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Artist
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Title | Thumbnail |
Notes old |
Media |
Signature status |
| Wilbur Meese |
Winter Farmstead |
 |
Nicely presented in acid-free materials and hanging in the gallery |
Watercolor on paper |
Signed lower right |
| Wilbur Meese |
Grist Mill |
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Watercolor on paper |
Signed lower right |
| Wilbur Meese |
Gray Barn |
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|
Watercolor on paper |
Signed lower right |
| Otto Stark |
Early Morning |
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This work was featured in our 2nd Annual Curated Sale of Historic Indiana Art, April 8th, 2018 at the Indianapolis Art Center.
This painting was featured in our weekly email on 3/22/17 along with the following gallery comments:
We have a late addition -- Otto Stark's Early Morning (imaged above) was just inserted into the sale. It's an interesting piece -- very tonal! Of historic note is that Stark and J. Ottis Adams traveled to New Smyrna, FL at the end of 1920 and painted there in the winter of 1921. This would have surely come from that trip. |
Oil on Canvas |
Signed Lower Right |
| Hallie Pace Prow |
The Fodder is in the Shocks |
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|
Oil on board |
Signed lower right |
| Kenneth Reeve |
Covered Bridge in Winter |
 |
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 5/19/17 along with the following gallery comments:
Gallery Comments
Kenneth Reeve moved to Brown County from Chicago where he had been a commerical illustrator. Once relocated to the Peaceful Valley, he studied etching under George Jo Mess and became a very good printmaker. Today's paintings are two cute little watercolors -- Reeve's other preferred medium. Very Brown County! |
Watercolor on Paper |
Signed Lower Left |
| Kenneth Reeve |
A January Day |
 |
SOLD
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 5/19/17 along with the following gallery comments:
Gallery Comments
Kenneth Reeve moved to Brown County from Chicago where he had been a commerical illustrator. Once relocated to the Peaceful Valley, he studied etching under George Jo Mess and became a very good printmaker. Today's paintings are two cute little watercolors -- Reeve's other preferred medium. Very Brown County! |
Watercolor on Paper |
Signed Lower Right |
| Frank Vietor |
Nickel Plate Berkshire, Class S |
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|
Acrylic on Board |
Signed Lower Right |
| Dale (Philip) Bessire |
Spring Stream |
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 4/28/17 along with the following gallery comments:
Gallery Comments
Dale Bessire had a pretty predictable formula -- large, pallete knife (and certainly brush) landscapes depicting simple, pastoral Brown County landscapes. Many of these reflect Autumn. Spring Stream (Bessire's title) breaks rank with what we often see -- a cute little vernal landscape. It could be today in Brown County with the dogwood and the redbud just showing their colors. And I think, off to the left is that secret grove of morel mushrooms by the fallen Elm tree! Clean, perfect condition, original frame -- a nice compact work. |
Oil on Board |
Signed Lower Left |
| Varaldo Guiseppe (V.J.) Cariani |
Still Life with Zinnia |
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 2/3/17 along with the following gallery comments:
V. J. Cariani spent nearly his entire adult life in Nashville, IN. He was the lifetime partner of famous portraitist Marie Goth and a very accomplished painter himself. While he painted many landscapes, his specialty was floral still lifes. They typically featured flowers from his garden, often feature a blue damask table cloth and the floral output was nearly always large and tightly rendered. Today's example is straight from that playbook. |
Oil on Canvas |
Signed Lower Right |
| Paul Randall |
Studebaker 1945 Manual 'Car and Maintenance of your Farm Truck' |
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Included with Paul Randall original 19x25 painting, used as the cover art for the Studebaker manual. |
publication |
na |
| Frank Vietor |
Southern Indiana Railroad |
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|
Acrylic on Board |
Signed Lower Right |
| Wilbur Meese |
Lighthouse |
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|
Watercolor on Paper |
Signed Lower Right |
| John (Jan) Zwara |
Central State Hospital |
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 1/20/17 along with the following gallery comments:
We featured a piece by Jan Zwara last week (since sold) and we’re doubling down with another this week. By way of summary, Zwara was a Hungarian immigrant trained in art. He settled in Indianapolis around 1930 and was essentially an itinerate painter. This wandering was likely the result of his mental health condition – untreated schizophrenia. Patronized by the Vonnegut family and at their urging, he spent six months at Central State Hospital in 1938. While there, he continued to paint at his typically ferocious pace. The output was entirely watercolor and gouache – no oils. Most of these paintings, which were landscapes featuring the hospital grounds, are now part of the Indiana Medical History Museum (still on the Central State property). Ten years ago, we had one outstanding Zwara Central State piece. And now we have another. Today’s work, Central State Hospital by Jan Zwara is a watercolor depicting the main hospital building and dated June, 1938 -- coinciding with Zwara’s period of internment at that facility. The painting is strong. But of even more significance is the timing and the subject. As mentioned above, the Central State works by Zwara are extremely rare as most still reside at the Indiana Medical History Museum. And he was only a resident of the facility six months.
