Description:

Harriet Fitzgerald
New York, (1904-1984)
Florence Henderson Sewing, 1944
oil on canvas
Harriet Fitzgerald learned the painter's craft in Virginia, New York and Europe before returning home to paint during the time of the Great Depression. As a 20th c. female humanist painter, she focused on people in a direct, straight-forward and truth-seeking fashion. Her work is mostly about individuals, often women and children; and she saw art as a manifestation of their daily lives and of their feelings and expressions. As a female she had access to all kinds of models including nannies, brides, working women, housewives, and children. A well-known university scholarship has been set up in Fitzgerald's name, awarded annually to a female art student at a women's college.

Here Fitzgerald has captured an American seamstress at work in November 1944--a few months after D-Day and at a time when WWII remained in full tilt. 1944 saw the deaths of thousands of people around the world and the total destruction of much of human civilization. The lady is sitting down on a stool and intently sewing: she is possibly repairing a collar or sewing a button back onto a white shirt that drapes across her lap. She has nothing to do with the viewer. The woman wears a classic 1940s grey 2-piece dress suit with boxy shoulders (also called a Victory Suit or a Utility Suit) with the feminine bow of her blouse in full view. Women were needed in the workforce since men were away fighting. And Fitzgerald chose a telling background: a greyish white scene of nothing--an eerie sort of representation of 1944 as well. Even though she probably was no film star, her hairstyle clearly comes straight from those popularized by Hollywood stars of the time including Betty Grable, Anna Neagle, Veronica Lake, Corothy Lamour, Rita Hayworth, Ava Garnder, and so many others. Her hairstyle (and theirs) represented something practical: hair was worn out of the face so that it wouldn't be in the way of work. The woman sitting for her portrait also appears to have flawless skin thanks to her classic 1940s makeup: foundation, powder and a brush of reddish lipstick.

signed and dated lower left, framed.

Provenance: Estate of Raymond Keith Kissee

  • Dimensions: 34 x 32 inches
  • Medium: oil on canvas

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September 16, 2023 10:00 AM CDT
St. Louis, MO, US

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