Sandor Vago

Up from the Paddock

Oil Study of Two Horses Oil on canvas, c. 1880 Unsigned Estate stamp verso of canvas and on stretcher (see photo) Condition: Excellent New gilt frame aptterned after the period frame Painting size: 4 1/8 x 8 3/8 inches Frame size: 6 3/4 x 11 inches Provenance: Estate of the Artist Jill Newhouse Gallery, New York Eric G. Carlson Fine Prints, New York "Frederick (sic) Arthur Bridgman relocated from Alabama to New York with his family while still a youth. He was eventually employed as an engraver with the American Bank Note Company. He began studying art in his spare time inthe Art Schools of Brooklyn and the National Academy of Design in New York. He traveled to Paris in 1866 and became a favorite student of Gérôme which lead to Bridgman's exhibition in the Paris Salon in 1868. He made France his permanent home in 1870, and spent his summers on sketching tours of Brittany. He exhibited with the National Academy of Design in 1871. He lived in Egypt in 1873; scenes from Egyptian antiquity were prominent in his work. Bridgman's talents extended to writing and music; he was a noted composer and musician. The artist died in Rouen, France, in 1928." Courtesy SAAM (Smithsonian American Art Museum) "Frederick Arthur Bridgman was a well-known landscape and historical painter. He is most admired for his Orientalist subjects, including views of North Africa, in particular Egypt and Algeria, and his scenes from Ancient Egyptian history. Although born in Alabama, Bridgman came from a Yankee family. After the death of his doctor father and amid the mounting tension before the Civil War, the Bridgmans returned to their native New England, settling in New York. Young Frederick showed artistic gifts and was apprenticed as an engraver to the American Banknote Company. He attended evening classes at the Brooklyn Art Association at the same time. He also studied at the National Academy of Design, where he met Harry Humphrey Moore and Thomas Hovendon. In these early years, Bridgman exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Association. Bridgman travelled to France, where he visited Pont Aven, the artists’ colony in Brittany frequented by Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard as well as a circle of American painters around the Philadelphian Robert Wylie (1839-1877). Bridgman also studied in Paris with Jean Léon Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Bridgman made an important reputation for himself in France at the annual Paris Salons; in Britain, where he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1871 and 1904, and in Germany, where he showed at the Grosse Berliner Kunst Ausstellung. His work was included in the American displays at the 1889 Universal Exposition held in Paris. In 1872 Bridgman travelled to Spain and North Africa in the company of a British artist known only as ‘S’. In the winter of 1873-4 he made a second trip, visiting Egypt in the company of fellow American artist Charles Sprague Pearce. Bridgman married a young Bostonian, Florence Mott Baker; the deterioration of his wife’s health from the terrible inherited neurological disorder Huntington’s Chorea led him to return to Algiers in 1885 for a respite for them both in a warm climate. He wrote a fascinating travel narrative describing his journeys in North Africa, Winters in Algiers, published in 1888 and illustrated with woodcuts from his works. Bridgman’s great success culminated at the Paris Salons of 1877, 1878 and 1879 with a trio of paintings portraying life in the ancient Near East...

Still Life with Peaches and Grapes Oil on paper, 1890 Signed and dated lower right (see photo) Image size: 5 8 5/8 inches Frame size: 10 x 13 1/2 inches Housed in the original frame ...

Study for the Mural "Westward Movement" Graphite, watercolor, gouache and paint on paper, 1936 Signed in pencil lower center (see photo) A study leading up to his mural Justice of th...

Study for the Mural "Westward Movement" Graphite, watercolor, gouache and paint on paper, 1936 Signed in pencil lower center (see photo) A study leading up to his mural Justice of th...

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...

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 ...

Dramatic and colorful painting of two Koi. Circa 2000. Signed lower right corner "Linda H." Presented in white painted frame. Image size: 18"H x 36"W.

This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Farm Mural Study, c. 1940, oil on Masonite, signed lower right, 15 x 42 inches; presented in a newer wood frame About the Painting A delightful regionalist composition, Cecil Head’s Farm Mural Study features a tidy and verdant farmscape where the animals outnumber the farmer and remind the viewer of an idealized fecundity of the American Midwest. Head gained early recognition for his mural designs in 1934 when his work was selected to represent Indiana in a Public Works of Art Project exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Head excelled at rural Indiana scenes and the present work bears comparison to his most famous painting, Potato Planters, a 1936 work, which won first prize at the Hoosier Salon and was exhibited at the Carnegie Institute in 1941. Both works feature hard-working farmers in straw hats standing against the back drop of farm buildings. A critic's commentary about Potato Planters also applies to Farm Mural Study, "the various farm objects...

Landscape with Cows, c. 1930s, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, signed lower middle About the Painting Landscape with Cows is a fine example of California Scene painting, the West Coast version of the American Scene genre practiced during the 1930s and 1940s by the likes of Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry. Armer stands out as one of the rare female oil painters working in this style in California, as most of her contemporaries were men whose fame largely depended on watercolor as a medium. Like many Regionalist painters, Armer heeded the call to paint the local scene during the 1930s and even in the depths of the Great Depression, she captured the natural beauty and abundance of the California ranch lands. For many migrants from the Dust Bowl and the southern parts of the United States, California was a golden land of opportunity. In Landscape with Cows, Armer plays on this theme by portraying the fields and distant foothills in a variety of golden hues. This work is a celebration of California’s unique geography, and it fits nicely into the grand tradition of American landscape painting. Armer’s spare treatment of the distant hills and buildings presages the abstract forms she later began to explore in earnest. Like many other artists working during the 1930s, Armer moved strongly towards abstraction by the 1940s, making her critically celebrated California Scene landscapes rare. About the Artist Ruth Armer...

Both spare and dynamic, Karl Hartman’s hyper-saturated countrysides and surreal depictions of Americana perfectly match the vividness of our late-summer heatwave. Hartman’s tightly c...

Both spare and dynamic, Karl Hartman’s hyper-saturated countrysides and surreal depictions of Americana perfectly match the vividness of our late-summer heatwave. Hartman’s tightly c...

Both spare and dynamic, Karl Hartman’s hyper-saturated countrysides and surreal depictions of Americana perfectly match the vividness of our late-summer h...