Helen Aubourg (1904-1992) American, Oil on Canvas. Gloucester Harbor scene of boats drying sails and a man on the pier working a net. Signed bottom left. No frame. 

Overall: 20 X 24 in. 

#3775 . 

Helen Aubourg (nee Hanlon) was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1904. She volunteered at the Military Recruiting Station in Newport in 1918, where she met her future husband, Raymond Aubourg when he enlisted. After his discharge in 1920 they moved to his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, where they married and eventually had two children. Helen tended to the home while Raymond worked as an electrician. In Boston Helen was exposed to art for the first time, and began to paint alongside other artists in the Rockland and Cape Ann area, crafting impressionist scenes of harbors, seascapes, and local landscapes. Although self-taught, her style was similar to other notable Cape Ann painters such as Emile Gruppe and Anthony Thieme, and when the family moved back to Providence in the 1940s so Helen could look after her ailing parents she continued to explore the style, painting both oils and watercolors. Although she never exhibited in her lifetime, many of her paintings are found in private collections throughout the region, and there is a growing appreciation for her pieces ever since the beginning of the 21st Century. She passed away at the age of 88 in 1992, leaving behind a vast body of work.