painting two murals for the Queens Borough Public Library in 1936. He was also engaged as a printmaker, and the WPA published many of his lithographs during that time.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Reginald marsh (1899-1985)
Girl Walking (Elevated).
Lithograph. 270x205 mm; 10½x8 inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1945.
A very good impression. Sasowsky 28.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Daniel celentano (1902-1980)
Pelham Bay.
Oil on canvas. 311x406 mm; 12¼x16 inches. Signed, Daniel R. Celentano, lower center. I nscribed, Pelham Bay, on the stretcher.
This painting relates to a work by Celentano of the same subject, and dated 1935, that is in the Mitchell Wolfson Jr. Collection, Miami Beach, numbered TD1991.133.3.
Provenance: 70th Arts Gallery, Ltd., NY; Private collection, NY, acquired from above March 28, 1980.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
Bathers at a Pier, New York * Bathers Swimming.
Brush and ink and wash on heavy cream wove paper, double-sided. 570x785 mm; 22½x31 inches. Signed and dated in ink lower right on one side of the sheet. 1951.
Provenance: William Benton Collection of Reginald Marsh, Storrs, Connecticut, with the blue ink stamp, lower right on the signed side of the sheet; private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
John sloan (1871-1951)
Sally, Kids and Philip Bathing.
Etching. 152x101 mm; 6x4 inches, full margins. Third state (of 3). The deluxe artist’s edition of 25, aside from the unsigned book edition of 1500. Signed and inscribed “25 JS Proofs” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Charles S. White, New York. Published by the Limited Editions Club, New York. From Of Human Bondage. 1937.
A superb, well-inked impression. Morse 296.
This is from a deluxe illustrated edition of the 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature.
The WPA gave opportunities and financial help to many artists who were struggling during the Depression. Sloan, already an established artist and teacher at the Art Students League (who taught many artists who particapted in the WPA programs), did not fit that profile, but he did participate in the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, which hired well-known artists for its projects. He painted the mural The Arrival of the First Mail in Bronxville in 1846 for the post office in Bronxville, New York. He also created two paintings for the WPA, one The Wigwam, Old Tammany Hall, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the other Fourteenth Street at Sixth Avenue, originally hung the office of U.S. Senator Royal Copeland and now is exhibited at the Detroit Insitute of Arts.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John sloan (1871-1951)
Woman and Child on the Roof.
Etching. 111x151 mm; 4⅜x6 inches, full margins. Eighth state (of 8). Edition of 60 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed "100 proofs" in pencil, lower margin. 1914.
A very good, dark impression with strong contrasts. Morse 169.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Milton avery (1885-1965)
Sleeping Baby.
Drypoint. 138x194 mm; 5½x7⅝ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 43/100 in pencil, lower margin. 1933.
A very good, richly-inked impression. Lunn 4.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Will barnet (1911-2012)
Child Reaching.
Woodcut on Japan. 183x285 mm; 7¼x11¼ inches, full margins. Signed, titled and numbered 58/60 in pencil, lower margin. 1940.
A very good impression. Szoke 83.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Benton spruance (1904-1967)
Introduction to Love.
Lithograph. 263x342 mm; 10⅜x 13½ inches, full margins. Edition of 35 (from the intended edition of 40). Signed, titled, dated and inscribed “Ed 40” by the artist’s estate in pencil, lower margin. With the artist’s initials red ink stamp, lower right. 1935.
A very good impression. Fine/Looney 110.
Spruance was born in Philadelphia, where he studied and remained to work and teach for most of his life. The heart of Spruance’s practice was lithography, and he created over 550 prints over the course of his career. He favored religious themes and modernist abstraction, but during the WPA era he created many prints in the social realist style reminiscent of the Aschan school.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Doel reed (1894-1985)
Two etching and aquatints.
Pastorale. 450x300 mm; 17¾x11¾ inches, full margins. Artist’s proof, aside from the edition of 25. Signed, titled and inscribed “artist’s proof” in pencil, lower margin. 1955 * The Widow’s Place. 290x445 mm; 11½x17½ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 8/30 in pencil, lower margin. 1965.
Both very good impressions. Cohen/Rogers 88 and 105.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Blanche lazzell (1878-1956)
Cape Cod Cottage; The Coffee Pot.
Original carved wood block, double-sided, painted in color inks. 300x360x25 mm; 12x14¼x1 inches. Inscribed “Blanche Lazzell” and titled “108. Cape Cod Cottage 109. Coffee Pot” in ink along the block edges. 1936.
Lazzell carved this block on both sides to make color woodcuts, though she printed from it infrequently before retiring it to its current state as a painted wood block. Impressions printed from either side of this wood block are exceedingly scarce. According to Lazzell’s record book, only 2 impressions of Cape Cod Cottage and 3 impressions of Coffee Pot were printed by the artist. We have not found any impressions from this block at auction in the past 30 years.
Another original carved wood block, double-sided, by Lazzell was sold at Sotheby’s, New York, May 1, 2008, lot 13. Clarkson Blocks 108 and 109.
Lazzell was an American painter, printmaker and designer. Known especially for her colorful woodcuts, she was an early modernist artist, at the vanguard of the avant-garde in American art, bringing elements of Cubism and abstraction into her craft. Lazzell made color woodcuts under the auspices of the WPA during the 1930s, among them one of her most celebrated works, The Blue Jug , 1937, the design of which is similar to The Coffee Pot on one side of the current work. Lazzell was also a participant in a landmakr exhibition of WPA works in 1936, “New Horizons in American Art,” curated by Holger Cahill, who was the national director of the WPA.
Provenance: the artist; gift to her niece, Frances Reed; private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
Nicolai cikovsky (1894-1984)
Interior with Flowers.
Oil on board. 455x355 mm; 18x14 inches. Signed in oil, lower right.
Nicolai Cikovsky was awarded three mural projects. In 1937, he created a large oil on canvas for the Silver Spring Post Office, Silver Spring, MD. He completed four murals for The Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building, Washington, DC, 1938. In 1939, he completed five tempera panels for the Post Office in Townsend, MD. All of these works survive, yet the Silver Springs canvas was moved to a new post office in 1981.
Provenance: Private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Norman barr (1908-1994)
The Yellow Chair.
Oil on linen. 1067x914 mm; 42x36 inches. Signed in oil, lower right. 1940.
Provenance: [Rose Hill Auction Gallery, Ltd., Englewood, NJ, May 19, 2003, lot 172]; Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$500 – $700
Don freeman (1908-1978)
Automat Aristocrat.
