"Village Cottages"

Very well painted oil on artist board painting by “Cappy” Amundsen who painted under many aliases, including F. H. McKay. Signed lower left F.H. McKay. Circa 1955. Condition is excellent. Recently professionally cleaned. Catalda Fine Arts copyright stamp verso. Overall very nicely framed in a period gold leaf ornate frame 15.75 by 13.75 inches in fine condition.

The sheer volume of high quality sea and coastal village themed paintings that was on view at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum several years ago was astounding. The work was by a select group of artists such as André Picot, Dennis Ainsley, W. Hughes, F.H. Mackay and William Ward Jr.

But perhaps the most amazing thing about the exhibition of maritime-themed works is the fact that every painting on view was painted by a single individual — the late Casper Hjalmar Emerson, who, as an adult, went by the name C. Hjalmar Amundsen, but was known locally around Sag Harbor simply as “Cappy.”

Cappy Amundsen died in January 2001, at the age of 89, but he left behind a huge body of work, and to anyone who’s been in Sag Harbor for a while, he remains a local legend. Destitute toward the end of his life, Amundsen bartered paintings locally to survive in his later years, eventually resorting to tearing up the floorboards of his home on Jermain Avenue and Madison Street to serve as his canvas.

But his scenes of New England fishing villages, whale hunts and coastal dock life are top notch, and no doubt there are still many Amundsen paintings hanging on walls or stored in attics of Sag Harbor homes.