Unknown

France 18th Century, The Surprised Lovers, original drawing

circa 1770

18th Century french School, Courtyard of a ruined palazzo, An Architectural Capriccio, Pen and black ink and black ink wash on paper 17 x 12 cm In good condition Framed : 32 x 26 c...

French school 19th century, Court scene in front of a palace watercolor on paper 16.4 x 13.3 cm In good condition, some foxings Framed : 30 x 26.5 cm This enigmatic yet charming s...

Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola (1871-1950) A Man writing at his desk, 18th century interior scene Pastel on paper Signed upper right 20.5 x 15.8 cm Framed under glass : 37 x 31.5 cm It is known that Guirand de Scevola was very interested in the Palace of Versailles and its Old Regime atmosphere, that he often painted it and that he participated in the Versailles Revival movement at the beginning of the century. This probably led him to paint scenes in the 18th century style, for which he was particularly well known and which are still sought after. What is striking is the modernity of the execution of our pastel, which obviously contrasts with its subject in the style of the 18th century. Guirand de Scevoal is a great colourist and he proves it here with eclat, by building up his composition with white pastel highlights, contrasting with brown and black. There is something of the northern painters in this treatment of light. All this, as always with him, is very subtle. The light radiating from the window is almost an abstract notation, but it gives meaning to this interior scene. Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola ( 1871 – 1950) was a French painter. He was student of Fernand Cormon and Pierre Dupuis...

Louis Tinayre (1861-1942) An encampment of journalists in Chambéry, signed and titled lower left "Campement de journalistes à Chambéry" Ink on paper In quite good condition, a a visible vertical fold in the centre, some stains and foxings 21 x 29 cm Framed : 33.7 x 45.5 cm Louis Tinayre's background and adventurous life obviously shed light on this humorous and detailed scene. He shows a remarkable sense of observation, capturing as a journalistic illustrator this scene of extraordianarian life. We don't know for the moment why these journalists had to improvise a camp, probably in a hotel room. No doubt it was to cover a trial or a sensational news item that had filled all the hotels in the city with journalists who had flocked for the occasion. In any case, what interests Tinayre as an almost ethnographic observer is this camp of journalists, of which he makes a tender and comical scene. One understands him better when one knows how he could be fascinated in the same way by the territories of Madagascar, the North Pole or the Far West that he painted and drew. Louis Tinayre was born on 14 March 1861 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. His mother, Victoire Tinayre, was a teacher and a member of the International Workers' Association. Louis was the son of a Communard couple. His father, Jean Joseph, known as Jules Tinayre (Issoire 1821 - Paris 1871) was shot during the Bloody Week. His mother, Victoire Tinayre, fled with her children. Louis was the first to be sent to Hungary, and the rest of the family (including his brother Julien) joined him there later. He studied Fine Arts at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest. Returning to Paris in 1880 (after the amnesty), Louis Tinayre assiduously frequented Le Chat noir, where he met the positivists and Adèle Jacomet (Buenos Aires 1867-1946), whom he married in 1888. He became an animal painter and press illustrator and was sent by Le Monde Illustré to cover the second expedition to Madagascar (then under French protectorate) in 1895. He stayed there, fascinated, for six months and produced numerous drawings and photographs. Back in France, he created eight 5 x 4 meters dioramas presented at the National and Colonial Exhibition in Rouen in 1896. He returned to Madagascar in 1898 to prepare the creation of a giant panorama representing the surrender of Antananarivo in 1895. The Malagasy pavilion at the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris allowed him to admire the dioramas (on the ground floor) and the panorama (on the first floor). On his second trip, Tinayre took a Lumière cinematograph with him to document the daily life of the Malagasy people, no doubt to facilitate the design of the vast panorama. These short films were donated to the Cinémathèque française in 2009 by his grandson, Alain Tinayre. One of the admirers of Tinayre's drawings, watercolours, paintings and photographs at the Universal Exhibition was Prince Albert I of Monaco: from 1901 onwards, Tinayre accompanied him on his hunts, painting scenes in North Africa, Russia, the Far West (Wyoming) and the North Pole. Tinayre, the official painter of the Prince's scientific expeditions, left his name to a glacier. Together with the painter Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Brun, he painted the four murals in the large amphitheatre of the Oceanographic Institute in Paris. Louis Tinayre painted the figures while Alexandre Brun...

Pen and grayish black ink on cream laid paper, 11 1/8 x 7 1/4 inches (283 x 185 mm), with the center of the sheet removed to create a window frame. Scattered light surface soiling, a...

Polly Kraft American (1928-2017) Umbrella Still Life (1984) watercolor on paper signed lower right 29 1/2 x 41 1/2 inches frame dimensions: 33 x 45 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches, wood frame with acrylic glazing Provenance: East Hampton Collection Fischbach Art Gallery New York, NY label affixed verso Polly Kraft, Known for painting portraits, landscapes, and still-lifes, realist artist Polly Kraft worked in both watercolor and oil. She had the ability to translate a split second glance into a memorable painting.a painter who turned quotidian objects and scenes — a sliced red apple still bearing its seeds, an unmade bed cluttered with mail, a filleted fish vibrant even in death — into works of art resonant with meaning, Her son, Mark Stevens is an art critic who with his wife, Annalyn Swan, co-authored the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “de Kooning: An American Master” Mrs. Kraft spent a half-century at the center of the Washington establishment as the wife of Joseph Kraft, the syndicated newspaper columnist, and later, after Kraft's death in 1986, of Lloyd Cutler, the high-powered lawyer who was White House counsel to Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Her marriages took her into the thick and thicket of social life in the capital — a world, she once remarked, where "politicians were mixed in with intellectuals, mixed in with academics, mixed in with movie stars." She counted among her friends members of the Kennedy family, former Washington Post chairman and publisher Katharine Graham, former Post executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee and diplomats W. Averell and Pamela Harriman. Although oft cited as a doyenne of Georgetown hostesses, Mrs. Kraft professed that she relished neither politics nor Washington’s breed of socializing, which at times approached the intensity of a competitive sport. “When it comes to the poetry of dishevelment, Polly Kraft is one of our more rewarding practitioners,” art critic John Russell wrote in the New York Times in 1981. “She specializes in the domestic pileup — cushions knocked out of shape, books and magazines left askew, hasty departures acted out in verismo style. The point of the paintings lies in the contrast between this archetypal havoc and the order that Mrs. Kraft has imposed upon it.” Classic Americana. Her paintings, mainly watercolors and oil paintings, appeared at venues including the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Addison/Ripley Fine Art in Washington (she was part of their 40 year retrospective along with Lou Stovall, Diana Walker...

"King & I" Orig 1951 Broadway Drawing Published NYT Tony Awards Mid 20th Century Al Hirschfeld (1903 – 2003) "The King and I," 14 3/4 x 30 inches. Ink on board. Signed lower right. ...

A fascinating orientalist art deco composition. Pen and brownish brown ink with gouache on cream wove paper, 9 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches (245 x 190 mm), the full sheet. In good condition w...