Lithograph. 182x210 mm; 7¼x8¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 50. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by the Public Works of Art Project, New York. 1934.
A very good impression. McCulloch 85.
Freeman was born in San Diego, California and studied at the San Diego School of Fine Arts. He moved to New York in 1929, just days before the stock market crashed, and continued his studies at the Art Students League. He developed a social realist style, often depicting life around Times Square. During the 1930s he worked in the graphics division of the WPA. Later in his career he illlustrated and wrote childrens’ book, most famously Corduroy.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Don freeman (1908-1978)
Trickery at the Polls.
Lithograph. 165x241 mm; 6½x9½ inches, wide margins. Edition of approximately only 35. Signed, titled “At the Poles” and dated in pencil, lower margin. 1933.
A very good impression of this scarce lithograph. McCulloch 80.
According to McCulloch, author of the catalogue raisonné of Freeman’s lithographs, the scene is, “At a barbershop/polling place on Clinton Street near Williamsburg Bridge, business was not suspended on election day. In this election a powerful political machine was defeated, and Fiorello La Guardia became the mayor of New York City. A policeman told Freeman, ‘The people is gettin’ educated.’“
Freeman was born in San Diego, California and studied at the San Diego School of Fine Arts. He moved to New York in 1929, just days before the stock market crashed, and continued his studies at the Art Students League. He developed a social realist style, often depicting life around Times Square. During the 1930s he worked in the graphics division of the WPA. Later in his career he illlustrated and wrote childrens’ book, most famously Corduroy.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Robert riggs (1896-1970)
The Pool.
Lithograph. 370x495 mm; 14½x19½ inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Circa 1933.
A very good impression of this large lithograph. Bassham 33.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Robert riggs (1896-1970)
Accident Ward.
Lithograph. 367x482 mm; 14½x19 inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 50. Signed, titled and numbered “16” in pencil, lower margin. Circa 1940.
A very good impression. Bassham 75.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Carl e. pickhardt, jr. (1908-2004)
The Subway.
Lithograph. 255x205 mm; 10x8⅛ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 30. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Circa 1939.
A very good impression.
After graduating from Harvard University in 1931, Pickhardt continued to study art and was awarded the university’s prestegious Bacon Travel Fellowship in 1935 to extend his studies to Europe. The same year, he exhibited drawings at Jacques Seligmann Galleries in New York. After a brief move to New York, Pickhardt returned to Boston in 1940. He married the daughter of Fogg Museum director Edward W. Forbes in 1953. His later works were spontaneous abstractions and explore the randomness of movement.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Fritz eichenberg
The Steps.
Wood engraving. 160x120 mm; 6¼x4¾ inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated “1935” and numbered 64/200 in pencil, lower margin. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1934.
A good impression.
Eichenberg was born in Cologne, Germany and studied at the Municiple School of Applied Arts, Cologne, and the Academy of Graphic Arts, Leipzig. He learned various forms of printmaking during his studies and apprenticed for a printer. He worked as an illustrator in Germany, but in 1933, as Nazi Germany rose to power, he immigrated to the United States. He participated in the Federal Arts Project during the 1930s, and had a succeful career as a book illustrator and teacher at the New School for Social Research, Pratt Institute and the University of Rhode Island.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Guy pène du bois (1884-1958)
Two drawings.
Courtroom Scene. Pencil and pen and ink on cream wove paper. 485x382 mm; 19x15⅛ inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto * The Scholar. Pen and ink on cream wove paper. 195x272 mm; 7¾x10½ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Leslie ragan (1897-1972)
The Scenic Route to New York’s World Fair / New York Central System.
Lithographed poster, backed with Chartex, 1042x686 mm, 41x27 inches. 1939. Forbes, Boston.
An assemblage of scenic captioned snapshots that travelers might see on a trip to New York City to visit the World's Fair, with the iconic Trylon and Perisphere prominently in the foreground. Many of the little views roughly correspond with pre-existing New York Central Line posters, while the other images were actually used on brochures published by the railroad.
Condition B: toned overall; small losses, repaired tears and creases in margins; small scratch and puncture in lower text; errant ink mark along left image; grommets at top of Chartex backing.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Leslie ragan (1897-1972)
New York World’s Fair.
Original watercolor painting on Whatman’s Water Color Board. 584x375 mm, 23x14¾ inches. 1939.
Leslie Ragan created two well-known posters for the New York World’s Fair, one on behalf of the New York Central System, and the other advertising the “Railroads on Parade” spectacle at the fair. Here, Ragan diverges from his railroad theme to create a picturesque and delicately-detailed view of the Trylon and Perisphere, flanked by vignettes of Lower Manhattan in 1789 and 1939. He cleverly breaks through the top border of the painting with the sharp point of the Trylon.
Condition A: minor abrasions in lower right image. Painted on Whatman’s Water Colar Board. Matted and framed.
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
John atherton (1900-1952)
New York World’s Fair.
Color lithograph poster, unbacked, 762x508 mm, 30x20 inches. Grinnell Litho. Co., Inc., New York. 1939. This is the larger format.
Atherton was a graphic designer and a surrealist painter. While he designed numerous covers for The Saturday Evening Post, Fortune and Holiday magazines, his output of posters was rather small; he is best remembered for this poster he designed for the New York World's Fair. He also designed at least two World War II posters.
World of Tomorrow p. 218, Streamline p. 75.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
John atherton (1900-1952)
New York World’s Fair.
Color lithograph poster, unbacked, 508x340 mm, 20x13⅜ inches. Grinnell Litho. Co., Inc., New York. 1939.
This is the smaller format. World of Tomorrow p. 218, Streamline p. 75.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Joseph binder (1898-1972)
New York World’s Fair.
Color lithograph poster, unbacked, 762x508 mm, 30x20 inches. Grinnell Litho. Co., Inc., New York. 1939.
This is the larger format.
A strong Art Deco and Modernist design for the New York World's Fair, featuring "a visual epitomization" of the Trylon and Perisphere rising over a train, ship and the silhouette of New York City (World of Tomorrow p. 218). This design was awarded first prize in the poster competition for the fair in 1938. Joseph Binder studied at the Vienna School of Applied Arts under the great Secessionist, Alfred Roller. He immigrated to America in the mid-1930s, where he created campaigns for United Airlines and the American Red Cross. He designed covers for Fortune and Graphis magazines, and in 1948, was appointed Art Director and Designer for the U.S. Navy.
