1930s Paintings

Entitled "Truth and the Seven Deadly Sins" and teeming with allegory, this Art Deco study for a major mosaic was painted by Eugene Savage for the new Queens Supreme Courthouse -- a 1930s Works Progress Administration project in Queens, New York. The central figure with a hand mirror may represent Narcissus, who would personify "vanity," one of the sins, and at the bottom of the scene is a winged devil who seems to be opening a door to a fiery world below. To the right is a figure near a chest full of gold and coins, and the entire scene is surmounted by a reclining female nude. Savage is best known for a spectacular set of murals illustrating the history and lore of Hawaii commissioned by Matson Shipping Line for the S.S. Lurline, executed in the 1940s but not installed until the 1950s. The artist also painted other series of murals and paintings, include an enormous mural...

Beautiful and extraordinary, this 1930s mural study by Dunbar Beck -- depicting a Pharaoh reading from a tablet while his legs are being wrapped by a servant, and a caveman cutting i...

A well-thought out composition as the table plain draws the viewer into the room of a seated woman with distant gaze dressed in a blue jacket, the table set with a bowl of fruit, a g...

Art Deco still life oil on canvas painting motif wildflowers by Emil Fiala 1930s, Austria. A fabulous oil on canvas painting by Emil Fiala shows a motif wildflowers in beautiful and ...

Beautiful summer impressionistic Dutch landscape with children playing at a lake surrounded by trees and in the background grassland, cornfields and a forest edge. Painted en plein a...

Stanislaw Dziemanski (1897-1962) Tatra mountain landscape, painted in the early 1930s watercolor/paper, measures: 69 x 48 cm signed lower right: 'ST. DZIEMANSKI Good original con...

Oil painting Of Rissersee, Germany. A very scenic oil painting of Rissersee, a lake in Grainau near Garmisch - Partenkirchen, surrounded by the Bavarian Alps. Painted by the German ...

Maria Szantho (Hungarian, 1898-1984). "Woman with tambourine," oil on canvas, circa 1935, signed lower right. Measures: H 24” (61 cm.), W 20" (51 cm).

Painting oil on canvas, Feu de Montmartre (The Great Montmartre Fire) by Expressionist Painter, Sylvain Vigny 1903-1971. Born in Austria - arrived in France 1929 moved to Nice 1934 t...

Oil on canvas painted by Karel Stehlik in the 1930s. Dimension painting only: 27 x 36cm (10.62 x 14.17").

[Authentic Artwork] ◆ Shokan Ohchi ◆ Snowy Mountain ◆ Master: Taikan Yokoyama ◆ Double Box ◆ Hand-Painted ◆ Silk Scroll ◆ Hanging Scroll ◆ Explore the masterful artistry of Shokan O...

Wonderful contemporary feeling watercolor. Framed in Baltimore, not sure if this is the original frame for the work. Signed and dated 1932, Unknown artist. Procured in US. W 19.5 ...

Painted in a brilliant palette of orange, deep red, sky blue and forest green, this scene of a half nude female figure lounging on a black settee probably dates to the 1930s when Sal...

[Otani Kubutsu] 1875-1943, a monk of the Otani school of the Shinshu sect (23rd head of Higashi Honganji Temple) during the Meiji-Showa period. Dharma name: Shonyo. Literary name: Kō...

Watercolor of Harbor scene probably Gloucester Mass by listed Artist Richard Hayley Lever.

The artist behind this striking and original Art Deco portrait -- Agnes Tait -- is clearly emphasizing the parallels between a female figure and her Siamese cat, both shown with heavily-shadowed blue eyes and short, dark hair, the feline crouching familiarly on the shoulder of her companion. Because Tait painted a series of portraits for Florenz Ziegfeld of the young women who performed in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1932, it's possible that the figure here was one of her subjects. The woman is wearing an elegant black gown that bares her upper chest, and the background is a lovely shade of reddish purple. Tait was a native New Yorker, studying in her youth at the National Academy of Design under Leon Kroll and others, before becoming a WPA painter in the 1930s. She painted a series of tropical scenes for the United Fruit Company...

This lovely and evocative oil on canvas painted in 1936 of a marina in the south of France is painted mainly in tones of blue and green. The view is from under the leafy olive tree...

Arguably the greatest work of Georg Pauli, one of Sweden's leading Modernist painters in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, this Art Deco-Cubist work depicts the great Nike sculpture on the grounds of the home of Prince Eugens on Cape Waldemar in central Stockholm (known in Swedish as Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde). The Prince was a great collector of modern art in the early 20th century, and today his home is a museum and much-beloved landmark in Stockholm. This painting shows the sculpture in the foreground, and in the background is a jumble of houses, factory chimneys and institutional buildings, the Swedish flag...

