Catalog (164)

Serge Ivanhoff Nude at her Dressing Table. Conte Crayon Drawing signed and dated Paris 1945. image 9"x12". Serge Petrovitch Ivanoff was born in Moscow in 1893 and showed artistic ability from a young age. On the family’s move to St. Petersburg, he took the opportunity to further his artistic studies by enrolling at the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1917, at the height of the Russian Revolution. The turmoil of the aftermath of these events prompted Serge Ivanoff, with his wife and two young children, to move permanently to Paris in 1922. A talented portraitist, he quickly established himself in Paris and soon had the celebrities of the day commissioning him to paint their portraits, including Pope Pius XI, the dancer and choreographer Serge Lifar, poet Paul Valery, composer Arthur Honegger, and many notable Russian exiles now making their home in Paris. Between 1930 and 1950, he also regularly provided illustrations for the French journal L’Illustration, and painted a series of luminous and lyrical nudes. In 1950 Serge Ivanoff moved to the U.S.A., again specialising in portraiture, including Eleanor Roosevelt and the diplomat Jefferson Caffery amongst his subjects. However, by the 1960s he had returned to Paris where he continued to exhibit regularly at the Salon des Indépendants, receiving a Gold Medal from the Minister of Cultural Affairs, André Malraux, in 1966. Serge Ivanoff died in Paris in 1983.

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

Lantaka a 18th century cast bronze SWIVEL-CANNON “Rail Gun” or “Deck Cannon” solid bronze beautiful details measuring approximately 36 inches long. These cannon were used by the legendary Malay pirates, with small cannon-balls it was a powerful offensive weapon. Lantakas were manufactured during the 17th and early 18th century in Holland by Dutch East India Company for export to Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. Later in the 18th century most of them were cast in Indonesia by Dutch colonists and also by local people. Since the bronze cannons were very expensive they become a symbol of wealth and a form of currency; in fact the more cannon a man owns the greater his wealth.

Vintage American Impressionist Oil Painting on panel of a Swan on Lake by Harry Barton. From the estate of the artist with stamp on the verso. Presented framed in a quality gallery frame. Overall size 20ʺW × 1ʺD × 16ʺH Harry Lang Barton, artist and illustrator May 12, 1908 - August 12, 2001 Born in Cleveland and raised in Seattle, Harry Barton spent his life doing the thing he truly loved--painting. Whether in the Pacific Northwest around Seattle, Hood Canal, and Puget Sound, or in the Art Students League, Central Park, and the parks and beaches of Long Island, or in Pennsylvania and New England (he often summered in Rockport, Massachusetts, and Kennebunkport, Maine), Harry's life was art. Harry's career as an artist embraced almost every medium and a great many genres: from charcoal and pen and ink to watercolor, tempura, and oil; from his early work in Seattle as a silk-screen artist and an illustrator for the Sterling Theatres and the telephone company, to his New York work as an illustrator of Western pulp fiction, detective and mystery novels, and movie and fashion advertisements, and finally to his extensive activity as a portrait and landscape painter. In the spring of 1945, he decided to study for the summer at the Art Students League in New York with Frank Reilly, and in the fall of that year he was offered work in New York as an illustrator for Gale Phillips Associates. Moving his family from Seattle, he--along with his wife Pauline and his daughters Joan and Linda--took up residence in Bayside, Queens, and soon moved to the Auburndale area of Flushing, where he had his own freelance studio and where he lived the rest of his life. Over the years his illustrations were featured in The Saturday Evening Post, Argosy, Boy's Life, Down East, and American Artist, as well as on movie billboards for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and in fashion advertising for Lord & Taylor and Gertz department stores. But his main body of work as an illustrator can be found in hard-cover and paperback novels published by such major firms as Dell, Ace Books, Dial Press, and Farrar Straus & Giroux. Harry's paintings and sketches were exhibited in the Philadelphia Museum of Art; in the Salmagundi Club, Lord & Taylor, the Smith Gallery, and Illustration House in New York in the Blue Heron Gallery in Wellfleet, Cape Cod; in the Schaff Gallery in Cincinnati; and in Mast Cove Gallery in Kennebunkport. He received a number of prizes for his work, and his paintings are held in private collections in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Harry was a member of the American Artists Professional League, the Salmagundi Club, and the Art Students League of New York, where he kept on working throughout his life, studying with--in addition to Frank Reilly--Samuel Edmund Oppenheini, William Draper, and Everett Raymond Kintsler. Harry loved the Art Students League and was very proud of being a Life Member. His Saturday jaunts to the League continued right up to the time when the League closed for the summer three months before he died. He was fortunate in being able to do what he enjoyed most to the very end

