Joan Dvorsky

'Reclining Nude, ' after Degas study for 'Les Maheurs de la Ville d'Orleans'

1995

"Kathy - Figure Study" is an original pastel drawing on mauve paper by Janice-Korinek Niedzialkowski. The artist signed the piece center left. It features a nude woman seated on a cl...

Following in line with artists before her, like Rembrandt and van Gogh, Sandra Sweeny here presents a self portrait. The image is direct but subtle in its handling of materials, but ...

"Happy Birthday" is a watercolor and pencil on paper nude portrait signed by Warren Brandt. The lounging woman reclines on a bed unclothed, saying in a word bubble, "Happy Birthday E...

In this painting, Sylvia Spicuzza demonstrates her skill as an illustration artist, representing the Milwaukee character Billie the Brownie with a growing spring of a tree. An illustration like this could grace the pages of a children's book or illustrated magazine, or as an advertisement for Schuster’s Department Store. Watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper 8 x 5.75 inches, artwork 14 x 12 inches, frame Stamped with artist signature, below image, lower left. Presented in a new custom frame with a gold-finish neoclassical wood moulding, archival matting and mounting materials; and UV glass to inhibit fading. Born in 1908, Sylvia Spicuzza was the daughter of noted painter Francesco Spicuzza. Sylvia devoted herself to teaching art to the students of Lake Bluff Elementary School in Shorewood, WI. During this time Sylvia produced a magnificent body of work that was undiscovered until her death. Sylvia's work is rich, diverse and fascinating collection of drawings, watercolors and prints from the 1920's to the 1990's. Her style ranges from early figurative drawings to regionalism, Art Deco, lyrical abstractions of every conceivable subject (both real and imagined), as well as figurative paintings that reflect the work of Picasso, Kandinsky and Max Ernst in the 1930's and 1940's. Biomorphic and organic, Modernist images are presented with Sylvia Spicuzza's own unique sense of style, humor and fantasy. Billie the Brownie was a multi-media star of Christmas in Milwaukee from the 1920s to the 1950s. Years earlier, the writer and artist Palmer Cox...

"Monkey Island at Washington Park Zoo" is an original graphite and charcoal drawing on paper by Francesco Spicuzza. It depicts a number of figures gazing out at a monkey enclosure at a zoo. The artist signed the piece in the lower left. 8 1/2" x 11 3/4" art 17 1/4" x 21 1/8" frame Francesco J. Spicuzza, born in Sicily on July 23, 1883, came to America at the age of 8. He supported himself as a fruit peddler until a newspaperman gave him $4 a week to go to school. He attended classes at the Milwaukee Art Students League, where he studied under Alexander Mueller. There he learned to paint in the then-fashionable "Munich School" technique, with detailed realism in heavy browns and grayed-out hues. Spicuzza completed eight grades in four years, and then in 1911, three businessmen advanced him enough money to allow him to study in New York under artist and teacher John Carlson. It was during this time that Spicuzza changed his style of painting, developing an impressionistic use of color, form and atmospheric renditions. After a period of grinding poverty, one of Spicuzza's pictures won a major New York competition. It was the first of 60 wins, both in the U.S. and Paris. He became a fashionable painter, and many of the leading collections have his work. Spicuzza's typical works were beach scenes, still life, landscapes and portraits done in pastels, oils, ink, charcoal and watercolors. Much of his work traced the history of Milwaukee in the early 1900s. He was probably best known for his scenes of women and children splashing in...

This exquisite yet unfinished drawing by American cartoonist Al Capp, entitled 'Golf,' presents a humorous view of the beloved game. The composition depicts fo...

Image size: 16 x 20 ½ inches This is a study for the body of Medusa in Perseus on Pegasus Slaying Medusa, 1922-25, the mural panel installed on the ceiling side aisle of the Hunting...

Seated nude figure study by Joseph Yeager (American, 20th Century). This piece is unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of Yeager work directly from the estate. This piece is on heavy bond paper with ragged edges and is unfinished. No frame. Joseph "Joe" Yeager (American, 20th Century) was raised in Cleveland Ohio, where he went to art school at night and started his art career at 19. He was a commercial artist for the Cleveland Press...

"Seated Figure" Nude in Pastel and Color Pencil on Paper Beautiful modern figure drawing of a nude woman by Bay Area Artist George Wishon (Ameri...

"Standing Figure" Nude in Charcoal and Color Pencil on Paper Beautiful modern figure drawing of a nude woman by Bay Area Artist George Wishon (A...

Image dimensions: 5 ½ x 3 ½ inches Framed dimensions: 12 ⅛ x 10 ⅜ inches Inscribed at lower left: JS 220 Our drawing is also referred to as Young Boy Adjusting His Sandal, and is illustrated in the catalogue for Sargent's 1928 exhibition of drawings at Grand Central Art Galleries in New York. It is an example of an early study from life executed c. 1874-8.* Sargent drew continuously from an early age and had benefited from the emphasis on drawing at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence where he entered the life class in 1870. He arrived in Paris on May 16th, 1874, with a large portfolio of drawings...

European School, late 18th century. Red chalk with primo pensiero in graphite on cream laid paper, 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches (215 x 293 mm). Scattered light handling wear and multiple s...