World of Tomorrow p. 219, Weill 427, Resnick 31, The Poster 304, Affiche Art Deco p. 116, Crouse p. 108, Century of Posters p. 309.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
Joseph binder (1898-1972)
New York World’s Fair.
Color lithograph poster, unbacked, 508x340 mm, 20x13⅜ inches. Grinnell Litho. Co., Inc., New York. 1939.
This is the smaller format.
World of Tomorrow pp. 218 & 219, Weill 427, Resnick 31, The Poster 304, Affiches Art Deco p. 116, Crouse p. 108, Streamline p. 75.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Albert staehle (1899-1974)
New York World’s Fair.
Color lithograph poster, unbacked, 762x508 mm, 30x20 inches. Grinnell Litho. Co., Inc., New York. 1939.
This is the larger format.
Staehle was a popular American illustrator and billboard artist during the mid-20th century, studying art in both Detroit and New York. Here an official "girl guide" to the New York World's Fair, identifiable by the red patch on her arm, is waving "potential fairgoers into the fair" (World of Tomorrow p. 218).
World of Tomorrow cover and p. 218.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Albert staehle (1899-1974)
New York World’s Fair.
Color lithograph poster, unbacked, 508x340 mm, 20x13⅜ inches. Grinnell Litho. Co., Inc., New York. 1939.
This is the smaller format.
World of Tomorrow cover and p. 218.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Arthur c. radebaugh (1906-1974)
New York World’s Fair / United Air Lines.
Poster calendar, with 12 calendar sheets attached at bottom. 692x394 mm, 27¼x15½ inches.
A United Airlines Douglas DC-3 "Mainliner" makes its way across a truncated map of the United States. The plane is flying from the Golden Gate Bridge and the towers of Treasure Island at the San Francisco World's Fair to the New York World's Fair Trylon and Perisphere on the opposite side of the country. Radebaugh's love of the airbrush began with his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. Although virtually unknown in the poster community, he became a prolific illustrator for magazines including Esquire, Fortune, and Motor and produced advertisements for Coca-Cola and United Airlines as well as the auto industry. His trademark style was the ultimate in "luminous Art Deco . . . a sense of industrial design that was both pragmatic and prescient; he took what was cutting edge . . . and made them more elegant, functional and fantastical to behold" (http://arthur-radebaugh.blogspot.com/). This image also appeared as a regular poster (See Swann Sale 2589, Lot 232).
Airline p. 26 (var), Airways p. 45 (var).
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Walter l. greene (1870-1956)
New York World’s Fair / General Electric.
Group of 6 calendar tops and backs. 1934-1941. Sizes vary. General Electric Co. Includes three full-size, 12-sheet calendars for 1934, 1935 and 1941, and three sets of 12-sheet calendar tops, without the calendars at the bottom, for 1938, 1939 and 1940. Illustrations all by Greene.
Walter Greene was the Art Director at General Electric from 1903-1940. He painted images for all of GE’s calendars, and began painting for the New York Central Railroad in 1925 when he took over their calendar project. Images available upon request.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Various artists
New York World’s Fair / [Tower of Light / Atlantic City.]
Two silkscreen posters printed on board. Sizes vary. Circa 1939.
Includes Follow the Tower of Light to the "Brightest Show on Earth"; and Atlantic City / Jersey Coast's No. 1 Host!
Estimate
$400 – $600
Various artists
New York World’s Fair / [International Pavilions and General Advertising].
Group of three full-size posters, a small folded fair map and five small format posters. Sizes vary. 1939-1940.
International posters include Pavijoni Shqipetar; Visit Hungary's Exhibit; and The Yugoslav Participation. Small posters include works by Atherton, Bob Smith and Stanley Ekman.
Images available upon request.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Various artists
New York World’s Fair / [Railroadiana].
Group of two full-size posters, three small format posters, and five railroad flyers. Sizes vary. 1939-1940.
Images available upon request.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Various artists
New York World’s Fair / Company Advertising.
Group of 8 posters for Kodak, Electrified Utilities Exhibit, Goodrich Tires, and Coca Cola. Circa 1939 & Circa 1964. Sizes vary.
Images available upon request.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Designer unknown
Poster Competition New York World’s Fair 1939.
Lithograph brochure mailer, folded 305x229 mm, 12x9 inches. [New York, 1938].
A brochure mailer for Art Teachers, promoting a student Poster Competition for the World's Fair. The contest was open "to all students in Grade Schools, High Schools, Art Schools, Colleges, and Universities, whether under public or private direction, in the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands." Intended to be displayed "on blackboard or bulletin board -- where ever it will most effectively reach your students." Consisting of one page, folded in half, the interior features the rules of the contest printed over a depiction of the Trylon, Perisphere and Helicline. Typed-in address in mailing panel.
Estimate
$300 – $400
Museum expansion project
Pair of diorama boxes.
Weaving Blankets, Navajo * Cultivating Tobacco, Delaware. Both painted plaster or clay scenes behind glass, inside a painted wooden box. Both approximately 216x330x254 mm; 8½x13x10 inches. Both commissioned by the Museum Extension Project, WPA, District 5, with the printed label on the top of the box. Circa 1936-40.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Museum expansion project
Pair of diorama boxes.
Indian Burial, Chinook, with the printed label on the top of the box * Untitled (Grinding Corn). Both painted plaster or clay scenes behind glass, inside a painted wooden box. Both approximately 216x330x254 mm; 8½x13x10 inches. Both commissioned by the Museum Extension Project, WPA. Circa 1936-40.
Operating in 23 states, the Museum Expansion Project of the WPA provided educational visual aids to schools, libraries, local museums, and other similar institutions. The MEP produced sets of dolls clothed in traditional cultural and historical costumes, sets of illustrative prints, and many craft items including models of agricultural and industrial implements, miniature furniture and these boxed dioramas scenes. Many of the artists and craftspeople working for the MEP went unattributed.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Claude clark (1915-2001)
Three Men.
Etching on wove paper. 114x152mm; 4½x6 inches, full margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. 1939.
A very good impression.
This scarce etching is based on Claude Clark’s same-titled 1939 painting of soldiers carrying their wounded compatriots during the Spanish Civil War. Clark also made a carborundum mezzotint entitled Three Men in Spain of the same subject.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
James turnbull (1909-1976)
Troopship Deck.
Gouache on paper. 394x285 mm; 15½x11¼ inches. Signed, Jim Turnbull, lower left. Signed, James B. Turnbull, and inscribed, #58, verso. 1944.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Anatol schulkin (1899-1961)
U-Boat.
