Junius Allen (American, 1898-1962), End of Day, Winter

Oil on canvas, signed at lower right, retaining remnants of exhibition labels from the Salmagundi Club and Grand Central Art Galleries, Inc., presented in a later frame.

Stretcher size 20 1/2 x 27 1/4 in.; Frame dimensions 25 1/4 x 31 3/4 in.

Private Collection, North Carolina

Private Collection, New Jersey
Rago, Lambertville, New Jersey, American + European Art, November 9, 2019, Lot 509
Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers, Milford, Connecticut, June 24, 2021, Lot 183

James Junius Allen was an American painter known for his naturalistic depictions of coastal scenes, harbors, and urban waterfronts. After serving in World War I, he studied at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts and the School of the National Academy from 1922 to 1924 under Ivan Olinsky, George Maynard, Charles Hawthorne, and Francis Coates Jones. He spent summers in Provincetown studying landscape painting with Arthur W. Woelfle and George Elmer Browne. Working primarily in oil, Allen painted portraits, landscapes, and city scenes, with a special focus on the industrial urban waterfront.

Allen was elected an academician of the National Academy of Design in 1941 and served as president of the Salmagundi Club from 1957 to 1959. He received the Academy's Hallgarten Prize in 1933 and taught at the Academy School and privately. His work is held in collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Craquelure, slight waviness to canvas, inspection under UV light reveals several very small spot touch ups to sky, two areas of touch up to fencing in middle ground, and some retouch along top edge of canvas.