Werner Wildner (Nashville, Tennessee 1924-2004), two unframed works depicting gnomes. 1st item: Watercolor on cardstock landscape with a hat-wearing gnome, leaping in the air while smoking a pipe. Signed with monogram lower left. 9-7/8″ x 7-1/2″. 2nd item: Watercolor on cardstock landscape with a bearded, pipe-smoking gnome gazing up at the Man-in-the-Moon, while a raven perches on a fence in the background. 10-1/8″ x 7-1/2″. Biography (courtesy Askart: The Artists’ Bluebook): Wildner was born in Germany but moved to Detroit with his family as a child and then, as a teenager, to Nashville. He served in the Army in 1944 and went on to study art briefly at the Mienzinger Art School in Detroit. He returned to Nashville to practice commercial art, but by the mid-1950s had decided to pursue his own art career. Whimsical animals and fantastical, often grotesque creatures were a recurring theme of his work. Wildner met with critical and commercial success after a 1962 exhibit of his art at the Nashville site now known as Cheekwood. However, the death of his parents and collapse of his marriage in the 1970’s led him to become reclusive in the last two decades of his life. Provenance: Private Florida collection. Condition: Both items in excellent condition.