Charcoal on thin cream laid paper. 483x635 mm; 19x25 inches. Circa 1941-42.
Shulkin studied at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design in the 1920s. He had early solo exhibitions at the Art Centre Gallery and at the Midtown Galleries in New York. Later, Shulkin produced murals for the Works Progress Administration as well as several important private commissions. His work is found today in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Anatol schulkin (1899-1961)
Blitz: 1942 Style.
Brush and ink on wove paper. 330x508 mm; 13x20 inches. Titled in ink, upper left recto. 1942.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Designer unknown
Make America the Arsenal of Democracy.
Color silkscreen poster printed on card. 356x559mm, 14x22 inches. Pennsylvania Art Program [WPA], Circa 1941.
Using a quotation from President Franklin Roosevelt’s radio fireside chat from December 29th, 1940, Governor of Pennsylvania Arthur Horace James (1939-1943) repurposed the phrase to call for donations to increase his state’s prominence in the arms and munitions manufacturing and the national war effort as a whole. Overall, Pennsylvania played an unparalleled role in war production, putting out enormous amounts of steel, concrete, weapons, aircraft, ships, vehicles and more.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Various artists
[WPA / Thirteenth Naval District / United States Navy.]
Four color silkscreen posters printed on card. 355½x279½ mm, 14x11 inches.
Includes Full Speed Ahead; and The Links that Hold / Pulling Together; Don't Smoke Here; and Production Now!, by Grigmare.
Images available upon request.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Various artists
[WPA / Thirteenth Naval District / United States Navy.]
Three color silkscreen posters printed on card. 355½x279½ mm, 14x11 inches.
Includes Pipe Down! / Some Mug May Hear You, by Grigmare; Stop Destruction / Speed Production; and Disaster / Broadcast Receivers.
Images available upon request.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
Charles f. ramus (1902-1979)
Group of four lithographs.
The Drinkers. 166x235 mm; 6½x9¼ inches, full margins. Signed, dated, titled and numbered 3/10 in pencil, lower margin. With the artist’s monogram ink stamp, lower right (not in Lugt). 1930 * Civilization, 1932. 220x355 mm; 8¾x14 inches, full margins. Signed, dated, titled and numbered 14/35 in pencil, lower margin. 1932 * War Bulletins. 255x315 mm; 10⅛x12⅜ inches, full margins. Trial proof, aside from the published edition of 34. Signed, dated, titled and inscribed “13th Trial Proof” and “1st state Harold Keeler imp.” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Harold Keeler, Denver. Published by Works Project Administration. 1939 * Sweet Adeline. 258x312 mm; 10⅛x12¼ inches, full margins. Signed, dated, titled and inscribed “Harold Keeler imp.” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Harold Keeler, Denver. 1939.
Very good impressions.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
William meyerowitz (1887-1981)
Self-Portrait.
Oil on canvas. 1015x760 mm; 40x30 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. Circa 1930.
Meyerowitz was born in the Ukraine, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1908. While a student at the National Academy of Design in New York, he sang in the choir at the Metropolitan Opera, and music remained an important influence in his work; he would frequent Harlem jazz clubs along with Stuart Davis (1892-1964). In addition to his New York genre scenes, he and his wife, the painter Theresa Bernstein (1895-2002), were involved with the circle of artists in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where they spent their summers painting landscape and maritime scenes.
During the Great Depression, Meyerowitz was a mural painter for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. His work of that era includes “The Post Road in Connecticut,” a 1937 oil on canvas mural still extant in the historic post office in Clinton, Connecticut.
Provenance: acquired from the artist, 1970s by the current owner, private collection, Washington, DC.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Michael loew (1907-1985)
Self Portrait.
Oil on canvas. 718x534 mm; 28¼x21 inches. Signed, Loew, dated, ‘31, and inscribed, Self Portrait, verso. 1931
Provenance: Private collection, Washington, DC.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Kyra markham (1891-1967)
Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah.
Oil on Masonite. 545x645 mm; 21½x25½ inches. Circa 1959.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Thomas hart benton (1889-1975)
Self-Portrait.
Lithograph. 295x245 mm; 11⅝x9½ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 55/100 in pencil, lower margin. Published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York. 1973.
A very good impression of this scarce lithograph. Fath 90.
Benton was already seen as a leader in the Regionalist movement and a celebrated muralist by the time the WPA started the Federal Arts Program. He had been commissioned to paint murals of life in Indiana for the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago, which caused controversy. In 1934, his work was featured on the cover on Time magazine, which legitimized Regionalism as an art movement. His murals were influential for many of the artists hired as muralists under the WPA.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Will barnet (1911-2012)
Portrait of Seymour Lipton.
Pencil on cream wove paper. 185x275 mm; 7⅜x10⅞ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto. 1939.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the current owner; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Joseph solman (1902-2008)
Vera.
Oil on canvas. Signed, JS, center left. 610x508 mm; 24x20 inches.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist, thence by descent to the current owner.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Anatol schulkin (1899-1961)
Group of 3 portraits.
Untitled (Woman Reading), conté crayon on buff wove paper. 495x406 mm; 19½x16 inches. Signed in crayon, lower right recto * Untitled (Young Man Singing), charcoal on cream wove paper. 483x610 mm; 19x24 inches * Untitled (Bearded Man), charcoal on wove paper. 432x356 mm; 17x14 inches. Each circa 1940-41.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Will barnet (1911-2012)
Young Boy Sketching.
Pencil on notepaper, double-sided, with a figure studies in pencil, verso. 302x227 mm; 12x9 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto. Circa 1940.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the current owner; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Leon bibel (1912-995)
Shattered.
Oil on canvas. 610x508 mm; 24x20 inches. With the estate stamp on the stretcher, verso. Circa 1937.
Leon Bibel enroled in the CCC, and was stationed at Fort Winfield Scott, a training and supply facility active from 1933-39. Upon completion of his training and service on the labor division of the New Deal, he enrolled in the Mural Division of the WPA.
Provenance: Estate of the artist.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Leon bibel (1912-1995)
Shattered, (Study).
Ink on paper. 330x254 mm; 13x10 inches. With the estate stamp, verso. Circa 1937.
Provenance: Estate of the artist.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Leon bibel (1912-1995)
The Drama Teacher.
Oil on canvas. 762x610 mm; 30x24 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto. 1938.
Provenance: Estate of the artist.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Irene rice pereira (1902-1971)
Two figure studies.
