Elaine de Kooning was an accomplished landscape and portrait artist active in the Abstract Expressionism movement of the early 20th century. She was a member of the Eighth Street Club (the Club) in New York City. The Club’s members were part of the abstract expressionist movement, and the Club functioned as a space to discuss ideas. A membership position for a woman was rare at this time. Women were often marginalized in the Abstract Expressionist movement, functioning as objects and accessories to confirm the masculinity of their male counterparts. On December 9, 1943, she married Dutch action painter Willem de Kooning, whose career eventually eclipsed hers.

Elaine de Kooning was a part of the abstract expressionist movement. She chose to sign her artworks with her initials rather than her full name, to avoid her paintings being labeled as feminine in a traditionally masculine movement. She made both abstract and figurative paintings and drawings. Her earlier work comprised watercolors and still lifes, including 50 watercolor sketches inspired by a statue in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. Later in her career, her work fused abstraction with mythology, primitive imagery, and realism. Her gestural style of portraiture is often noted, although her work was mostly figurative and representational, and rarely purely abstract. She produced a diverse body of work over the course of her lifetime, including sculpture, etchings, and work inspired by cave drawings, all in addition to her many paintings. Late in life, she produced a series of paintings inspired by the paleolithic cave paintings of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain; these were shown at the Fischbach Gallery in November 1988. She died three months later from complications of lung cancer.

Katherine Levine Farrell was born in 1857 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a 19th Century American visual artist often known for etching, marine, landscape and genre painting, she graduated from the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, where she had studied with Peter Moran and Stephen Ferris. From 1880 to 1887 she was a student of Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In the 1890s she married Theodore Farrell and her signature may appear as “Levin, Farrell” or “Levin-Farrell”. She also studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art and at the Drexel Institute from 1903 to 1905. During her career she received additional instruction from a number of established artists including Emil Bisttram in Taos, New Mexico.

Early in her art training she had developed the talents of an accomplished etcher. Her works, both paintings and etchings, were exhibited in the Ladie’s Parlor of the Pennsylvania Building and in the Women’s Building of the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. She had spent time in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she had studied with John Twachtman and Augustus Buhler. Farrell was also a founding member of the Plastic Club, and a member of the Philadelphia Print Club, Philadelphia Water Color Club, and a fellow of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Farrell exhibited extensively from the 1880s on the Plastic Club and the other scenes of which she was a part from. At the exposition an etching and a painting, both titled Five Pound Island, Gloucester, and an etching, Gloucester Wharf, were shown.

Farrell’s exhibition record is extensive. Her works were shown in Philadelphia at the School of Design for Women, the Academy of Fine Art and with The Society of Artists. She won the Drexel Prize for Watercolor in 1903-04 and Gimbel’s Philadelphia Women’s Achievement Competition prize in 1934. The artist also exhibited at the New England Mechanic’s Institute, the National Academy of Design, Brooklyn Art Association, Boston Art Club and with the New York Etching Club. Her works were shown with many groups and organizations and the Philadelphia Art Alliance held a solo exhibition of her work in 1938. Several works by the artist have been sold at auction, including: 'Sailboat off a Pier' sold at Eldred’s Auction and Appraisal Services 'Summer Market Auction' in 2014, ’Provincetown Harbor’ sold at Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth in 2013 and at James D. Julia Auctioneers, Fairfield in 2011 and 2010.

Farrell’s work also has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Her artwork is a part of the important collections of the Pennsylvania State College Art Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Trenton Art Association and in Cape May, New Jersey. Farrell died in 1951.

William McCarthy is an American artist born in 1951. In each and every one of McCarthy's works, we can find these luminous and mysterious images of trees against a sky, field or river which evoke a subtle variation of light and atmosphere. For McCarthy, the arrangement of the trees, whether standing in solitude or in pairs or in large groupings seem at once surprising, or accidental. Yet all of his paintings are comprised from memory, imagination and thumbnail sketches from his basement studio in his home in Connecticut. He works on wood board, paper and canvas using several layers of gesso before priming the surface with cadmium red base. Then a quick sketch using charcoal is used to lay out the design then the oil paint is applied. He works in layers using thinned down oil paint, building the layers with glazing techniques. Upon completion, a final coat of varnish is applied.