A beautiful pair of original 19th century antique oil paintings in the manner of George Henry Harlow renowned British portrait painter, 1787-1819]. Both Oil on canvas framed in later vintage gold frames. Both paintings have been professionally restored relined cleaned and re varnished. DIMENSIONS 8.5ʺW × 1.5ʺD × 10.5ʺH

A fine Carved Ivory Netsuke of a man carrying the moon on his back signed Giyoku Seki a masterful piece. Measuring 2.5 inches 5.5 centimeters.

An original vintage charcoal drawing of Christmas Carolers in winter snow by William Gropper. Charcoal on paper signed lower right presented matted and framed. Image size 13 x 17" overall framed size 19 x 25". Biography: William Gropper was a painter and political cartoonist who is best remembered for his striking social commentary. He was born in 1897 on the Lower East Side in New York City to a large, poor immigrant family. Due to the family's financial difficulties, Gropper was forced to leave school at a very young age and work in a garment sweatshop with his mother and siblings. Several years later, he enrolled in art classes at the socially progressive Ferrer School where he received instruction from noted Ashcan artists Robert Henri and George Bellows. Gropper later recalled the influence of these men saying, "Right then, I began to realize that you don't paint with color—you paint with conviction, freedom, love and heartaches, with what you have." Following his time at the Ferrer School, Gropper continued his education at the Chase School, later known as Parson's School of Design. After graduation, Gropper briefly illustrated for the New York Tribune, during which time he began contributing to socialist publications, such as The New Masses, Labor Defender and The Nation. In 1924, he began a long career as a regular cartoonist for the Freiheit, a left-wing Yiddish daily newspaper. As his career progressed in the 1930s, Gropper turned his attention more towards painting. In addition to the early influence of Henri and Bellows, he also looked to Cubism for inspiration and incorporated sharp angles and exaggerated figures in his paintings. In the 1930s and 1940s, Gropper completed several murals for New York businesses, and for post offices in Detroit and on Long Island. In 1937, Gropper was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship which he used to travel to the Great Plains and to the Southeast. In 1942, he painted Field Workers, based on sketches made while in the South. It was completed during the height of his career as a painter and the saturated coloring and exaggerated angles are characteristic of his mature painting style. Though Gropper worked in different mediums his subject was always people, and he is often referred to as "the workingman's protector." In an interview, Gropper explained his motivations for exposing the wrongs committed against workers, "That's my heritage. I'm from the old school, defending the underdog. Maybe because I've been an underdog or still am. I put myself in their position. I feel for the people . . . . I become involved."

This image of the Buddha is in a naturalistic style most probably prompted by colonial influences. It has been carved in wood, lacquered and gilded and inset with glass fragments backed with coloured foil (known as hman-zi- shwei-cha) and overlaid thayo work, a process whereby thin, rolled strands of lacquer and ash putty are applied in patterns. The image is in the Mandalay style and shows the Buddha seated in vajrasana, with his right hand gesturing to the earth in the bhumisparsa mudra position. It is probably the most characteristic form of religious sculpture in Burma (Lowry, 1974). The posture, known as 'calling the earth to witness', represents the moment when the Buddha was seated in meditation under the Bodhi tree during the evening before his enlightenment. Mara asked him to name anyone who would give evidence that he had given alms, and the Buddha motioned to the earth with his right hand and said that the earth would bear witness to that - in a previous incarnation when he was known as Vessantara, he had given alms to such an extent that the earth had begun to quake. The image shows the Buddha seated on a low platform or socle and dressed in ample robes with naturalistic folds and pleating. Earlier images of the Buddha across Southeast Asia tended to show the monastic robes in a much more schematic way. The eyes have been inlaid with a white material, usually described as mother-of-pearl, with black pupils probably painted on with black lacquer. The cranial protuberance (unisha) is rounded and the head decorated with tight curls in low relief. Unusually, the curls are arrayed in a pattern on the back of the head, rather than being in a more typical, somewhat random manner. The image has been lacquered with black lacquer and then gilded. Overall, the image is very sculptural and decorative: the naturalistic flow of the robes, and the refinement of the face, are particularly pleasing.37"T x 32"W x 24"D. In good antique condition some minor losses and age cracking.