Kneeling Woman. Charcoal on cream wove paper. 595x360 mm; 19½x14⅛ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto. 1928 * Models in the Studio. Pencil on card. 592x482 mm; 23⅜x19 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto. 1933.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Alexander brook (1898-1980)
Untitled (Seated Half Nude).
Oil on canvas. 407x305 mm; 16x12 inches. Signed A. Brook, lower right recto. Circa 1935.
Alexander Brook contributed two murals to the large art project at the Clinton Federal Building, Washington, D.C., completed in 1939.
Provenance: Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York; Santa Fe East Galleries, Santa Fe; private collection, New Jersey; Christie's East, New York, June 10, 1992, sale 7307, lot 485; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: "A Retrospective of Paintings by Alexander Brook," Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York, November-December 1980, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, September-November 1981; "Alexander Brook," Santa Fe East Art Galleries, May 15-June 30, 1981.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Emil ganso (1895-1941)
Girl on a Bed.
Conté crayons and graphite on cream wove paper. 406x559 mm; 16x22 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto. Circa 1942-45.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Emil ganso (1895-1941)
Sleeping Nude.
Conté crayon and graphite on cream wove paper. 387x579 mm; 15¼x22¾ inches. Signed and dedicated “To Mr. Salpeter, With Regard” in pencil, lower right recto. Circa 1942-45.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Exhibited: Harry Salpeter Gallery, New York, December 1962-January 1963, with the gallery label on the frame back.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
George constant (1892-1978)
Untitled.
Watercolor and pen and ink. 290x210 mm; 11½x8¼ inches. Signed in pen and ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Robert philipp (1895-1981)
Rochelle Expecting.
Color crayons, charcoal and watercolor on buff wove paper. 584x457 mm; 23x18 inches. Signed in charcoal, upper right recto. Circa 1940.
An intimitate portrait of the artist’s pregnant wife, Rochelle.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Arnold blanch (1896-1968)
Untitled, (Seated Nude).
Oil on canvas. 610x762 mm; 24x20 inches. Stamped with artist's estate stamp on verso.
Funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA), Arnold Blanch created three post office murals, in Fredonia, NY, Belden Station, Norwalk, CT, and Columbus, WI.
Provenance: Purchased Treadwell Gallery, Cincinnati, by the current owner, private collection, New York, 2007.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Raphael soyer (1899-1987)
Artist and Model.
Oil on linen. 387x579 mm; 20x16 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto. Circa 1940.
The Graphic Arts Division of the WPA created print workshops. Raphael used these facilities and created prints he exhibited in the Fourteenth Municipal Art Committee Exhibition., October 21 - November 8, 1936. As an early participant in the programs, Soyer played a role in calling for the establishment of the American Artists’ Congress. He was awarded two mural projects: In 1936 he completed two murals for Queens Borough Public Library, Queens, New York; Working along side Moses, the Soyer brothers painted two murals for the Kingsessing Station Post Office, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1939. These murals were later moved to the Philadelphia Metro District Facility, and are no longer on public view.
Provenance: Purchased Sotheby's, New York, April 5, 1995, lot 288, by the current owner; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Raphael soyer (1899-1987)
Untitled, (Standing Model).
Charcoal and watercolor on paper. 578x420 mm; 22¾x16½ inches. Signed, Raphael Soyer, lower right.
Provenance: Purchased Sotheby's New York, March 31, 1994, lot 374, by the current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Moses soyer (1899-1974)
Reclining Nude.
Watercolor and pastel on paper. 340x256 mm; 13⅜x10¼ inches. Signed in pencil, lower center recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Emil ganso (1895-1941)
Seated Girl Reading.
Watercolor, pen and ink on cream wove paper. 406x356 mm; 16x14 inches. Signed in ink and dated in pencil, lower right recto. 1930.
Provenance: Purchased Swann Galleries, New York, May 23, 2002, lot 71, by the current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Moses soyer (1899-1974)
Mother and Children.
Oil on canvas. 1020x865 mm; 40x34 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto and signed and titled in oil verso. Circa 1939.
Provenance: Boyer Galleries, Philadelphia; Siegfried Arndt, New York; private collection, thence by descent; sold Michaan's Auctions, Alameda, California, February 7, 2015, lot 249 to current owner, private collection, Connecticut.
Exhibited: "Golden Gate International Exposition," Palace of Fine Arts (Treasure Island), San Francisco, March-December 1939.
Published: "Living Americans," The Art Digest, Golden Gate Special Number, March 15, 1939, page 46; The American Federation of the Arts, American Painting Today, Oxford University Press, New York, 1939, page 74 (illustrated).
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Irwin hoffman (1901-1989)
Portrait of a Woman.
Oil on canvas. 410x305 mm; 16x12 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: High Point Galleries, Lenox, Massachusetts, with the label on the frame back; Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Eugene speicher (1883-1962)
Untitled, (Girl in Flowered Dress).
Oil on canvas. 686x558 mm; 27x22 inches. Signed, Eugene Speicher, lower right.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Lily harmon (1912-1998)
Paula Laurence.
Oil and graphite on linen. 387x579 mm; 20x16 inches. Signed in pencil, upper right recto. Circa 1940.
Lily Harmon participated in the Treasury Department's easel painting projects.
Provenance: Collection of Charles and Paula Laurence Bowden, NY; Private collection, New York.
Exhibited: Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS, Lily Harmon: Fifty Years of Painting, A Retrospective Exhibition, December 4, 1982 - January 9, 1983, traveling to other venues.
Literature: Wooden, Howard E., Lily Harmon: Fifty Years of Painting, A Retrospective Exhibition, 1983, illus. p. 16.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Lucile blanch (1895-1981)
Nude with Cigarette.
Oil on linen. 914x711 mm; 36x28 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto. Circa 1940.
Provenance: Purchased James Cox Gallery, Woodstock, New York, with the label on the frame back, by the current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Fletcher martin (1904-1979)
The Cigarette.
Oil on canvas. 559x813 mm; 22x32 inches. Signed, Fletcher Martin, upper left.
In the early 1940s Fletcher Martin created three friezes for the facade of the Boundary County Corthouse, Bonners Ferry, ID under the Federal Arts Project, Works Progress Administration, (FAP, WPA). He also completed mural projects for post offices is Lamesa, TX, Kellogg, ID, and San Pedro, CA, all funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA).
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
John theodore johnson (1902-1963)
Stages of Life.
