Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 7

Otis Oldfield
"Old Shoemaker" Ashcan 20th Century Modernism 1924 California WPA Realism Worker

1924

About the Item

"Old Shoemaker" Ashcan 20th Century Modernism 1924 California WPA Realism Worker. Signed “Otis Oldfield” lower left. 14 x 12 inches. Exhibited: Galerie des Beaux Arts, San Francisco, CA, 1925 Provenance: Estate of the Artist Born in Sacramento, CA on July 3, 1890, Otis Oldfield left high school at age 16 to work in a local print shop. In 1909 he arrived in San Francisco and enrolled at the Best Art School. After working for two years as a bellhop at the Argonaut Hotel and as a hat check boy at the Cliff House, he had saved enough money for further studies in Paris. In 1911 he sailed for France and enrolled at Académie Julian. Caught up in the activities of wartime Paris, he was an apprentice for a book binder. In 1924 Oldfield returned to Sacramento and added a studio to the house in which he was born. Feeling out of touch with the art mainstream, he stayed in Sacramento briefly. By early 1925 he had rented a studio in San Francisco's old Montgomery Block and became an instructor at the California School of Fine Art (1925-42). His first solo show was held in that year at the local Beaux Arts Club where his controversial paintings were considered very bold and modern by local art critics. In 1934 he was one of 26 artists selected by the federal government to paint murals in the newly erected Coit Tower. The subject of his fresco is Shipping Activities Inside the Golden Gate. During WWII he was a draftsman at Fort Mason Marine Repair and then taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts until 1952. After that time Oldfield continued painting and teaching at his home until his death in San Francisco on May 18, 1969.
  • Creator:
    Otis Oldfield (1890 - 1969, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1924
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 18 in (45.72 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Framing:
    Frame Included
    Framing Options Available
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU115629894102

More From This Seller

View All
WPA Mural Study 1940 American Scene Modern Social Realism Figurative Mid Century
By Michael Loew
Located in New York, NY
WPA Mural Study 1940 American Scene Modern Social Realism Figurative Mid Century Michael Loew (1907-1985) Detail for Mural (Social Security Building Washington D.C.) 24 x 24 inches ...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"High School Dance" WPA Mid-20th Century Modern American Scene Social Realism
Located in New York, NY
"High School Dance" WPA Mid-20th Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Heusing (20th Century) "High School Dance" 27 x 32 inches Oil on canvas Signed and dated '47 Lower Righ...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Chess Players WPA Depression Era Mid-20th Century American Scene Realism Modern
By Mervin Jules
Located in New York, NY
Chess Players WPA Depression Era Mid-20th Century American Scene Realism Modern. Signed upper right and verso 8 x 10 inches oil on board. BIO The son of a men's haberdasher, Mervin ...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Pay Day" American Scene Social Realism WPA Era Mid 20th Century Modern Workers
By Don Freeman
Located in New York, NY
"Pay Day" American Scene Social Realism WPA Era Mid 20th Century Modern Workers Don Freeman (1908-1978) Pay Day 20 x 30 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed lower right BIO Illustr...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

NYC Subway Mid 20th Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Contemporary
Located in New York, NY
NYC Subway Mid 20th Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Contemporary David Atkins (1910 – 2012) Subway Train Departure 24 x 30 inches Oil on can...
Category

1960s American Modern Interior Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Audience" Mid 20th Century American Figurative Theatre Performance Contemporary
By Leon Bibel
Located in New York, NY
"Audience" Mid 20th Century American Figurative Theatre Performance Contemporary Leon Bibel (1912 - 1995) "The Audience," 52 ½ x 41 ¼ inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1963. Signed lower right. Framed. BIO Painter, printmaker and sculptor, Leon Bibel was born in San Francisco in 1913. He trained at the California School of Fine Arts and received a scholarship to study under the German Impressionist Maria Riedelstein. He worked in collaboration with Bernard Zackheim, a student of Diego Rivera, to create frescoes for the San Francisco Jewish Community Center and the University of California Medical School. In 1936 Bibel moved from California to join the Federal Art Project at Harlem Art...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

Two Sisters
By Steven J. Levin
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Two Sisters" is a contemporary realist painting of two young women sitting at a bar. One sister looks a bit reserved, her hair down, clasping her hands in...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Interior Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Hooked, " back view of figure, contemporary oil paint red & black colors
By Audrey Anastasi
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Oil on canvas STATEMENT by AUDREY ANASTASI: Considering myself primarily a feminist artist, painting other women, most of my work focuses on the human face, figures, animals and natu...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Peek-a-Boo
By Seymour Joseph Guy
Located in New York, NY
In the latter half of the nineteenth century and into the first decade of the twentieth, New York City art aficionados could count on finding recent work of Seymour Joseph Guy hanging on the walls of the city’s major galleries. Primarily a genre artist, but also a portraitist, between 1859 and 1908 Guy showed more than seventy works at the National Academy of Design. From 1871 to 1903 he contributed over seventy times to exhibitions at the Century Club. From 1864 to 1887, he sent about forty pictures to the Brooklyn Art Association. A good number of these works were already privately owned; they served as advertisements for other pictures that were available for sale. Some pictures were shown multiple times in the same or different venues. Guy was as easy to find as his canvases were omnipresent. Though he lived at first in Brooklyn with his family and then in New Jersey, from 1863 to his death in 1910 he maintained a studio at the Artist’s Studio Building at 55 West 10th Street, a location that was, for much of that period, the center of the New York City art world. Guy’s path to a successful career as an artist was by no means smooth or even likely. Born in Greenwich, England, he was orphaned at the age of nine. His early interest in art was discouraged by his legal guardian, who wanted a more settled trade for the young man. Only after the guardian also died was Guy free to pursue his intention of becoming an artist. The details of Guy’s early training in art are unclear. His first teacher is believed to have been Thomas Buttersworth...
Category

19th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Self Wearing Bag (leather, satchel, brown, oil painting, vintage, monochrome)
By Rudolf Kosow
Located in Quebec, Quebec
"Self Wearing Bag" is a striking oil painting that explores themes of identity, burden, and possession. The hyperrealistic rendering of a worn leather bag, gripped tightly by a parti...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

God Bless Our Home, Social Realist Scene, Figurative Americana Interior Scene
Located in Doylestown, PA
"God Bless Our Home" is an interior and figurative scene of a woman sitting on her couch in serious and proper expression. The Americana style paint...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Pool Hall
By Steven J. Levin
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
A realist painting of people in a pool hall. The red pool table is the centerpiece of the painting, seemingly illuminating the space, and particularly t...
Category

2010s American Realist Interior Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All