Original antique European Alpine Village winter scene oil painting by Anton Doll (1826 - 1887. Oil on canvas signed lower left noted painted in Munich framed in original gold gilt frame. Anton Doll began studying law in Munich, before he turned towards painting. In 1852, he became a member of the Munich Art Association that had exhibited his paintings from very early on. Doll was influenced by Carl August Lebschée and Adolf Stademann, and his main subject was the city of Munich. Besides his historical architectural paintings with a few staffage figures, he painted wintry landscapes, clearly influenced by the great Dutch old masters. Today, works by Doll can be seen, for example, in the New Pinakothek in Munich, and in the Graphic Collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.

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

Impressionist nude female oil painting on canvas c.1920s. Presented in a Dutch impressionist parcel gilt wood frame. Canvas measuring 20 x 24 in excellent vintage condition.

A beautiful original antique oil painting of a young woman with flowers by Emile Eisman-Semenowsky Paris circa 1900. Oil on wood panel signed lower left and noted Paris. Presented in the original antique ornate picture frame with name plaque on center bottom. Panel measures 9.5" x 13" overall framed size 21.0" W x 24.5" H x 3.0" D. Emile Eisman-Semenowsky was born in Poland and was of Jewish descent. Little is known about his childhood and education. In the 1880s and 1890s, he spent several years in Paris, where he created the majority of his oeuvre. Semenowsky was influenced by oriental subjects, a widespread phenomenon in French 19th century art. His favorite subjects were depictions of women in oriental and antique-style costumes and genre scenes. His works were very popular among Parisian bourgeoisie, and many of his works were purchased by American collectors.

This attractively proportioned games table is a form famously produced in the Salem, Massachusetts area at the beginning of the 19th Century. The serpentine form with ovolo corners, coupled with richly carved foliate and reeded legs, is a motif used by those cabinetmakers and carvers associated with the successful workshop of Samuel Field McIntire (1757-1811). The hinged serpentine top has a serpentine front and sides with outset ovolo corners. The top rests above a conforming apron with a vibrantly grained mahogany panel. Richly carved and turned legs flank each corner of the apron and the proper right rear leg, swings out to support the flyleaf top. The legs terminating in ornate gilt brass casters.

Beautiful original antique oil painting of a mountain sunset and waterfall by William Keith c.1890 oil on artist panel signed lower left. Presented in a quality contemporary gallery frame 16.5ʺW × 3ʺD × 19ʺH. Good antique condition very fine age craquelure very minor touch ups.. Biography: A native of Scotland, William Keith became in the late 19th and early 20th centuries a leading Northern-California landscape artist. In fact, he was so well known that he is referred to as the "Dean of California painters." His romanticized views of nature found much favor among the culturally aspiring citizens of San Francisco and hung in many foyers and dining rooms in their elegant homes. He completed thousands of paintings and drawings, and many of them were lost in his studio in the fire of 1906. His early works are dramatic mountainscapes in a realistic style adopted from the Dusseldorf School of Germany. The paintings of the last two decades of his life are looser and obviously influenced by his exposure in France to the Barbizon School of landscape painters, who were the first colony of painters to complete paintings "en plein air," or directly from nature rather than in studios. A forerunner of Impressionism, this style also included Tonalism espoused by Barbizon painter Camille Corot [1796-1875] and also apparent in Keith's later works, which are darker, smaller, and much more intimate with emphasis on mood. He married artist Elizabeth Emerson and did watercolor painting with her guidance. In 1868, he became a full-time painter, and that same year was commissioned to paint scenes along the Columbia River including Mount Hood. By August 1869 he had sold enough paintings to finance an extended journey to the East Coast and Europe including Dusseldorf, Germany throughout most of 1870, studying with Albert Flamm. After a visit to Paris, he expressed great admiration for "the modern school of French landscape painting including the Barbizon School. During the winter of 1871-1872, the Keiths lived in Boston where they shared a studio with William Hahn. Keith's work received critical acclaim there and in New York at the National Academy of Design. In 1872, he returned to San Francisco. A friendship with naturalist John Muir exposed Keith to many remote places and in-depth knowledge of nature. During the 1870s, he painted several "epic" eight by ten-foot High Sierra views. He also visited Alaska, and his paintings of Alaska were exhibited upon his return to San Francisco in a show at the Bohemian Club, titled 'Dreams of Alaska'. Keith's Alaska works are significant because they are not close transcriptions of actual scenery, but rather are fantasies inspired by Alaska. They are important as they represent a major break from the documentary tradition in landscape painting of Alaska, as they show an interest in capturing its spirit versus just the topography. In 1891, he shared his studio for several weeks with East Coast Tonalist George Inness, Sr. [1825-1894]. Both men painted in a similar style and were followers of the mystical teachings of Swedenborg. Among the locations where Inness and Keith painted together were Monterey and Yosemite, and it was reported they discussed art from every possible angle. Under Inness' influence, Keith painted more than ever in a Barbizon-influenced vein with many sunset and twilight scenes. By the early 1900s, Keith was likely one of the wealthiest artists in the United States and certainly earned the most money of any California-based artist. People from all over the world sought out his studio where it was said that he would specially select a painting for a client from behind a black velvet curtain, order everyone to be quiet, part the curtains, and set the work on a easel, flooded in light. It was unthinkable not to buy a painting on these occasions. Many of his paintings were shown in New York at the Macbeth Gallery, and in 1898, he had a special exhibition in New York. Keith died April 13, 1911, and his work is in most of the institutions representing major California artists

