Harold W. Cheney (1889-1946) American, Female Portrait Pastel on Canvas.  Depicts a beautiful blonde girl in a party dress seated next to a short squat vase overflowing with baby's breath. On her knees is a small pile of red flowers, and on the shadowy wall behind her are several indistinct landscape paintings. A green aura surrounds the girl's head, indicating that the piece may have been unfinished, possibly one of his last in 1946. Signed darkly bottom left. 

Overall Size: 33 x 27 1/4 in. 

Sight Size: 29 x 23 1/4 in. 

Harold Warren Cheney was born in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1889, and showed an early proclivity for art. Both he and his younger brother Philip attended private school, with his brother going on to become an artist and lithographer in Wilmington, Vermont who encouraged him to pursue his dreams, but as the oldest son he obliged his parents to focus instead on academics, graduating from Harvard University with a degree in Geology in 1912. He worked for several mining companies before, during, and after World War I, and began selling insurance and painting portraits to make ends meet during the Great Depression, settling with his wife and two children in Waban, Massachusetts in 1936. Despite growing acclaim for his works, particularly landscapes and nude studies, he enlisted with the United States Army in 1942, seeing service in Egypt with the 3rd Air Force and obtaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. After returning home in late 1945, he painted for a little more than a year until his tragic death from a heart attack while trying to put out a house fire that consumed his home on November 15th, 1946. 

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