Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 10

Leon Kroll
Building New York

c. 1915

About the Item

Building New York Watercolor on paper, c. 1915 Signed by the artist lower right (see photo) Partial watermark: "MADE IN ENGLAND... LINEN FIBER" Excellent, COLORS FRESH AND VIBRANT Brown paper tape adhered to edges by the artist during the painting of the watercolor Provenance: Private Collection, Kansas City, MO Note: Bernard Danenberg Galleries did an exhibition and catalog, The Rediscovered Years, 1970. It focused exclusively on Kroll's New York paintings. Several of the works have similar compositional devices including the angular metal structures, silhouetted figure, steam rising and the New York skyline as a background. The painting "Building Manhattan", 1915 has a similar crane dissecting the composition, steam rising and silhouetted figures as this watercolor does. Notice the men working on the far right edge and the similarity of the sub-structure to the present watercolor. (see photos)
  • Creator:
    Leon Kroll (1884-1975, American)
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1915
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 15.375 in (39.06 cm)Width: 11.375 in (28.9 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Brown paper tape at the edges of the sheet from the artist's working method of adhering the paper to a board while creating the painting.
  • Gallery Location:
    Fairlawn, OH
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: FA64171stDibs: LU1406807052
More From This SellerView All
  • Horses Leaving the Barn
    By Adolf Dehn
    Located in Fairlawn, OH
    Horses Leaving the Barn Watercolor on paper, 1940 Signed and dated lower left corner (see photo) Condition: Excellent Image: 14 1/2 x 21” Frame: 25” x 31” Provenance; Associated American Artists, New York (see photo of label) Mamdouha and Elmer Holmes Bobst Displayed in an original wormy chestnut frame with OP3 Acrylic. Most probably from the AAA Dehn watercolor exhibition of 1940. Vintage original framing chosen by the artist. Note: Elmer Holmes Bobst (1884–1978) was an American businessman and philanthropist who worked in the pharmaceutical industry. His wife, Mamdouha, was also well known philanthropist. Bobst was born in Lititz, Pennsylvania. He aspired to become a doctor, but instead, he taught himself pharmacology. After his wife Ethel composed his interview letter, he became manager and treasurer of the Hoffman-LaRoche Chemical Works by 1920. When Bobst retired from the company in 1944, he was one of the nation's highest paid corporate executives. In 1945 he took charge of the ailing William Warner Company (later Warner–Lambert) and he remained board chairman until his retirement. Bobst had close connections to President Dwight Eisenhower, but was also a close friend of President Richard Nixon. Note: In 1940, the year of this watercolor, Dehn and Elizabeth Timmerman visited Waterville, MN on their way to Colorado Sprint, Colorado where Dehn was to teach lithography and watercolor. This watercolor is obviously a view of the area around Waterville. Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere—not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic “little magazines” such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895-1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs. In many ways Dehn’s later artistic achievement was clearly a reaction against the grinding rural poverty of his childhood. After graduating from high school in 1914 at the age of 19—an age not unusual in farming communities at the time, where school attendance was often irregular—Dehn attended the Minneapolis School of Art from 1914 to 1917, whose character followed strongly reflected that of its director, Munich-trained Robert Kohler, an artistic conservative but a social radical. There Dehn joined a group of students who went on to nationally significant careers, including Wanda Gag (later author of best-selling children’s books); John Flanagan (a sculptor notable for his use of direct carving) Harry Gottlieb (a notable social realist and member of the Woodstock Art Colony), Elizabeth Olds (a printmaker and administrator for the WPA), Arnold Blanch (landscape, still-life and figure painter, and member of the Woodstock group), Lucille Lunquist, later Lucille Blanch (also a gifted painter and founder of the Woodstock art colony), and Johan Egilrud (who stayed in Minneapolis and became a journalist and poet). Adolf became particularly close to Wanda Gag (1893-1946), with whom he established an intense but platonic relationship. Two years older than he, Gag was the daughter of a Bohemian artist and decorator, Anton Gag, who had died in 1908. After her husband died, Wanda’s mother, Lizzi Gag, became a helpless invalid, so Wanda was entrusted with the task of raising and financially supporting her six younger siblings. This endowed her with toughness and an independent streak, but nonetheless, when she met Dehn, Wanda was Victorian and conventional in her artistic taste and social values. Dehn was more socially radical, and introduced her to radical ideas about politics and free love, as well as to socialist publications such as The Masses and The Appeal to Reason. Never very interested in oil painting, in Minneapolis Dehn focused on caricature and illustration--often of a humorous or politically radical character. In 1917 both Dehn and Wanda won scholarships to attend the Art Students League, and consequently, in the fall of that year both moved to New York. Dehn’s art education, however, ended in the summer of 1918, shortly after the United States entered World War I, when he was drafted to serve in the U. S. Army. Unwilling to fight, he applied for status as a conscientious objector, but was first imprisoned, then segregated in semi-imprisonment with other Pacifists, until the war ended. The abuse he suffered at this time may well explain his later withdrawal from taking political stands or making art of an overtly political nature. After his release from the army, Dehn returned to New York where he fell under the spell of the radical cartoonist Boardman Robinson and produced his first lithographs. He also finally consummated his sexual relationship with Wanda Gag. The Years in Europe: 1922-1929 In September of 1921, however, he abruptly departed for Europe, arriving in Paris and then moving on to Vienna. There in the winter of 1922 he fell in love with a Russian dancer, Mura Zipperovitch, ending his seven-year relationship with Wanda Gag. He and Mura were married in 1926. It was also in Vienna that he produced his first notable artistic work. Influenced by European artists such as Jules Pascin and Georg Grosz, Dehn began producing drawings of people in cafes, streets, and parks, which while mostly executed in his studio, were based on spontaneous life studies and have an expressive, sometimes almost childishly wandering quality of line. The mixture of sophistication and naiveté in these drawings was new to American audiences, as was the raciness of their subject matter, which often featured pleasure-seekers, prostitutes or scenes of sexual dalliance, presented with a strong element of caricature. Some of these drawings contain an element of social criticism, reminiscent of that found in the work of George Grosz, although Dehn’s work tended to focus on humorous commentary rather than savagely attacking his subjects or making a partisan political statement. Many Americans, including some who had originally been supporters of Dehn such as Boardman Robinson, were shocked by these European drawings, although George Grocz (who became a friend of the artist in this period) admired them, and recognized that Dehn could also bring a new vision to America subject matter. As he told Dehn: “You will do things in America which haven’t been done, which need to be done, which only you can do—as far at least as I know America.” A key factor in Dehn’s artistic evolution at this time was his association with Scofield Thayer...
    Category

