Emmett Fritz (1917 – 1995) American

Title: St. Augustine City Gates

Size: 14.5” x 13” Framed

Medium: Oil on Masonite, Signed lower left

Description:

Emmett Fritz is known for his street scenes, most often in St. Augustine. This oil painting renders the iconic city gates with the black cannons standing guard in front. It is painted on Masonite board and signed lower left. Florida’s palm trees blend in the background in America’s oldest city. This piece enjoys a carved wooden frame.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri and studying art in New York, Fritz adopted and perfected an impressionistic, painterly style that enabled him to capture the light and movement reflected in his artwork through his distinctive application of impasto and vigorous brushstroke. Fritz is arguably considered one of the most significant and popular painters of the St. Augustine and St. Johns County area. While capturing the beauty of the city and the surrounding areas, he became a well-known and beloved character of the greater St. Augustine area. His optimistic, colorful portrayals of the city, in all of its varied personalities, also suggests, to many critics of Florida painting, a sense of romantic melancholy and yearning.