Oil on canvas. 914x1016 mm; 36x40 inches. Circa 1935.
Johnson created one mural for the Garden City, New York Post Office, 1937, and four murals for the Oak Park Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, 1939.
Provenance: The artist; Franklin Lundstrom; Sharon Lundstrom Cook; Treadway Toomey Auctions, Oak Park, Illinois, September 12, 2010, lot 514; Mary and John Theodore Johnson, Jr.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
Burlesk Runway.
Etching. 127x171 mm; 5x6¾ inches, full margins. Third state (of 3). Edition of approximately only 17. Signed "Reginald Marsh (F. M.)" by the artist's wife, Felicia Marsh, in pencil, lower right. 1927.
A very good impression of this extremely scarce etching. Sasowsky 39.
This is Marsh's earliest burlesque etching.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
Rue Blondel #1.
Lithograph on Chine collé. 206x270 mm; 8¼x10⅝ inches, full margins. Edition of 20. Signed and inscribed "20 proofs" in pencil, lower margin. 1928.
A very good impression of this scarce lithograph. Sasowsky 10.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
Minsky’s New Gotham Chorus.
Etching. 227x300 mm; 8⅞x11⅞ inches, full margins. Signed "Reginald Marsh," titled and annotated "State II 7/12" by the artist's wife, Felicia Marsh, in pencil, lower margin. Circa 1936.
A variant of the same-titled etching from 1936. See Sasowsky 170.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
People’s Follies #2.
Tempera on artists board, 1938. Signed, Reginald Marsh, and dated, 1938, lower center. Inscribed, People's Follies #2 / painted by R. Marsh - Nov. 1938 / with egg yolk and dry color, on verso. 553x755 mm; 21¾x29¾ inches.
As one of the leading elders of American art during the New Deal, Reginald Marsh was enlisted in the premier art project funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, to decorate the Clinton Federal Building, Washington D.C.. Twenty-five murals and twenty-two sculptural elements were completed, all having postal themes. Marsh contributed the murals, Sorting the Mail, and Unloading the Mail. The Clinton Federal Building is now home to the Environmental Protection Agency and is not open to the general public. In 1937 Marsh completed a series of New York Harbor subjects in panels along the dome of the U.S. Custom House in lower Manhattan. This project was funded by Treasury Relief Art Project, (TRAP). These murals can still be viewed by the public in their original setting, however the building is now occupied by The National Museum of the American Indian, and in the upper floors are the offices of the New York branch of the National Archives, (guardians of the Reginald Marsh papers).
Provenance: The Alice and Jack Fisher Collection, acquired c. 1960; Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$30,000 – $50,000
Yasuo kuniyoshi (1889-1953)
Wire Performer.
Lithograph. 403x302 mm; 15⅞x11⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Printed by George Miller, New York. 1938.
A very good impression. Davis 75.
Kuniyoshi, born in Okayama, Japan came to the United States in 1906, settling in New York after briefly exploring the West Coast. During the mid-1930s, he worked in the graphics division of the Federal Arts Project while exhibiting his work internationally. Though his work was characterized as poetic and surreal, his fantastic scenes turned somber during World War II while he worked with the Office of War Information.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
William gropper (1897-1977)
Torch Singer.
Oil on wood panel. Signed, Gropper, lower left. 307x230 mm; 12⅛x9⅛ inches. 1936.
Working in oil on canvas, Gropper completed three mural projects: Two canvases for the Freeport, New York Post Office, 1938; Three canvases for the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior building, Washington, DC, 1936-7 and installed in 1940; One canvas, painted for the Northwestern Brach post Office, Detroit, later moved and installed at Wayne State University Student Center, Detroit, Michigan.
Provenance: A.C.A. Galleries, New York, with the label on the frame back; Sotheby’s, New York, March 25, 1997, lot 279; private collection; Heritage Auctions, Dallas, November 12, 2020, lot 27195.
Exhibited:
ACA Galleries, NY, Gropper 1940, Feb. 11 - Mar. 2, 1940
Literature:
1940, Gropper 1940, ACA Gallery, ilus. plate 17.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
William gropper (1897-1977)
Untitled (Dancer).
Gouache, brush and ink on tan wove paper. 457x356 mm; 18x14 inches. Signed in ink, lower right. Circa 1940.
Provenance: Purchased Swann Galleries, New York, September 21, 2001, lot 295, by the current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Emil ganso (1895-1941)
Group of 3 color lithographs.
Burlesque. 300x245 mm; 11¾x9¾ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 25. With the artist’s estate ink stamp, lower right. 1933 * Manhattan Venus, printed on chine collé. 11⅞x16⅝ inches, wide margins. Edition of 6 in this color variation. Signed in pencil, lower right. 1935 * Repose (Girl Reading). 275x540 mm; 10⅞x21¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 15 in this color variation. Signed, titled and inscribed “Ed. 15” in pencil, lower margin. 1937.
Very good impressions. Smith L-12B, L-46G and L-90C.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Robert philipp (1895-1981)
Woman in a Loge.
Oil on canvas. 303x510 mm; 12x20 inches. Signed in oil, verso. Circa 1943.
Philipp painted the same subject for Helen Hayes in “Harriet”, oil on canvas, sold Christie’s East, New York, June 15, 2000, lot 241. Harriet was a play based on the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe wirtten by Florence Ryerson and Colin Clements.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Albert pels (1910-1998)
Untitled, (Balcony Seats).
Oil on Masonite. 508x451 mm; 20x17¾ inches. Signed, Pels, lower right.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Albert pels (1910-1998)
Untitled, (Tuba Player).
Oil on canvas. 762x610 mm; 30x24 inches.
Funded by the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts, Albert Pels completed the following two murals: Normal, Illinois Post Office, Development of the State Normal School, 1938; U.S. Courtroom of the Willminton Post Office, Landing of the Swedes at the Rocks in Willmington, Willmington, Delaware, later moved to the Rodney Square Station Post Office, Willmington, Delaware.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Albert pels (1910-1998)
Downbeat.
Oil on canvas. 762x610 mm; 30x24 inches. Signed, Pels, lower right.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner.
Exhibited: Laurel Gallery, New York, "Albert Pels," January 22-February 4, 1949; National Academy of Design, Annual Juried Exhibition, 1949, number 102.
Published: Breuning, Margaret, "The Sculptural Solidity of Painter Pels," The Art Digest, February 1, 1949, page 17.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,500
Albert pels (1910-1998)
Saratoga Race Track.
