C. Hjalmar "Cappy" Amundsen (American, 1911-2001), Off Cape Ann

oil on canvas, signed with the pseudonym "J. J. Enwright" at lower left, title inscribed faintly to stretcher, frame retaining label from Newman Galleries of Philadelphia.
Stretcher size 24 x 30 in.; Frame dimensions 28 3/4 x 34 3/4 in.
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."
Gifted in 1944 to Walter Ludlow Taylor by employees of the Philadelphia Navy Yard
By descent through the family
Private Collection, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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Stable craquelure; light surface grime; no evidence of retouch visible under UV light.