During the second edition of the Art and Antique Dealers League of America Spring Show NYC, opening on May 3 and running through May 6 at the Park Avenue Armory, fairgoers will have the rich opportunity to feast their eyes upon a diverse range of paintings that span from Old Masters through the twentieth century. Here the world’s leading galleries will show off some of their finest pieces, in many cases unveiling them for public viewing for the very first time. Here are some the highlights:
From London’s Piacenti Art Gallery comes a remarkably well-preserved 17th-century canvas depicting a rare subject: The Young David Gathering Stones for His Slingshot. Painted between 1617 and 1619 by Domenica Fetti (1589-1623), the painting features a beautifully rendered riverbed, bright sunlight, and a ruddy-haired and determined-looking David, all evoked in the distinctive pictorial style of an Italian virtuoso. Having lived in private collections since its creation, this painting is the only Fetti currently on the market, and is coming into the public light for the first time.
Another exceptional piece at the show appears courtesy of Questroyal Fine Art of New York: Narcissus and Anemones by the American realist painter William Glackens (1870-1938), cofounder of the Ashcan School art movement. Because of his highly distinctive colorist style-exemplified in this oil on canvas-Glackens earned the byname “The American Renoir.”
Rehs Galleries of New York unveils an enchanting double-portrait of two winged cherubs entitled Armistice by Émile Munier (1840-1895). Gifted with an exceptional talent for depicting movement and expression, Munier exhibited at the Paris Salon and three times won prestigious medals from the École des Beaux-Arts.
Another French painting is Bacchus and Ariadne on the Island of Naxos, offered by Robert Simon Fine Art. Painted by François Marot (1666-1719), the work powerfully captures the dramatic moment when Bacchus, god of the grape harvest, first encounters the mistress of mazes, Ariadne, who has been abandoned by her lover Theseus on the island of Naxos.
Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts of New York is offering An Elegant Lady with Her French Bulldog in an Interior by Charles Joseph Watelet (1867-1954). Dog-lovers-especially those partial to this breed, which descends directly from the dogs of the Molossian, an ancient Greek tribe-will find this painting most captivating. In a more modern vein is To the Social Club, an oil on canvas by Nancy Maybin Ferguson (1872-1967) that is being put forth by Avery Galleries, Bryn Mawr, Pa. Ferguson was a plein-air painter known for her charming depictions of small-town street scenes.
From Thomas Colville Fine Art comes Evening Among the Ruins, a compellingly ethereal work from 1902 by American painter Arthur Bowen Davies (1863-1928), a member of The Eight, the moniker given the founders of the American realist movement known as the Ash Can School. Besides a highly collected body of work, much of it in prestigious museum collections, Davies is also remembered as one of the principal organizers of the momentous 1913 Armory Show.
Not to be confused with Davies is the American master Stuart Davis (1892-1964), represented with an exceptional work from Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts of New York. Completed around 1920 in quick, improvisational and facile lines, Davis’s Composers of Musical Comedies vividly evokes the rhythmic and lyrical essence of jazz as well as the carefree spirit of the Roaring Twenties.
Long-time collector of works by Jean Dufy (1888-1964), Linda Bernell brings one of the captivating French artist’s works from the 1920s, Les Yachts. “I have wonderful artworks that once belonged to my beloved uncle Max Bodner, a prominent collector of Impressionist works who passed away 25 years ago. Many of these works were in his possession for years, but they have not been displayed on the Internet or shown in catalogues–nor have they been on exhibition, or at auction ever,” says Bernell. “Les Yachts is such a work, and the intensity and depth of the painting’s colors invariably draws
Hailing from Ontario is Rumi Galleries presents Feeding the Birds by Dorothea Sharpe. At the forefront of the British Impressionist School, Sharpe (1874-1955) is justly renowned for her delicate paintings of children at play-and this work delightfully represents a toddler feeding seagulls in the shallow water of a stream.
The art movement known as Imagism is recognized as a Chicago-centered offshoot of the Pop Art that developed in New York. Roger Brown (1941-1997) is a key figure of Imagism, and his 1975 painting Looks Like Rain comes courtesy of Abby M. Taylor Fine Art of New York.
An intimate of the Paris avant-garde circle and one of the very few female Cubists, Marie Laurencin (1883-1956) has a presence with Jeune Fille à la Guitare, a delightful oil on canvas brought forth by Daphne Alzaraki Fine Art. Watercolour of Birds (on pith paper), offered by Earle Vandekar of Knightsbridge Inc., White Plains, N.Y., is one of a fine set of a dozen China Trade watercolors and dates from around 1840-1860.