For McCarthy, light has come to play an important role, and as William describes when he looks back to his body of work "I feel it speaks about spiritual places, places that contain a quiet inner light, radiating an ethereal whisper, the places we see every day." A simply luminous landscape depicting 3 trees against a sunset sky. The colors are rich with thick use of paint and beautiful brushwork. The way the landscape is contrasted against the sky is just breathtaking, as we can feel the atmosphere created through the artist lens. The piece comes housed in a beautiful silver toned wood frame with hanging wire on verso.

André Minaux was born in 1923, a French painter, illustrator, sculptor, draftsman. He studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, Paris from 1941 to 1945 and as a former student of Ecole décoratifs, he received teachings from Maurice Brianchon and Roland Oudot. He was a great draughtsman and his time at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs mixed with his interest in lithographs meant that he found a strong and bold simplicity in his depiction of form. Minaux belonged to the illustrious Ecole de Paris, the Young painter movement of the 50’s and Painter Witnesses of their time. He had his first one-man exhibition at the Galerie des Impressions d'Art, Paris in 1946 and served in the military in Avignon, the southern lights have an influence on his pictorial approach.

Through his first movement, his paintings put down roots on Man and Nature’s return, which is the main focus of the painting. He gives the necessary outlines to the Jeune peinture called Pessimism. André Minaux plays around but also thwarts material and volumes. His discipline is protean. André Minaux has adopted several periods: naturalism, rustic, baroque, figurative, musical instruments and the non-figurative one.

Due to his powerful strokes, he is able to extract an inexhaustible strength from his compositions. At the heart of after-war, his works capture the euphoric context through French expressionist realism “This is the pace which unites a painting” says André Minaux. “One could consider Minaux’s approach a lot like the one of Matis, in his quest for perfection”. Jean Bouret, Minaux peintre, éditions Sauret, 1977.

Figures, particularly women in interior settings, became a key theme in his work.  Indeed there is a sculptural quality to the way in which he depicts the female figure showing the growing influence of Fernand Leger on his work as he moved away from naturalism and became ever more figurative and stylized in his artistic output.

The Modern art museum of Paris bought one of his paintings in 1950. Tate Gallery from London, took possession of one of his works. He participated at the Salon d’automne in 1948 with Le Raccommodeur de filets, this work was saluted by a multitude of art critics. A year later, his work was awarded by the critique prize and displayed his work at the Salon des Jeunes peintres, at the Claude gallery at rue de Seine, Paris. He exhibited at the Venice Biennial of 1952. André Minaux illustrated several great writers like André Gide, Blaise Cendrars, Maguerite Duras, Julien Gracq. Minaux died in 1986.

Georges Jeannin was a Parisian still life and flower painter. Having studied under Vincelet, he began exhibiting at the Paris Salon from 1875. Jeannin, in collaboration with Cesbron, decorated the Paris Hotêl de Ville’s Salon de Passage. Many of Jeannin’s flower paintings were purchased by the State and he was awarded many prizes of excellence throughout his career.

An absolutely breath taking still life with flowers, Mandolin, and music sheets. Jeannin was a French artist who was a true master of his time. This painting exudes an almost realistic expression, but we do still very much feel an impressionistic technique. Signed bottom right corner, with the original plaque in a gold guild frame.

Robert Weise was active in the late 19th Century, early 20th Century and lived in Germany. He is known for portrait and still life painting. This painting of a outdoor still life in a garden is a wonderful representation of his work, with beautiful details and light hitting his subject effortlessly. We are reminded of the great Master, Sargent, as Weise was an admirer of his work. The flowers and tea set are executed with nostalgia as we are brought to this place in time seamlessly.