The anguished artist seems to so have our sympathy – Van Gogh, Gaugin, Pollock, etc. Zwara falls squarely into this paradigm. He painted to live and lived to paint. Without painting, his life would have been unordered and unintelligible (as it largely was anyway). Today’s work is extremely important in the context of his artistic career. A singular artistic document capturing all of the man, Jan Zwara.
The piece features quite a bit of pencil scribbles and notation (very typical of Zwara). It’s in flawless shape and is being sold unframed and loose. I understand the price is salty. If there is one Zwara to have in a collection of Indiana art, this is it. |
Watercolor on Paper |
Signed Lower Center-Right |
| Louise Zaring |
Still Life |
 |
SOLD
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This work was featured in our 2nd Annual Curated Sale of Historic Indiana Art, April 8th, 2018 at the Indianapolis Art Center.
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 2/17/17 along with the following gallery comments:
I’m winging editorial content today because I have very little, tangible information about Zaring’s life and career. She had early classical influences studying under the likes of Twachtman, Hawthorne and Chase and I believe her earlier work reflects this. I’m very drawn to the few early pieces I’ve seen. I do know she spent the end of her life in Miami and I understand that the Miami Art League has her artistic estate. To that I’d say: Free Louise Zaring! Not enough stuff on the market and she was a good painter. Today’s piece is early and clearly shows that classical influence. Very reminiscent of the work of Winnifred Brady Adams who often incorporated chargers and textures into her still lifes. Wish there were more like this out there! |
Oil on Board |
Signed Lower Left |
| Wilbur Meese |
Victorian Gothic |
 |
This painting was featured in our weekly email on 2/24/17 along with the following gallery comments:
Everything is broken at Fine Estate today! Email accounts are goofed up, phone batteries are dying randomly and reparations are moving like glue. So I'm improvising... Wilbur Meese worked almost entirely in watercolor throughout his career. Most of his traditional pieces are winter landscapes. But he had an alter-ego that liked to create these very formed, symetric fantasy pieces. Today's painting, Victorian Gothic is from that latter work. It's a very large piece -- painted on a 'full sheet' of watercolor paper. Painting is in great condition and is offered unframed. |
Mixed media on paper |
Signed lower right |
| Wilbur Meese |
Victorian Gothic #2 |
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This work was featured in our 2nd Annual Curated Sale of Historic Indiana Art, April 8th, 2018 at the Indianapolis Art Center.
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Gouache on paper |
Signed lower right |
| Hallie Pace Prow |
A Brown County Park View |
 |
SOLD
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 3/17/17 along with the following gallery comments:
Hallie Pace Prow hails from Salem, Indiana and lived most of her adult life in Bloomington. She was married to an older doctor and after he passed away, she took up painting in ernest to support herself. She received much early encouragement from T.C. Steele, whom she might have met in the last year's of Steele's life when he was artist in residence at IU. Today's painting, A Brown County Park View (her title) was created in around 1939 and is a nice, visceral example of Prow's work. We purchased this piece from a descendent a few years ago. It has gone through conservation and is housed in a antique reproduction frame and ready to hang. As noted above, this painting will appear in our 4/2/17 Curated Sale of Historic Indiana Art auction.
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Oil on Canvas |
Signed lower right |
| Arnold Turtle |
Lakeside Harbor |
 |
SOLD
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This work was featured in our 2nd Annual Curated Sale of Historic Indiana Art, April 8th, 2018 at the Indianapolis Art Center.
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Dated 1936
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 4/7/17 along with the following gallery comments:
Arnold Turtle wasn’t supposed to be an artist. He came to Chicago from England to work in the family business and his interest in painting led him to the Chicago Art Institute where he took night classes. He ultimately abandoned business and pursued art full time. Thank goodness – his paintings are just wonderful. Always loose and evocative – up close they are a brilliant mess and stepping back it all resolves into a perfect scene. Today’s piece, Lakeside Harbor (our title), is a fun, gouache example. I’m guessing it’s Belmont Harbor or another local Chicago lakeside scene though the painting itself is not talking. Relatively early work for Turtle. And it certainly reflects his obsession with painting coastals and harbor scenes from all over this country. |
Gouache on Paper |
Signed Lower Left |
| Dale (Philip) Bessire |
Brown County Autumn Lane |
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This painting was featured in our weekly email on 11/11/16 along with the following gallery comments:
Welcome to the politic-free art zone. Today’s painting is by Dale Bessire. Bessire was a native of Indianapolis and studied art at John Herron as well as studying business at the University of Chicago. Interesting to note he was attending Herron at the same time as Frank Hohenberger, Carl Graf and John Wesley Hardrick according to Herron records of 1913. He moved to Brown County in 1914 and remained there the rest of his life, painting and operating an orchard just north of Nashville. Today’s work Brown County Autumn Lane (our title) is right out of the Bessire playbook. It’s very soft in tone with heavy use of a palette knife and representing a classic Bessire motif: road through the foliage-lined forest. It’s housed in the original frame. Both the painting and the frame went through light cleaning and conservation, were reunited and the piece is now sparkling and ready to hang. A classic Brown County work from one of Brown County’s well-collected painters. |
Oil on Canvas |
Signed Lower Left |
