Renaissance Man Antiques ART FOR SALE

Ka´da´r depicts a rotund figure with hints of face, hands and feet, surrounded by a patchwork of vibrating color. The great American art patron Katherine Dreier befriended the artist and arranged for two exhibitions of his work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in the 1920s.

This very rare and important study for "The Spirit of Oshkosh," a major mural in Wisconsin, was painted by Eugene Savage in 1937. Savage is best known for a spectacular set of murals illustrating the history and lore of Hawaii commissioned by Matson Shipping Line for the S. S. Lurline, executed in the 1940s but not installed until the 1950s. He was a prolific painter and muralist, executing works for the Texas Centennial Buildings in Dallas, other public buildings in Chicago and Indiana, and for Columbia and Yale Universities. He often favored scenes, like this, which contrasted figures with stylized elements of the local landscape. In this case, he is showing Chief Oshkosh, a major figure in local Indian history, along with symbols of the local lumber industry, the Fox River, and forefathers looking into the starry sky. Note, too, Savage's bird's eye view of the Oshkosh city center, with boats plying the water beside.

This painting demonstrates Du Bois' mastery of the human figure, expressed in his usual Mannerist, attenuated way. The artist was famed as a scenic and costume designer for dozens of Broadway productions beginning in the 1930s.

Entitled "Nondum" or "not yet," this panel depicts a mysterious, ecstatic world that seems to represent both paradise and regret. Ladd also sculpted a panel depicting the horrors of World War I, so "Nondum" may be a companion piece, showing Peace instead of War, Utopia rather than Dystopia.

In this painting, True suggests a fractured terrace scene -- with hints of a liquor bottle, martini glass, palm fronds and scalloped napkins -- perhaps from her home in Ithaca or an apartment in New York City. Her colors are vivid, and the scene is full of life.

Demonstrating his mastery of allegorical subjects and the nude figure, this large octagonal sculptural bronze panel -- featuring a nude male figure reaching out to constrain the rising spirit of his expired love -- is reminiscent of another allegorical subject by Pegram -- "Perseus and Andromeda."

Painted by Dunbar Beck, one of America's finest muralists in the 1930s and 40s, this classic example of Art Deco stylized allegorical painting served as a study for a series of murals that Beck painted for the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. Beck also painted a WPA mural for the Post Office in Danvers, Massachusetts, along with a number of private commissions.

A brilliant and lively depiction of a slice of Black America at the end of World War II, probably in New Orleans. Brent was a well-known illustration artist in Louisiana; this example is reminiscent of the observant and lively paintings of American society by Miguel Covarrubias.

One of Germany's great inter-war Expressionists, strongly influenced by Cubism, Josef Eberz painted a number of brilliantly-hued, high-energy paintings as well as a series of prints and lithographs. This example of a kneeling male nude, one of a group available from Renaissance Man, is a very fine and rare example of his work. The print may have a connection to a group of illustrations that Eberz did for "Die Pole des Eros," an important and early series of gay stories written by Curt Moreck (pseudonym of Konard Haemmerling), in 1918.

This depiction of a male youth is brimming with warmth and life, virtually leaping from the canvas. Interestingly, though Paxton completed the figure here, he never fully finished the young man's white shirt; apparently the painting was set aside and signed at some later point.

Created by one of the great practitioners of Art Deco during its heyday in France, this very rare print by Jean Mayodon pictures a nude female riding the tail of a merman, surrounded by other nude figures in an Edenic world. As usual, Mayodon's male figures have impossibly wide and powerful torsos, and his female figures are small-hipped and athletic. Here, the figures are shown cavorting in a perfect world filled with flowers, running deer and fantastical birds. This print is signed and numbered 6 out of 50.

This pair of sculptures was originally designed to serve as tabletop torchere lamps, with light washing the wall above, and lighting the eyes of each head. The artist became famous for the masks he made of celebrities such as Mae West, Governor Huey Long of Louisiana, and Greta Garbo.

Painted by Eduard Buk Ulreich, who contributed a set of murals to Radio City Music Hall in Rockefeller Center in New York, as well as WPA murals across the nation, this beautiful depiction of a female nude is set in a surreal landscape of clouds, stark brick walls and collage-like foliage that bring to mind the work of Magritte, de Chirico and Dali, among others. Painted in 1933, the work is dedicated "To Tony," clearly considered an important painting by the artist.

An important example of Art Deco sculpture, possibly unique, this depiction of a female nude with two doves was created by Gunnar Torhamn, best known as a painter of laborers on farms and seasides in his native Sweden. Designed to serve as an internally-lighted sconce, the cast glass sculpture retains its original brass base, which has been rewired and is in perfect working order. The nude is kissing a dove about to take flight, with another dove at her knee, and is a perfect illustration of stylized Art Deco figuration at its best. The glass was cast by Glo¨ssner & Co, and the piece is signed by Torhamn.

A true masterpiece of genre painting depicts idyllic World War II-era suburban life filled with children playing and adults attending to their homes and chores. Jones, an accomplished illustrator and painter, captures Mid-Century life brilliantly and sympathetically.

This portrait of a Navajo woman and her child has all the hallmarks of Martha Walter's mature work -- confident and bold brushwork, vivid colors, and an ability to bring life and dignity to her subject. This painting retains its original incised and painted frame, with stylized, geometric ornament.

This vivid painting, glowing with the colors of red clay, slate and dusty pink, captures the moment with an acrobat is about to mount his horse. The plume atop the horse's head, and the hint of canvas and curtains behind the figures, give a sense of the circus environment.

This original manuscript for an unpublished book, "Pila and the Lizard," is accompanied by cover art and a total of 12 Art Deco watercolors painted to illustrate the book. "Pila" tells the story of a young man who visits his grandmother and hears tales of legendary Hawaiian figures.

This early and important painting depicts a ghostly figure -- reputedly the son of a dear family friend -- in the midst of the natural landscape Merizon loved.

This brilliant example of Art Deco painting by Jan Matulka shows hints of the modern take on Cubism that the artist worked out with Stuart Davis. Matulka was born in Prague and came to America as a young man, and trained here and in Paris, where he became exposed to Cubism. He exhibited in New York, created illustrations for New Masses which advanced the interest of American workers, and worked for the Works Progress Administration in the Roosevelt years. This painting shows all the hallmarks of high Art Deco, with its stylized female nude with Classical features, its boldly-painted unicorn, and its exaggerated plant forms, all in a brilliant palette of cerulean blue, mossy green and deep black.

This monumental bronze relief sculpture depicts four nude athletes receiving the victory laurel from a seated Benjamin Franklin, founder of the University of Pennsylvania. Franklin is shown in 18th century garb, while the young men are modeled after students who had competed in the Olympics.

Clearly demonstrating his love for the culture and sensuality of his adopted Hawaii, and brilliantly executed, Robert Lee Eskridge's "Stone Fishing" is a landmark in Art Deco printmaking. Although his work often shows the influence of Cubism and abstract art, Eskridge’s paintings and prints also capture the exoticism and sensuality of his subjects. He lived in Hawaii for many years and is renowned for his depictions of native Hawaiians along the beach or in the ocean. He clearly enjoyed depicting a wide range of tropical settings, and painted scenes in Brazil and the South Seas. This print relates to “Bora Bora,” an important painting from the same era.