Max Ginsburg was born in Paris, France in 1931. He studied at the High School of Music and Art, New York, NY From 1945 to 1949,  Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, to obtain his bachelor degree from 1949 to 1953, the City College of New York, New York, NY for his master's degree from 1960-1963, and studied informally with Abraham Ginsburg over many years. He lived and worked in New York all his life and as a New Yorker, he felt a personal and deep connection to the rich, energetic and beautiful scenery of this unique city, with its amazingly diverse population. His main objective is to represent the wide mosaic of people from New York, realistically and with compassion in his paintings. Expressing in each and every piece a strong connection to his feelings about the portrayed subjects. Ginsburg was a teacher at the High School of Art and Design, New York, NY from 1960 to1982, at the School of Visual Arts of New York from 1984 to 2000 and also at the Art Students League of New York from the period of 1997 to 2000 and 2008 to 2011. He has had a multitude of solo exhibitions and also he was invited to a number of group exhibitions in the United States. He was also awarded the “Best in Show” Award at the Art Renewal Center Salon in 2011, the Joseph Hartley Memorial Award, the Salmagundi Club non-members Juried Exhibition in 2010, the Philip Desind Award, 72nd National Midyear Exhibition, and The Butler Institute of American Art in 2008 among many others..

In this piece we find a prominent depiction of a typical New York City street scene that the artist so passionately executes. Ginsburg strives to create pieces uniting his love for Manhattan, with his excellent realistic approach to the canvas. Hints of Hopper are felt within this piece, with his use of line, shadow, and composition. This painting was created on site on West 50th Street of what looks like a worker from the Butcher shop taking a quick break from his day. Comes ready to hang with wire on verso and displayed in this lovely wood frame with gold inlay.

Richard Hunter was born in Hamburg in 1867 he was a German marine painter and draftsman, son of Franz Hünten (1822-1887), he studied at the Academy Karlsruhe with Prof. Schoenleber from 1886 until 1889 and then after he studied at the Academy of Berlin under H . Gude from 1890 until 1893. Four of his paintings are part of the permanent collection of The Hamburger Kunsthalle art museum located in Hanseatic City of Hamburg, which is one of the largest museums in Germany. His works were also presented from 1895 to 1907 at the Hamburg Kunstverein art association founded in Hamburg in 1817. Hunter died in 1952.

"Blossoming Dogwood Trees" is a charming oil painting landscape by Richard Hunter with blossoming Dogwood trees in the Spring with a pathway and fence leading down into the distance. A lake depicted to the right with a small dock going into the water. The blossoming of the Dogwood trees are depicted with a great vibrancy still shines while gazing at the wonderful brushwork. The details throughout this piece spark interest as we can find a gate surrounding the house, and other whimsical moments. This painting comes housed in a beautiful gold tone frame and signed lower left. With stabilized craquelure overall and some minor wear on the frame for age, otherwise, this painting is in very good condition for age.

Francis McCarthy was born in Philadelphia in 1923, he lived and painted most of his life in Philadelphia although a great many of his pictures came from his world travels. He began art lessons at the unusually young age of 3 at the Friends Neighborhood Guild and his talent was constantly nurtured there and at home. In the 40's Albert Barnes met Francis at the Guild and understood his gifts. Barnes became his encouraging patron, then McCarthy studied at the Philadelphia College of Art, Barnes Foundation, Grand Chaumiere (Paris, France), and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. McCarthy was an instructor of adults and children at the Fleisher Art Memorial for fifty-one years from 1953 onward and continued to teach drawing and painting in Fleisher's evening program until his health began to fail just prior to the start of the Fall 2004 semester. His work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Gallery in Washington DC, the Barnes Foundation, and other museums and private collections in America and Europe. McCarthydied in 2005.

Alfred S. Mira was born in 1900 in Italy to a carpenter father, he left school and began working for an interior decorator, dreaming of going to art school. He did make a career out of painting though; he listed his address as East 8th Street and his occupation as painter in the 1940 census. And he sold his work at the Washington Square outdoor art exhibit, a heralded event decades ago. Though he painted scenes from all over the city, Mira focused his work on the sites and monuments of Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park, MacDougal Street and Seventh Avenue South. His inspiration seems to come from the urban realists who made a name for themselves in the early 1900s, such as George Bellows and George Luks. He died in 1981 and his work still inspires new generations of artists.

