EXCEPTIONAL ANTIQUE WPA IMPRESSIONIST OIL PAINTING ON BOARD BY ESTEEMED PAINTER AND ART TEACHER HELEN RITCHIE HEGNAUER.(Canadian-American 1911-2003). THIS WORK DEPICTS FISHERMEN MENDING THEIR NETS BENEATH TOWERING MASTS AND RIGGING. THE COMPOSITION IS STRIKING — STRONG VERTICAL LINES RISE BEHIND THE GROUNDED FIGURES, SYMBOLIZING INDUSTRY POSTWAR RESILIENCE DURING THE 1930s. AS A RESPECTED PAINTER AND ART EDUCATOR, HELEN RITCHIE HEGNAUER CONTRIBUTED TO THE VISUAL DOCUMENTATION OF AMERICA’S WORKING CLASS DURING ONE OF ITS MOST DEFINING ERAS. SIGNED BY HELEN RITCHIE HEGNAUER ON THE FRONT AND VERSO. IT DATES BACK TO THE 1930s. EXCELLENT OVERALL CONDITION. MIKD WEAR TO THE FRAME.

DIMENSIONS INCLUDING THE FRAME: 21”W x 24”H

DIMENSIONS WITHOUT THE FRAME: 16”W x 20”H

Helen Ritchie Hegnauer 1911 Toronto, Ontario - 2003 Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Known for: Landscape painting, teaching, drawing.

Helen Ritchie Hegnauer was a well-known painter who studied at Heatherleys School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools in London in the 1920's and '30's and later with Carl Nelson of Boston.

Mrs. Hegnauer was a teacher of Art and History of Art at the Walnut Hill School in Natick, Massachusetts for 15 years before retiring with her husband to Newport. She has shown her work in Newport several times, a one-person show at the Norman Bird Sanctuary, and two retrospective shows at the Newport Art Museum and at the Swinburne School.

Her favorite subjects in oil and in pen and ink drawings were the trees and rocks of her beloved Georgian Bay.