by Burt Proctor (1901-1980, American). Proctor became a painter of western landscape and of cowhand scenes with men on horseback. Much of his painting was done in his leisure time afforded by his early career as mining engineer and later as a successful commercial illustrator. Of his early talent, it was said he painted horses…
Voting
The word “ballot” is derived from the Italian word “ballotta,” meaning little ball. The artifact here is a Civil War-era ballot box with 14 black and 25 white clay balls or marbles. Well before the American Revolution, fraternal clubs such as the Masons were using similar boxes to decide elections. Marbles or balls were dropped…
Home on the Range
by Lon Magargee (1883-1960, American). At age 13, Magargee ran away from his upper-class Pennsylvania home and went West in 1896, led by his zest for the wild and adventuresome life. Here he established a reputation as a cowboy painter and illustrator with work most associated with Arizona Brewing Company ads featuring humorous aspects of…
Arbita, the Lost Portrait
by Walter Kuhn (1877–1949, American). Kuhn was a painter and impresario who organized the influential Armory Show of 1913, which was America’s first large-scale introduction to European Modernism.. The 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art, held in the New York Armory in Manhattan, was sponsored by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors. The show…
School’s Out!
By Amos Sewell (American 1901-1983). Sewell was a prolific illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post and other popular magazines as well as pulp-fiction covers. Here is a rendering for a Post story for late spring, appropriately titled, “School’s Out!”
Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk and 5th Earl of Berkshire (1739-1779)
, by Joshua Reynolds (English, 1723-1792). Joshua Reynolds, a contemporary of Gainsborough, was the dominant English portraitist of the “Age of Johnson,” and painted up to 3,000 portraits, including those of many of the most wealthy and famous figures of his day. A painter of great energy, he was said to have worked constantly, never…
Rocky Coastline
by Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld. (1758–1846, French). At the outset of his career, Bidauld studied and painted throughout France and Italy, gaining a reputation as a “history painter.” Returning to Paris in 1790, he entered the Salon, in which he participated regularly. In 1792 he began receiving official commissions and, after 30 years of commissions and…
Two pen and ink religious scenes
by Girolamo Bonini (Italian, 1620-1680). Christ Giving Communion to the Apostles at the Last Supper. Lucas Medicus, Salutat Vos. Bonini was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Bologna. He was the pupil of the painter Francesco Albani and part of a team of painters who decorated the Sala Farnese of the…
An Englishman’s Wife
by Walter Martin Baumhofer (1904-1987, American). Redbook Magazine interior art for a story involving American officers in England during World War II. Baumhofer was recognized for his cover paintings on such iconic magazines as The American Weekly, Collier’s, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, McCalls, Redbook, and Woman’s Day. He was also a prolific illustrator for pulp fiction magazines…
Portrait of Jan Asselijn, Painter (“Krabbetje”), c. 1647
by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669). Etching, drypoint, and engraving. Rembrandt is considered to have been one of the finest painters and printmakers in European art history.