This is a sensational depiction of Washington Square Park on a rainy day from the turn of the century by Mira. The way the artist composes this scene pulls in the viewer with his use of light and shadow. The road is slick with rain as reflections of the buildings are picked up effortlessly on the ground. Figures are coming and going as we can feel as though we are taken back in time with this timeless piece. A wonderful display of Mira's characteristic style as honest, sometimes gritty, sometimes dreamy, and deeply atmospheric pieces. As a true street artist who captured the moods of the city, Mira has embraced the times of the early 20th century leaving us with mesmerizing landscapes of New York City. Signed lower right and displayed in a wonderful gold tone gilt frame.

Paul Jenkins, was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1923. He was a colorful Abstract Expressionist who came of age during the heyday of the New York School and for several decades carried on its highly physical tradition of manipulating paint and canvas. In the late 1940s, he joined a wave of aspiring painters moving to New York, and joined to study at the Art Students League and soon met Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Jenkins died at the age of 88 in Manhattan, where he lived and had continued to paint until 2012. "Paul Jenkins 1989-1992 Trial Proof" Abstract expressionism Work on Paper. This piece comes unframed on acid-free paper.

Yolande Ardissone was born in Normandy in 1927, from a young age she was inspired by the great impressionists of her time, Gauguin, Renoir and Van Gogh. She left Normandy at age 17 to study at the Ecole des Arts Appliques in Paris. Two years later she transferred to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts* and studied in the atelier* of Unterstellar. Her studies paired with her travels around the world brought a greatness to her style. Her works exhibit charming atmospheres and playful arrangements of landscapes, portraits, still lives, street village scenes and her acclaimed boating scenes. Inspired by color and rich texture, she has traveled to Italy, Spain, Algeria, Holland, Indonesia, Egypt, Haiti, China, Thailand, and Russia bringing her inspirations from these parts of the world into her pieces effortlessly. One can feel a wordiness to her touch, and a great enthusiasm for vivid impressionism.

She was discovered by the art merchant Wally Findlay in 1957 and started exhibiting her works in New York City, Beverly Hills, Palm Beach and other US-based galleries that same year. Yolande Ardissone has gained a considerable reputation. She loves to paint Provence, Paris and the French countryside. But her favorite topic is the region of Brittany in western France. Her works have been acquired by the Ville de Paris, the Musée de l'Ile de France, the Musée de la Marine, l'Etat, etc. The Ville de Paris has awarded her the Médaille d'Argent.  Museums and Exhibitions: Salons annuels de la Jeune Peinture; Salon des.

A vivid depiction of boats docked at the harbor with a lighthouse in the distance and houses along the water. Yolande was mostly known for her playful and sophisticated paintings executed with thick use of paint and sporadic, yet controlled brushwork. Her wonderful use of light and shadow is exhibited beautifully as we can feel the time of day and the atmosphere. This painting is signed lower left and comes displayed in a charming gold tone frame with hanging wire on verso. 

Maurice Bompard was born in 1857 Rodez, France. He was mostly known as a French orientalist painter that represented meticulously executed scenes from the Eastern daily life, but as well his particularly magnificent views of Venice. At a very young age he went to Marseille to study at the École des Beaux-Arts, later he went to Paris where he studied fine arts under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefèvre tuition. In 1882, he won a scholarship allowing him to visit Germany, Italy, Tunisia and Spain. It can be noticed the influence of his journey to Spain with some reminiscences of architectural decorations in the piece ‘Harem in Granada’  based in an imaginary scene, and of Tunisia with the piece ‘Tunisia Butcher’.