Art Deco watercolor floral painting wildflowers by Emil Fiala 1930s Vienna. Emil Fiala (1869-1960) was from 1915-1937 member of the Austrian Künstlerbund (formerly Hagenbund). The de...

[Authentic work] ◆ Torei Ogita ◆ fishing boat ◆ Double box ◆ Master: Komuro Sogumo ◆ Tochigi Prefecture ◆ Hand-painted ◆ Silk ◆ Hanging scroll ◆ Torei Ogita 1899 ～Died in 1979 at t...

[Authentic work] ◆ Koga Hada ◆ Autumn colors in Kumoyama ◆ Double box ◆ Osaka ◆ Hand-painted ◆ Silk ◆ Hanging scroll ◆ Koga HatS Japanese painter. Born in Osaka in 1908. Teacher: ...

This piercing and powerful portrait of a Tunisian man with an open-necked shirt provides a glimpse into the life of artist Porter Woodruff in North Africa. Woodruff was best known for his paintings and illustrations for Vogue magazine -- one of five American fashion illustrators who worked for the magazine -- as well as House & Garden. He was born in Tennessee, but spent much of his creative life in Paris and Tunisia, where he lived with Georges Sébastian, an important Hungarian-born, French orchestra conductor...

This strong and dignified portrait of the great Cherokee leader, Junaluska, painted by one of America's leading illustrators long after the Native American's death, uses a palette of black and mossy green to capture its subject. Junaluska lived in western North Carolina in the early 19th century and served as an ally of Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812, saving his life during the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Despite his heroism, he was exiled from his native land, participating in the Trail of Tears...

Dramatically and vividly painted, this depiction of a seated Archer of Asian descent, holding his bow in one hand, is a Classic example of Depression-era portraiture. The contemplati...

A year after André Margat received a gold medal for his lacquerwork at the Exposition Universelle of 1937, the artist painted this beautiful and expressiv...

1930s Watercolour of Ludlow Castle and Dinham Bridge, Shropshire A fine and atmospheric original watercolour dating to the 1930s, this expertly rendered landscape captures the histor...

Painted in a kaleidoscopic array of brilliant colors -- tangerine, emerald green, scarlet, deep sky blue and black -- this Cubist work depicts a nude female figure and a parrot sitting on a circular perch, surrounded by a crazy quilt of patterns. The artist -- Joseph Popczyk -- was known for his vivid palette and love of Cubism, and in this case the chevrons and wavy patterns of Art Deco can...

Finely painted in gouache by J. Collazzi, who did a series of landscapes and fantasy paintings in the 1930s, this scene of two classical figures restraining a horse is classic Art De...

Mountain landscape, oil on canvas. Very good condition. dimensions: height 39 cm, width 48 cm without frame 25 cm x 34 cm

Beautifully conceived, dramatically set and very finely painted, this gouache and ink painting by Willis R. Lohse is a paean to the hard work and nobility of the black farmer in America, hat in hand as he marvels at the beauty of the day. Full of lovely colors -- lemon yellow, cerulean and fresh green -- Lohse captures a lovely moment where the farmer pauses to look upward, amidst sprays of birch trees and expanses of rolling fields. Lohse was a German-American artist who is best known for his illustrations for fiction and fantasy books published between the 1920s and 1950s, including "The Boy Who Found the King," "Raff, the Jungle Bird...

A riot of color and movement, much like the experience of walking around the circus in its heyday in 1930s America, this scene by Iver Rose depicts a barker at his podium, positioned...

Bold and intense, this portrait -- or perhaps self-portrait -- of a young man with pale skin, dark, flowing hair and a direct stare was painted by T. Cohen in the first decades of th...

Sydney Harbour poster Sydney Harbour Bridge poster design Attributed to Douglas Annand in our opinion, this was an original drawing for the 1932 poster competition. In 1932, the poster competition committee asked Douglas Annand and Arthur Whitmore to collaborate together to produce the now-famous 19th March 1932 poster. There are clear similarities between ours and the collaborative poster. Our design clearly shows more of an Art Deco and feminine design, as opposed to the more masculine, collaborative Sydney Harbour Bridge poster design. Our drawing is Gouache on paper laid down on the artist's board. The drawing is in the original frame and mount, dated March 1932 and is unsigned. BIOGRAPHY Douglas Shenton Annand (1903-1976), graphic designer and artist, was born on 22 March 1903 at Toowoomba, Queensland, the third child of Frederick William Gadsby Annand, accountant, and his wife Helen Alice, née Robinson, both Queenslanders. Having taken the commercial course at the Central Technical College, Brisbane, in 1920, Douglas j...