    1940s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Irish Sea
    By Edward Dobrotka
    Located in Fairlawn, OH
    Irish Sea Watercolor, 1947 Signed and dated by the artist lower right Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 12 x 18 inches Provenance: Estate of the Artist ...
    Category

    1940s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Breaking Up of the Penelope
    By Edward Dobrotka
    Located in Fairlawn, OH
    Breaking Up of the Penelope watercolor on artists watercolor board, 1942 Signed and dated by the artist lower right (see photo) Exhibitions: Cleveland, OH, The Cleveland Museum of Art, May 3 - June 11, 1944: "The 26th Annual Ehibition of Works by Artists and Craftsmen of the Western Reserve," , (label on verso) Youngstown OH, The Butler Insititue of American Art, 1943: "1943 New Year Show," , (label on verso) "Ed Dobrotka was one of comic-book illustrator Joe Shuster's early assistants. In the studio, he worked on the 'Superman' series, inking the pencils of artists including Shuster, John Sikela, Leo Nowak and Wayne Boring. Dobrotka did do some pencilling of his own, however he returned to inking exclusively in 1945. In the following years, he worked with Sikela on the 'Superboy' series until the 1950s. He has also work on the solo 'Lois Lane...
    Category

    1940s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • untitled (The White Barn with Farmers and Horse)
    By William Grauer
    Located in Fairlawn, OH
    untitled (The White Barn with Farmers and Horse) Watercolor, c. 1950 Signed by the artist in ink lower right: Wm. C. Grauer Numbered in pencil verso: 152 Provenance: Estate of the Artist Gretchen Grauer Vanderhoof, the artist's daughter Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 18 3/4 x 24 inches William C. Grauer (1895-1985) William C. Grauer (1895-1985) was born in Philadelphia to German immigrant parents. After attending the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, Grauer received a four year scholarship from the City of Philadelphia to pursue post graduate work. It was during this time that Grauer began working as a designer at the Decorative Stained Glass Co. in Philadelphia. Following his World War I service in France, Grauer moved to Akron, Ohio where he opened a studio in 1919 with his future brother-in-law, the architect George Evans...
    Category

    1950s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Minneapolis
    By Adolf Dehn
    Located in Fairlawn, OH
    Note: Dehn was born in Minnesota. He attended the Minneapolis Institute of Art. This work is a view of the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis with the Pillsbury "A"-Mill in the backg...
    Category

    1930s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Ink

  • Study of an Italian Town with Women in a Doorway
    By Jared French
    Located in Fairlawn, OH
    Study of an Italian Town with Women in a Doorway Graphite on cream wove paper, c. 1960 Signed by the artist in pencil lower right (see photo) A master of ...
    Category

    1960s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Graphite

You May Also Like
  • Two Soldiers with Machine Gun
    By Everett Shinn
    Located in Miami, FL
    Arnold Finkel Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Heritage Some slight fading. Mounted to illustration board, Could be Unframed - Not sure if it is framed but the frame is old with wear. Reco...
    Category

    1940s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Pot Creek, NM, Late Summer
    By Jane K. Starks
    Located in Dallas, TX
    Jane Starks immerses herself in the history and archaeology of the places she loves to paint: wilderness areas of Texas, New Mexico, and Utah. The paintings are begun and completed o...
    Category

    2010s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Gouache, Paper

  • Big Red
    By Michael Kotasek
    Located in Sag Harbor, NY
    Awards 2013 Loring W. Coleman Award for Watercolor/ Allied Artists of America, 100th Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club 2011 Mary Bryan Memorial Medal / Allied Artis...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Landscape Drawings and Wa...

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Bowers
    By Michael Kotasek
    Located in Sag Harbor, NY
    Awards 2013 Loring W. Coleman Award for Watercolor/ Allied Artists of America, 100th Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club 2011 Mary Bryan Memorial Medal / Allied Artis...
    Category

    Early 2000s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Coastal Path
    By Michael Kotasek
    Located in Sag Harbor, NY
    Awards 2013 Loring W. Coleman Award for Watercolor/ Allied Artists of America, 100th Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club 2011 Mary Bryan Memorial Medal / Allied Artis...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Landscape Drawings and Wa...

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Mansard Roof
    By Michael Kotasek
    Located in Sag Harbor, NY
    Awards 2013 Loring W. Coleman Award for Watercolor/ Allied Artists of America, 100th Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club 2011 Mary Bryan Memorial Medal / Allied Artis...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Landscape Drawings and Wa...

    Materials

    Watercolor

Recently Viewed

View All