Eric Elfvén

Vintage Mid-Century Modern Expressive Oil Painting - Sunlit Terrace

1960s

INTROSPECTIVE MAN Size: 63.5 x 73 cm (including frame) Oil on board A large mid century modernist figurative composition in oil, painted onto board. This painting is an expressive,...

Singing by the Fire Oil on Board Size: 31 x 36 cm (including frame) A fun and joyful composition of an interior home setting, executed in oil onto board and dated 1982. This charming narrative painting features an array of details for us to explore, from the patterns of the rugs and walls, to the curtains and objects on the walls and the tiled stove with a fire. A family of adults and young children are sat by a table laid out with drinks. They appear to have a song book...

INTERIOR WITH PAINTING Size: 57 x 45 cm (including frame) Oil on board An expressive and uplifting mid-century modernist painting that showcases a richly decorated interior scene, e...

PAUL Size: 58.5 x 53 cm (including frame) Oil on canvas A striking and expressive mid-century portrait painting, executed in oil onto canvas. The composition depicts a male figure ...

"Tailor" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modernism Mid Century Modern Fashion Mervin Jules (1912 – 1994) "The Tailor" 9 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches Oil on masonite, c. 1930s Signed lower ...

Into the tunnel is an original modern artwork realized by Isidore Odorico (1893-1945) in the early 20th Century. Oil on board. Hand signed on the lower margin. Includes frame

Guy Pene du Bois' "Two Figures in Courtroom" is a WPA era American scene oil painting created in a realistic style. Modernism at its best The work is framed by Heydenryk. Pène du Bois descended from French immigrants who settled in Louisiana in 1738 and was raised in a Creole household. He was born in 1884 in Brooklyn, NY and first studied with William Merritt Chase at the New York School of Art and later continued his training with Robert Henri. Pène du Bois was greatly impressed with Henri's credo that "real life" was subject matter for art and throughout his life a realist philosophy informed his art as well as his parallel career, art criticism. In 1905, Pène du Bois made his first visit to Paris where he painted scenes of fashionable people in cafes rendered in the dark tonalities and impasto associated with the Ashcan School. By 1920, he had achieved his mature style, which was characterized by stylized, rounded, almost sculptural figures painted with invisible brushstrokes. The subjects of his paintings were often members of society whom he gently satirized. In 1924, Pène du Bois and his wife, Floy, left for France where they would remain until 1930. Returning to America showcases pictures the artist produced after this very productive period abroad. After five years of living in France, Pène du Bois was able to observe American life with fresh eyes. His work becomes more psychologically intense and less satirical. In Girl at Table a slender, blond is shown gazing at a small statue that she holds at arm's distance. The meaning is elusive, but a powerful sense of longing is evoked. Similarly, paintings such as Dramatic Moment and Jane are taut with unresolved dialogue. Both pictures depict mysterious interiors in which a lone woman anxiously awaits the denouement of a suspenseful scene. Other pictures, for example, Chess Tables, Washington Square and Bar, New Orleans, recall Pene du Bois's Ashcan origins in their depiction of urban entertainment. During this period, landscape becomes an important subject for Pène du Bois. Girl Sketching...

Image Dimensions: 34.5 x 48 cm Ref: Published in the catalogue "Vincenzo De' Stefani", Rizzoli Editore, Milan, 1939, tav.III.