Catalog: Sold Items (421)

Biography

Sioma Lifshitz arrived in Shanghai on a freighter from Vladivostock in 1922. The 20 years old energetic Russian jew had no money but lot’s of dreams and soon started to work in a photography studio under the name of Sam Sanzetti. It took him 5 years to open in own studio in 1927, becoming one of the most famous photographer in Shanghai. The studio was first located on 73 Nanking Road (today 73 Nanjing Dong Lu), near the Bund and just behind the Palace hotel (today Swatch Art Peace Hotel). Construction on the Cathay Hotel (today Peace Hotel) was on-going at that time very and the opening in 1929 certainly also helped his business. The central position in the business center allowed him to become the photographer of the rich and famous in Shanghai, surely meeting with other successful business people of the time. His office later moved to 39 Peking Road (today Beijing Dong Lu) as reported in 1938 Shanghai Dollar Directory. Some of his photographs clearly remind of the calendar ads from the Carl Crowe company located very close on 81 JinKe lu and both men hanging around in similar circles probably worked with each other at some point. Sam Sanzetti left Shanghai in 1957 to immigrate to Israel leaving a Chinese wife and a stepdaughter behind and remade his life in his new country. He had fun memories of Shanghai as explained in an interview with an Israeli Newspaper years later. However he was never able to come back to Shanghai before his death in 1986.

Artist Biography Austrian sculptor was born in Vienna in 1865. His teachers were Karl Waschmann (1848-1905), known for his ivory sculptures and portrait plaquettes of contemporary celebrities, and Stefan Schwartz (1851-1924), who exhibited in Paris, including the Exposition Universelle of 1900 where he won a gold medal. Kauba’s intricate bronzes, imported to the United States between 1895 and 1912, were cast at the Roman Bronze Works. Kauba was part of the nineteenth-century tradition of polychrome bronze sculpture. There were several types of patinas on a single statue: he could render the color of buckskin, variously tinted shirts, blankets, feathers, as well as beaded moccasins. Reportedly, Kauba came to America around 1886. Inspired by the Western tales of German author Karl May, he traveled to the West and made sketches and models. Critics, however, pointed out inaccuracies of costume and other details. For instance, the guns that his “mid-nineteenth-century” figures use are models produced after 1898. Apparently he did all of his works back in Vienna. Besides the variety of color, Kauba’s bronzes show a great range of textures and his style is highly naturalistic. The sculptor loved ornament, some of which he rendered with coiled wire for reins, rope and feathers in headdresses. He successfully rendered figures in motion and often executed compositions with more than one figure. Berman (1974) illustrates non-Western subjects by Kaula, such as the pendants Where? and There (ca. 1910), a seated Scottish couple, impressive in the expressions and the details on patterned fabrics of both sitters. Another genre piece is Buster Brown, ca. 1910, and Nude on Vase shows Kauba’s versatility even further. The smooth skin contrasts with the stylistic, plant-like vase.

Biography

Thomas L. Hunt was born in London, Ontario, Canada on February 11, 1882. He studied with his father John Powell Hunt and with Hugh H. Breckenridge. He resided in Laguna Beach, Hollywood and San Bernadino, California and maintained a studio in Laguna Beach, California. He was a founding member of the Laguna Beach Art Assn. and he was a member of the California Art Club and San Diego Art Guild. Examples of his paintings can be found in the Kansas City Museum, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California and the Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, California. He won First Prize at the California State Exposition in 1923, First Prize at the Laguna Beach Art Assn. in 1927 and 1935, and awards at the Pasadena Art Institute, 1933 and at the San Diego Fine Arts Guild in 1933. Thomas Hunt painted in Canada, Northern and Southern California and New England. Drawn to the seaside, he sought his preferred subject matter -- wharves and boats. He also painted beach scenes with crashing waves over rocks, cottages, snowy hillsides and village scenes. Known for his use of pure color, he creates paintings intended to sparkle and vibrate with scintilating light effects. His viewpoint and treatment of his subject matter is highly distinctive. A "Los Angeles Times" critic in 1931 summed up, "One is impressed, in fact, by the poetry of nature he has felt". Thomas Lorraine Hunt died in Santa Ana, California on April 17, 1938.

Biography

William ADAM 1846 - 1931 William Constable Adam (1846-1931) was born in Tweedmouth, England on August 29, 1846. He studied under Delecluse in Paris, Brydall and Greenlees in Glasgow, and in Buenos Aires before immigrating to Boston in 1893. After moving to California in 1898, he soon settled in Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula. Known as "Professor" Adam, he gave art lessons in his rose-covered cottage at 450 Central Avenue. With a bright and colorful palette of both oil and watercolor, he specialized in views of the Monterey area such as sand dunes, cottage and garden scenes, and the local flora. Adam died in Pacific Grove on October 17, 1931. Member: Boston Art Club; Lowell (MA) Art Club; Glasgow Art Club. Exhibited: Royal Scottish Academy; California State Fairs (medals); Del Monte Art Gallery (Monterey), 1907-12; Berkeley Art Ass'n, 1908; Sorosis Club, 1913; California Artists, Golden Gate Park Museum, 1916; Rabjohn & Morcom Gallery (San Francisco), 1916. Works held: City of Monterey Collection; Santa Cruz City Museum; Silverado Museum (St Helena, CA); Shasta State Historical Monument.

Ida Sedgwick Proper (1873 - 1957)

Rare original oil on canvas by signed lower right measuring 20 x 24 inches in good all original condition. Provenance: The Grandson of the artist.

Biography

Born in Bonaparte, Iowa, into a Baptist minister family, she attended Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. Then at the Art Student's League in New York, she trained with William Merritt Chase, John Twachtmann, and Frank DuMond. In 1897, she began art studies in Munich and exhibited in European salons. From 1907 to 1911, she had a studio in New York. She is known for her Impressionist palette and diffused compositional elements.