An original vintage modernist carved wood sculpture of a female form by renowned Indian sculptor Kesavan Appukuttan Achary. Solid wood mounted on a solid wood base signed Appu the name he goes by. Measuring overall 18.5"wide by 11" high. x 5.5" deep. The actual measurements of the sculpture are 13" x 9" x 4". A beautiful example of this artists work. Born in Trivandrum in 1925, Appukuttan ( known as Appu ) (1925-1997) learned drawing and painting from the Ramavarma Drawing and Painting Institute, Trivandrum. In 1957 he joined the Regional Design Centre as a master craftsman for ivory carving and also as an artist of South Indian temple documentation. A number of his ink drawings have been included in ?Pratima Kosha? an encyclopaedia of Indian Iconography-published in VI volumes by professor S.K.Ramachandra Rao and by the Kalpatharu Research Acadamy. Appukuttan Achary received the National Award in the year 1965 for his ivory carving and also 15 awards from various state Lalit Kala Acadamies. His book "Rekha" which is to be published shortly depicts traditional motifs, designs and sculptural forms with a foreword written by the famous author and art critic Sri.Chaithanya.

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

Biography

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

Beautiful original antique American Impressionist oil painting portrait of a woman by Charles Frederick Keller (1852 - 1928). Oil on canvas signed lower right presented in a quality gold gallery frame. Keller was active/lived in New York, Wisconsin. Charles Keller is known for Animal, figure, genre and landscape painting. A painting by Keller recently sold at auction for $4,938 at :Pook & Pook Inc. Decorative Arts Jan. 20 2020 Measures overall framed size 21.5" W x 24.0" H x 2.5" d. canvas is 15" W x 18.0" H. In excellent antique condition.

An original antique photograph of Auguste Rodin's marble statue of cupid. Taken by Rodin's personal photographer Henri Manuel signed by him and dedicated and signed by Auguste Rodin in 1913 with the inscription "With Homage and Respect to Madame E Henry Harryman. Mrs Harryman commissioned a marble bust of her husband by Auguste Rodin and this photograph was given as a gift to her. François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture Henri Manuel (24 April 1874, Paris – 11 September 1947, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a Parisian photographer who served as the official photographer of the French government from 1914 to 1944. In 1900, Manuel opened a portrait studio in Paris with his brother Gaston, which specialised in portrait photography.[2] Manuel quickly became renowned as a photographer of people from the worlds of politics, art and sports, as well as a photographer of art and architecture. Provenance the photograph has the blind stamp of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art on the bottom right. Presented re mated in a archival matte and presented in a quality gallery frame overall size 13 x 17".