52: FRED SHANE (1906-1992) OIL ON BOARD OR PANEL CIRCA 1940

Frederick Emanuel Shane (1906-1992)
Untitled (Rural Town Scene) (Circa 1940)
The view of a woodland stream below small homes in a rural settlement is signed lower left front. The palette and technique here are consistent with many works by Fred Shane, though this example features a bit more color. The style is classic Midwest Regionalism and classic Shane: outwardly informal, yet fundamentally well-composed.

Fred Shane was born in Kansas City and began painting at the age of eight. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and later refined his technique under Randall Davey at the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs, as well as through further studies in Paris and New York.

In 1932, he joined the University of Missouri in Columbia as an art instructor, ultimately serving as chairman of the art department from 1958 until his retirement in 1971.

A close friend of Thomas Hart Benton, Shane was influenced by American Regionalist painters and his works often depict abandoned mining towns, rural landscapes, and urban scenes like the example offered here.

During World War II, he served as an artist-correspondent with the U.S. Army Medical Corps, producing wartime imagery for newspapers and magazines. He also contributed to the Works Progress Administration, completing the mural Picnic, Lake of the Ozarks for the post office in Eldon, Missouri, in 1941.

Shane's work has been exhibited at major institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and at the New York World's Fair. His paintings are held in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Sight size measures 14 x 19 with a framed size of 23H x 28.5W inches.
Very good original condition. There are no issues of scratches, losses, repairs, in-painting or touch-up.
$1,500 - $2,000
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