Oil on canvas. 508x902 mm; 20x35½ inches. Signed, Pels, and dated, ‘42, lower right. 1942.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Kenneth hayes miller (1876-1952)
The Horse Show.
Oil on linen canvas. 495x597 mm; 19½x23½ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto. 1935.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Exhibited: D. Wigmore Fine Art, New York; Wild Kingdom: 100 Years of Animal Art, Nassau County Museum of Art, New York, November 17, 2018 - March 3, 2019, with the labels on the frame back.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,000
Peppino mangravite (1896-1978)
Summer Pleasures.
Oil on canvas. 597x876 mm; 23½x34½ inches. Signed, Mangravite, lower left. 1939.
Mangravite was awarded three mural projects: In 1937 through the Treasury Relief Art Project, (TRAP) he completed a pair of murals for the Hempstead Post Office, Hempstead, NY; Funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA) he completed two murals for the Atlantic City Post Office, Atlantic City, NJ; and in 1940 under TSFA he completed Development of Jackson Heights, for the Jackson Heights Station Post Office, Flushing, NY. These murals remain in place accept for the Atlantic City project. The post office was demolished, and the murals are purportedly removed and restored awaiting re-hanging in an alternate government building.
Provenance: Acquired from the estate of the artist; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,000
Peggy bacon (1895-1987)
A Few Ideas.
Drypoint. 205x252 mm; 8¼x10¼ inches, full margins. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin. 1928.
A brilliant, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce print. Flint 71.
A Few Ideas represents a scene in the artist George Biddle’s book-filled living room in his house on the Hudson River in Croton, a town close to Cross River, where Bacon and her artist husband, Alexander Brook, had themselves purchased a home in the late 1920s. Tarbell notes, “It is extraordinary how these artists found time to socialize extensively, create art prolifically, and maintain stimulating home lives for their children. Many of the artists shown in A Few Ideas exhibited together in November 1927 at Wanamaker’s Galleries in a show arranged by Edith Halpert of the Downtown Gallery, Holger Cahill of the Newark Museum, and Armin W. (“Pat”) Riley,” (Peggy Bacon, Personalities and Places, Washington, DC, 1975, pages 26-27). Pictured in the scene, left to right, around the table, are Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Mrs. George Biddle (Jane Belo), John Carroll, Louise Hellstrom, George Biddle, Jules Pascin, and Katherine Shubert-Kuniyoshi Schmidt; and left to right across the background, Henry (“Josh”) Billings, Alexander Brook, “Pat” Riley (the future division administrator for the National Recovery Administration; then the manager of Wanamaker’s in New York), Peggy Bacon, Inez Carroll, and Mrs. Riley.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Jack levine (1915-2010)
Election Night.
Etching, drypoint, mezzotint and aquatint. 495x635 mm; 9½x25 inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 50/120 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Emiliano Sorini, New York. Published by A. Lublin Inc., New York. 1969.
A very good, richly-inked impression. Prescott 55.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
J. herbert callister (1913-1980)
Art Week in Boston.
Gouache on paper. 584x483 mm; 23x19 inches. Signed, H Herbert Callister, lower right.
Estimate
$200 – $300
Irving lehman (1900-1983)
Halloween.
Oil on canvasboard. 559x762 mm; 22x30 inches. Signed, I. Lehman, lower left.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Nat werner (1908-1991)
Daphne and the Shower of Gold.
Various welded metals, with a golden patina, mounted on a wooden base. 178x229x38 mm; 7x9x1½ inches. Circa 1940s.
Nat Werner was a member of the Sculptors Guild. He participated in educational programs delivering outdoor lectures on the topic of sculpting techniques.
Provenance: Private collection, Ontario.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Nat werner (1908-1991)
Bull’s Head.
Various welded metals, mounted on a wooden base. 159x133x32 mm; 6¼x5¼x1¼ inches. Circa 1940s.
Provenance: Private collection, Ontario.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Boardman robinson (1876-1952)
Studies of Drapery.
Brush and black and gray ink and wash on cream wove paper. 357x256 mm; 14¼x10¼ inches. Signed and titled in pencil, lower recto, and with the artist’s name and address, 2 East 23rd St., New York, in pencil, verso. Circa 1935-40.
Robinson was born in Nova Scotia and moved the Boston in the early 1890s. After studying art in Boston and Paris, he worked as an illustrator in the early 1900s. His highly political cartoons as well as the general anti-war stance of The Masses, to which he was a frequent contributor, was deemed to have violated the recently passed Espionage Act of 1917, and The Masses had to cease publication, though Robinson, along with his fellow defendants were acquitted on October 5, 1918. Robinson would later go on to teach art at the Art Students League in New York (1919–30) and head the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (1936–47). During the 1920s and 1930s he was also a sought after muralist and some of his murals include A History of Commerce, 1929, a series of ten murals in Kaufmann’s Department Store, Pittsburgh; Man and his Toys, 1932, in the R. K. O. (now American Metal Climax) Building, New York; and Great Figures in the History of the Law, 1937, a series of eighteen fresco panels in the Department of Justice Building, Washington, DC.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
William meyerowitz (1887-1981)
Figural Movement.
Watercolor on smooth tan Japan paper. 373x280 mm; 14¾x11¼ inches. Signed in ink, lower center recto.
Meyerowitz was born in the Ukraine, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1908. While a student at the National Academy of Design in New York, he sang in the choir at the Metropolitan Opera, and music remained an important influence in his work; he would frequent Harlem jazz clubs along with Stuart Davis (1892-1964). In addition to his New York genre scenes, he and his wife, the painter Theresa Bernstein (1895-2002), were involved with the circle of artists in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where they spent their summers painting landscape and maritime scenes.
During the Great Depression, Meyerowitz was a mural painter for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. His work of that era includes “The Post Road in Connecticut,” a 1937 oil on canvas mural still extant in the historic post office in Clinton, Connecticut.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Harry brodsky (1909-1997)
Paper Fantasy.
Lithograph. 346x430 mm; 13¾x17 inches, full margins. Signed, titled and numbered 5/15 in pencil, lower margin. Circa 1940-45.
