Benjamin Newton Messick (American, 1891-1981) painted this terrific Modernist clown portrait in the 1940s. Oil on canvas, it measures 26 x 35 inches, sight size, and 21 x 29 inches framed. Messick grew up on a farm in Missouri, served in World War I and moved to Los Angeles to study at the Chouinard Art Institute in 1925 on scholarship. He won a cash prize that year at the Los Angeles County Fair for a group of pen and ink drawings done in the parks and streets of the city. He left Chouinard in ...click for details
This oil on illustration board depiction of a beagle and his quarry, a rabbit, is by the noted animal painter Edwin Megargeee (American, 1883-1958). Megargee was an illustrator and etcher as well as a painter. Born in 1883 in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia, he studied at Georgetown University from 1899-1900, Drexel Institute in Philadelphia from 1900-1904, and finally at the prestigious Art Students League in New York City from 1904-1905. He was a breeder and painter of gun dogs and wrote ...click for details
This wonderful mid-19th century oil on tin French School military painting depicts a patriotic woman in the foreground, and in the background uniformed soldiers, tents, sheafs of grain, and staffs
with the French Imperial eagle which were carried into battle as standards during the Napoleonic Wars. The fashionable lady is dressed in the new cage crinoline favored in 1855 by Empress Eugenie (1820-1920), wife of The Second French Empire’s Napoleon III
(1808-73), a style that was followed by Eu ...click for details
This early twentieth century pastoral painting of a herd of sheep huddled inside a barn is one of the best folk art paintings we have seen in a long time. How many sheep paintings have you seen where the animals are indoors as opposed to in the barnyard or in a landscape? Dimensions are 22 x 36 inches, sight size, and 25 x 29 inches in its old gilt frame. This painting has tremendous charm and realism.
This turn-of-the-century oil on canvas sporting painting depicts a brace of hunting dogs on the scent. Reminicent of the work of Edmund Henry Osthaus, one of the premier American dog painters from that time period, Alan Blackburn's portrait of two dogs in the field is a very nice work of sporting art. Signed and dated Alan R. Blackburn 1906 lower right, the painting measures 17 x 28 inches, sight size, and 23 x 34 inches in its original gilt frame.
Helen LaFrance is a self-taught black artist who was born in 1919 in Western Kentucky. This very charming oil on canvas depiction of children sleeping, more than one in a bed as was the norm, measures 20 x 30 inches, sight size, and 21 x 31 inches framed. LaFrance's specialty is memory paintings of the disappearing lifestyle of the rural South, although she has painted religious themes and floral studies, usually in oil on canvas. She has painted since she was a small child, always following ...click for details
Helen LaFrance is a self-taught black artist who was born in 1919 in Western Kentucky. This charming oil on canvas depiction of a Bible study measures 18 x 24 inches, sight size, and 19-1/4 x 25-1/4 inches framed. LaFrance's specialty is memory paintings of the disappearing lifestyle of the rural South, although she has painted religious themes and floral studies, usually in oil on canvas. She has painted since she was a small child, always following her mother's wisdom to "paint wh ...click for details
Helen LaFrance painted this evocative oil on canvas depiction of a church with people at the adjacent cemetary. Dimensions are 22 x 38 inches, sight size, and 23 x 29 inches framed. Helen LaFrance is a self-taught black artist who was born in 1919 in Western Kentucky. Her specialty is memory paintings of the disappearing lifestyle of the rural South, although she has painted religious themes and floral studies, usually in oil on canvas. She has painted since she was a small child, always followi ...click for details
Helen LaFrance painted this oil on canvas depiction of a family quilting together at the dining room table. Dimensions are 18 x 24 inches, sight size, and 19-1/4 x 25-1/4 inches framed. Helen LaFrance is a self-taught black artist who was born in 1919 in Western Kentucky. Her specialty is memory paintings of the disappearing lifestyle of the rural South, although she has painted religious themes and floral studies, usually in oil on canvas. She has painted since she was a small child, always fol ...click for details
This extremely well done oil on canvas folk art memory painting by Helen LaFrance (born 1919 in Kentucky) depicts a church choir. LaFrance is self-taught and has been painting all her life. Her works are represented in many important folk art collections and museums around the country. She is featured in a chapter in Kathy Moses' reference book "Outsider Art of the South", published by Schiffer. This one measures 18 x 36 inches, sight size, and 21.5 x 39 inches framed.
