Oil on canvas, signed with the pseudonym "J. J. Enwright" at lower left, inscribed with title and signature to stretcher, retaining Closson's gallery label to verso, presented in the likely original gilt frame.

Stretcher size 24 x 30 in.; Frame dimensions 28 1/4 x 34 1/4 in.

Closson's Art Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio

C. Hjalmar Amundsen, more commonly known as "Cappy," was born in New York City in 1911. He, along with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, was one of the founders of the Washington Square Art Show in the early 1930s. While his contemporaries experimented with Abstract Expressionism, Cappy embraced the traditional realism of New England fishing villages, seascapes and other maritime scenes.

In order to avoid flooding the market with works under his name, Cappy invented numerous aliases including J. J. Enwright, André Picot, F. H. Mackay and William Ward Jr. In 2020, the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum presented a retrospective, "The Art and Aliases of 'Cappy' Amundsen."

Surface grime; stable craquelure; no evidence of retouch visible under UV light.

$1,000 - 3,000