1950s Trompe l'Oeil Window Scene of London Acrylic Painting by Denys Fitz-Patrick, Framed

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This utterly delightful large painting by naturalized American artist Denys Fitz-Patrick (aka Fitz Patrick, aka Fitzpatrick, aka Skeffington-Fitzpatrick) is one … Read more This utterly delightful large painting by naturalized American artist Denys Fitz-Patrick (aka Fitz Patrick, aka Fitzpatrick, aka Skeffington-Fitzpatrick) is one of three acrylic-on-Masonite paintings of iconic waterway views as seen through identical casement windows. This one depicts the River Thames skirting the Palace of Westminster, Big Ben, and Westminster Bridge; a potted blue hydrangea stands on the windowsill, as does a pipe and a newspaper, which is where Fitz-Patrick signed the work. The work was executed as one of a reported seven such thematic paintings that were painted for an octagonal Manhattan dining room, a room where the sole real window overlooked the East River. Fitz-Patrick (as the artist signed his surname on at least one official document) was born in 1910 as Denys Bryan Skeffington-Smyth, a grandson of the seventh Viscount Galway and a nephew of the eighth. Following the lead of his father, he changed his surname in the late 1930s, and then he moved to America in 1938, ultimately living in Hollywood, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Described as a "connoisseur and antiquaire of London, Vienna, and New York" in 1942, when some of his belongings were sold at auction in Los Angeles, he worked as an interior decorator, artist, wallpaper designer (several of his works are in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt), antiques dealer, writer, and more. In the 1940 US Census, he was living Los Angeles, California, and gave his occupation as Citrus Rancher; he also briefly served in the US Army, was a founding member of the Theatre of Hollywood Playwrights, once served as a spokesman for Gilbey's vodka, and worked for the Manhattan decorator Rose Cumming, whose shop he ran after her death in 1968. As an artist, Fitz-Patrick exhibited his work in the 1950s at Palm Beach's Worth Avenue Gallery. Ultimately, he would move to Key West, Florida, where he became a beloved personnage until his death in 2007. See less