A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
According to the Terra Foundation, Brodsky is best known for lithograph images of Philadelphia and the surrounding area made in the 1930s and 1940s. A native of Newark, New Jersey, Brodsky graduated from the Philadelphia College of Art and also attended the University of Pennsylvania. In the late 1920s, he painted decorative works in the interiors of movie theaters in Haddon Township, New Jersey, and Ambler, Pennsylvania. In 1934, Brodsky’s work was included in the exhibition “Paintings and Prints by Philadelphia Artists” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and in the following two decades he participated in numerous other shows in national and international venues. His work won a purchase prize at the Brooklyn Museum in 1947, and the following year garnered another prize at Philadelphia’s Print Club, of which he was an active member. During the 1940s and 1950s Brodsky taught at vocational schools in Philadelphia. He later worked as a commercial artist for the Campbell’s Soup Company, for the weekly entertainment magazine TV Guide, and for Philadelphia advertising agencies.
Brodsky created some of the more haunting images of the WPA, particularly in his lithographs, acting as a zeitgeist for the pressing issues of his time and emphasizing themes of social justice in portrayals of workers and the down-and-out in America.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Karl knaths (1891-1971)
Abstraction, (Pair).
i) Oil on paper. 457x457 mm; 18x18 inches. Signed lower right.
ii) Oil on paper. 457x457 mm; 18x18 inches. Signed lower right.
Provenance: Paul Rosenberg Gallery, NY; thence by descent to the current owner.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Karl knaths (1891-1971)
Icarus. and Untitled, (Seascape).
i) Goauche and pencil on paper. 483x604 mm; 19x23¾ inches. Signed lower right. Inscribed as titled, lower left.
ii) Ink and crayon on paper laid to card. 178x210 mm; 7x8¼ inches. Initialed lower left.
Provenance: Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York; thence by descent to the current owner.
Estimate
$700 – $900
Werner drewes (1899-1985)
Composition X—Dynamic Rhythm.
Woodcut on Japan paper. 243x302 mm; 9⅝x11⅞inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered 17/20 in pencil, lower margin. 1934.
A very good, dark impression. Rose 96.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Louis schanker (1903-1981)
Composition with Figures.
Color woodcut on Japan paper. 202x355 mm; 8x14 inches, full margins. Edition of 55 plus 20 trial proofs. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Published by the New York City WPA Art Project, with the ink stamp lower left. 1942.
A very good impression of this scarce color variation. Johnson 27.
Schanker was known for his abstract compositions with bold colors and lines and founded the American Abstract Artists, participating in its first annual exhibition in 1937. While participating with the WPA, Schanker worked as an artist and supervisor in the mural division and the graphics division, eventually becoming the director of the graphic arts division. Between 1937-42 he worked on many woodcuts, many of which were published by the Federal Art Project.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Karl knaths (1891-1971)
Oedipus and Antgone at Colonus, (Double Sided Studies).
Pencil and crayon on paper. 350x425 mm; 13¾x16¾ inches. Signed, K Knaths, and inscribed as titled, lower left.
Karl Knaths painted one mural for the Rehoboth Beach Post Office, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, 1940. This mural was commissioned by the Federal Treasury Section of Fine Arts.
Provenance: Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York; thence by descent to the current owner.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Karl knaths (1891-1971)
Dancing Horse.
Oil on paper. 451x457 mm; 17¾x18 inches. Inscribed as titled on verso.
Provenance: Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York; thence by descent to the current owner.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Ben-zion (1897-1987)
Perfect Leveler.
Oil on canvas. 702x885 mm; 28x34½ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. 1947.
A very similar painting, Perpetual Destroyer, (now in the collection of the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington), was among four Ben-Zion works included in a 1946-48 State Department sponsored project of cultural diplomacy intended to demonstrate to the world America's artistic coming of age. These paintings are discussed and illustrated in a wonderful book, Art Interrupted: Advancing American Art and the Politics of Cultural Diplomacy, (2012) pp. 64-68. The editors write: In 'Perpetual Destroyer,' a tank or bulldozer like apparatus moves on relentless treads over blood-red and blackened barren earth. The detritus accumulated on the machine's path of obliteration has been transformed into added armaments that facilitate its ceaseless path of ruination under a brilliant blue sky. The viewer witnesses powers unleashed and seemingly beyond all control. This description could easily apply to Perfect Leveler.
Provenance: Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Chaim gross (1902-1991)
Seated Mother and Child.
Bronze. 220 mm; 8¾ inches (height, excluding wood base). With the artist’s incised signature, numbered 45/47 and dated lower verso. Cast by Josel Meisner & Co, Plainview, New York, with the foundry mark lower verso. 1976.
Born in Austrian Galicia and uprooted by war, Gross emigrated to New York in 1921, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1933, Gross was employed by the Works Progress Administration’s precursor, the Public Works of Art Project. Gross taught and created sculpture for public buildings and was internationally lauded for his works at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Milton avery (1885-1965)
Rooster.
Woodcut on Japan paper. 245x184 mm; 9⅝x7¼ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered 3/25 in pencil, lower margin. Published by the Collectors of American Art, New York. 1953.
A very good impression. Lunn 50.
After moving from Hartford to attend classes at the Art Students League in New York, Avery befriended fellow students Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman, among others. Avery struggled financially in during the early years of the Great Depression and though he showed at several galleries, including at Temporary Galleries, New York’s municipal art gallery, funded by the city, he only found a small income with few art sales. In 1938, Avery started a brief period as an artist in the Easel Division of the WPA Federal Art Project.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Benton spruance (1904-1967)
Old Owl.
Charcoal on paper. 830x540 mm; 32¾x21½ inches. Intialed in charcoal, lower right recto.
Study for the same-titled color lithograph, 1957.
Spruance was born in Philadelphia, where he studied and remained to work and teach for most of his life. The heart of Spruance’s practice was lithography, and he created over 550 prints over the course of his career. He favored religious themes and modernist abstraction, but during the WPA era he created many prints in the social realist style reminiscent of the Aschan school.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
David burliuk (1882-1967)
Farm Scene with a Woman and Cow.
Oil on canvas. 230x285 mm; 9⅛x11¼ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. Circa 1950.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Nicolai cikovsky (1894-1984)
South Hampton Bay.
Oil on canvas. 514x660 mm; 20¼x26 inches. Signed, N. Cikovsky, lower right. Circa 1960.
Nicolai Cikovsky was awareded three mural projects. In 1937, he created a large oil on canvas for the Silver Spring Post Office, Silver Spring, MD. He completed four murals for The Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building, Washington, DC, 1938. In 1939, he completed five tempera panels for the Post Office in Townsend, MD. All of these works survive, yet the Silver Springs canvas was moved to a new post office in 1981.
Provenance: Dr. Martin H. Bush, Endowment Association Art Collection; Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, gifted from above, accession number 73.27.1.