For Bompard, everything changed in an exhibition in 1890 with his first success ‘Les Bouchers de Chetma’, presented at the Salon des artistes as an evocation of a little oasis near Biskra, which he discovered on the occasion of his wedding trip in Algeria, in 1889. From 1889 to 1893, Bompard stayed every winter at Biskra, taking advantage as many other artists did of the privileged scenes of having the streets of Tilatou as his workshop. The fantasized Eastern scenarios and the support of his academic painting studies was followed by the stays in the Sahara: turning himself into a traveling painter. By painting in this scenarios it was observed a clarification of his chromatic palette to white, ochre and orange, under a pristine blue sky; being possible for the painter the use of a much more smooth material and a moderate sense of observation. Some of his works were painted on wood in a small format, dematerializing even more the light on these pieces, often capturing Biskris children wearing their red caps.

Because of the number of copies that he made for clients during his orientalist and colonial works, occasionally it's hard to set timelines for the completion of certain works. Several works by the artist have been sold at auction, including: ‘Tangier’ sold at Heritage Auctions, Dallas in 2014, ‘Courtyard Scene’ and ‘Venice Canal Scene’ sold at John Moran Auctioneers Inc., Altadena in 2014, ‘Lady Fishing’ sold at Grogan & Company, Dedham in 2014, ‘Still Life’ sold at Michaan's Auctions, Alameda in 2014, ‘La Rivière d'El-Kantara’ and ‘Une Rue de l'oasis de Chetma’ sold at Artcurial - Briest, Poulain, F. Tajan, Paris in 2013, ‘Vista Junto Al Canal’ sold at Morton Casa de Subastas, Lomas de Chapultepec in 2013.

Among his finest pieces of artwork is the oil on canvas of this collection ’Grand Canal at Sunset’ and some of his most important works are exhibited at the Musée Denys-Puech of Rodez, Museum d'Orsay and the Museum of Fine Arts of Marseille. In 1893, Bompard participated in the creation of the Society of Orientalist Painters, but it is also that year when, by feeling threatened during a trip to El Kantara, he decided not to return to Algeria. So he became a painter of Venice were he remain must of his life, which assure him a much greater fame. Bompard died in 1936 in Paris.

Mark English was born on September 19, 1933, in Hubbard, Texas. He attended the Hubbard High School and graduated in 1951, after which he enrolled into the University of Texas. He was then drafted into the military during the Korean War. In 1954, English married his first wife, Peggy Ann Littlejohn. In 1960, Mark graduated with honors from The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, with a BFA in Advertising Design. After gaining work experience in advertising agencies for the automobile industry, English and his family moved to Connecticut in 1964. He began an illustrious career, working with publications such as TIME Magazine and Sports Illustrated among others in the corporate, pharmaceutical, music and postage industry. In 1977, Hallmark Cards offered Mark an Artist-in-Residency to teach classes to its creative staff in Kansas City. It was there that he met his second wife, Wendy Buskey, and they married in 1983. In 1995, English retired from illustrations and began to paint for galleries in earnest. The same year, English and his son John co-founded the Illustration Academy, an art and design workshop catering to students and professionals. From 1999 onwards, English's work and paintings were exhibited in galleries across the United States and in London. His last exhibition was in 2019, in the Sager Braudis Gallery, in Columbia. Before his death, English was living in Liberty, Missouri with his wife.

English's unique illustration style appeared in publications as TIME, Sports Illustrated, Redbook, Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, McCalls, and many other corporate and pharmaceutical publications. He designed 14 stamps for the U.S. Postal Service, movie posters and album covers for John Denver, Julian Lennon, and The Who. In his paintings, English showcases his style in a variety of subjects, from figures, animals and florals to landscape and architecture. His works have been exhibited worldwide in galleries such as the Eleanor Ettinger Gallery in New York, Albemarle Gallery in London, Maxwell Gallery in San Francisco, and have been the subject to publication in four books, available on his website. He won hundreds of awards for his work and has been the most awarded illustrator in the history of the Society of Illustrators in New York City, including the 1967 Hamilton King Award from said Society of Illustrators. On August 8, 2019, Mark English died peacefully in Kansas City.