Ralph McGuire (1917-2006) American, Oil on Masonite. Signed lower right. Name and title "Summer On Brooklyn" on back. Tag on back lists name, address, price, medium, and alternate title "Swimming in Brooklyn," along with "#3." Depicts an industrial skyline in the background, with boats in the water throughout and small figures bathing and playing in the foreground.

Depth: 2 1/4 in.

Overall size: 18 1/4 in X 33 3/8 in.

Sight size: 14 1/2 X 29 5/8 in.

#1454 .

Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1917, Ralph McGuire was the son of a railroad oiler. As a child he played trumpet in a Salvation Army band and began riding the No. 1 streetcar through the city all day long, sketching images during the route. After graduating from City College in 1935, he took a job with the Social Security Administration and painted in his off hours while studying with artists Donald Coale and Herman Maril, receiving his first solo show at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1947. Art collector James Blankford Martenet wrote him a check for $5,000 for much of his work at this showing, which he used to open a framing gallery with his wife, artist Tobia Samuels. The shop became a gathering place for local artists and was decorated with dozens of McGuire’s pictures, meticulously painted bridges and wharves using a palette knife and fine brush. Never much of a salesman of his own work, he supported himself by framing other artists’ pictures. In the late 1970s he was diagnosed with epilepsy, and continued to paint well into his 80s, before passing away due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease in 2006.