Samuel Brecher On Sale

Samuel Brecher was born in Boryslaw, Austria, a town near the Carpathian Mountains, now a part of Poland. His family came to New York in 1910, where Samuel graduated from Cooper Union in 1921. He studied art at the National Academy of Design from 1921–24 and continued studies under Charles W. Hawthorne in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Brecher was represented by several well known New York City galleries in the 1940s and 1950s, including the Kraushaar Galleries, the ACA Galleries, the Hudson Walker Gallery and the Merrill Gallery. During his career, he won over 40 prestigious prizes and awards and had numerous one-man shows. Brecher's works are included in many important private collections as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Museum, the Smithsonian and the Newark Museum of Art. He is listed in Who's Who in American Art and is a member of the Salmagundi Club and the National Academy of Art.

Figurative art, as opposed to abstract art, retains features from the observable world in its representational depictions of subject matter. Most commonly, figurative paintings reference and explore the human body, but they can also include landscapes, architecture, plants and animals — all portrayed with realism.

While the oldest figurative art dates back tens of thousands of years to cave wall paintings, figurative works made from observation became especially prominent in the early Renaissance. Artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance masters created naturalistic representations of their subjects.

Pablo Picasso is lauded for laying the foundation for modern figurative art in the 1920s. Although abstracted, this work held a strong connection to representing people and other subjects. Other famous figurative artists include Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Figurative art in the 20th century would span such diverse genres as Expressionism, Pop art and Surrealism.

Today, a number of figural artists — such as Sedrick Huckaby, Daisy Patton and Eileen Cooper — are making art that uses the human body as its subject.

Because figurative art represents subjects from the real world, natural colors are common in these paintings. A piece of figurative art can be an exciting starting point for setting a tone and creating a color palette in a room.

Browse an extensive collection of figurative paintings on 1stDibs.