A watercolor painting, depicting a poodle. Signed. Solid cherry wood frame, polished and beeswaxed. England, 1930.

Beautiful oil painting made by the Dutch master Hendricus Albertus Gerardus Froonen, better known to the world as Hein Froonen (1878-1958). This work was made in 1932 and depicts ...

Suzy Bartolini reverse painting, French artist born 1930. Well known for her reverse painting of flowers baskets and individuals. Very special custom ...

In this listing you will find a large oil on canvas depicting the scene after the huntdby a Yugoslav artist Ivo Novakovic. Painting shows a pheasant and a rabbit hanging in front of ...

Painted with bravura, this image of shirtless black laborer in the passenger seat of a truck, accompanied by his coworker in a striped t-shirt, is marked by rich, saturated colors an...

An oil painting on canvas with the half-length portrayal of a man. The painting is signed by the pre-war painter of Lviv, Adam Krotochwila. This fine piece of art is in very good...

Masterfully painted in tones of green and coral, this scene of an exotic knight fighting a fearsome dragon is full of energy. The dragon's snout and cresting suggests the influence ...

This extraordinary painting brings together two remarkable talents -- John Rutherford Boyd, the superb painter and illustrator, who captures this scene -- and Jesse Crawford, one of ...

Framed Art Deco original art, a portrait of a woman, circa 1930s. Signed PLB and dated 1935.

Oil on canvas, signed lower right. Measures 39.5" x 45" including the frame. 1878-1957 Robert Emmett Owen was a successful artist best known for his Impressionist views of rural la...

Reflecting France’s fascination with Africans and Black Americans, and perhaps inspired by the Exposition Colonial Internationale held in Paris in 1931, this canvas shows an African ...

The rich Impressionistic brushwork and bright palette of this painting makes it a vivid find. No doubt painted in preparation for a mural, the text in Latin – translated as “Work is Sweet and Conquers All” – would have been a noble sentiment for a public space at the time. The painter, Milton Bancroft...

Clearly showing the influence of French Cubism and Art Deco, this gorgeous, brilliantly-hued painting depicts a bottle of wine, a bowl of fruit, a wine b...

Although Carl Hoeckner is best known for his sombre prints and paintings protesting the brutality of war, he is also known for a series of murals in public spaces across Chicago and the Midwest, so this brilliantly-hued painting may have served as a mural study. Here the artist depicts a long procession of figures in jewel-toned garments, their faces careworn and bent in prayer, facing toward a priest surrounded by a group of choir boys...

Lazarska Stéfania (1887-1977) – Polish painter from the école de Paris Beautiful portrait representing a smiling woman wearing a hairstyle and hat typical of the 1930s. In its original Montparnasse...

Dramatic and gripping, this pair of original paintings served as illustrations for “Slave Story” a book or magazine story. Pendexter may ha...

1930s Dutch school of art abstract painting. Newly framed art floating on linen backing. From a large collection of work.

A print mixed technique: the portrait of a Riesenschnauzer dog’s head. Signed. Solid cherry wood frame, polished and beeswaxed. Germany circa 1930.

Antque oil on board painting signed lower left O. Arnold. Still life with flowers in a blue vase. Gold frame. Signs of age cracquellure .

A pair of framed small paintings cleverly mounted as collections of four between two pieces of transparent glass. This enables the wall, whether painted or wall papered, to show thro...

The subject is a rather beautiful seated young woman with a somewhat imperious expression and demeanour She is wearing a yellow dress which from its style and her hair we date to 192...

This striking painting presents a fantastical leopard in a shade of periwinkle superimposed over a brilliant backdrop of stylized palm fronds in a vivid shade of green. The colors ar...

This is a wonderful small painting by Belgian artist Emile Gastemans, 1883-1956, of a gypsy family in Toledo, Spain, still in its original frame.

A pastel painting depicting the head of a cocker spaniel dog with a wild duck in his mouth. Solid cherry wood frame, polished and beeswaxed. England circa 1930.

Brilliantly stylized, reminiscent of the work of George Bellows and other masters of the 1920s and 1930s, this watercolor presents a placid view of a riverside park...

"'On the Lake" watercolor in the manner of Winslow Homer 3 gentlemen canoeing on the lake. Signed FR Walker. Framed, 1939 Measures: 30" W x 25" H x 2" D.

Watercolor on paper, signed. Lower left and on reverse. Provenance: Sothebys London 1989 Measures 11.5" x 13.75" painting and 17.5" x 20.25" including the frame. Elisée Maclet...