Dead Victory Garden – 1946 – Lithograph

“Dead Victory Garden”. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Lithograph by Kenneth Hartwell

George Kenneth Hartwell (1891-1949) was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He was a painter, illustrator and printmaker. He studied at the Art Studies League of New York under George Bellows, Edward Hooper and others. Hartwell was an American Realist who rose to prominence during the Depression.

In the early decades of the 20th century American Realism reflected the actual conditions of life. Realists portrayed activities in cities, people in states of decay, individual loneliness and isolation, social injustices and raised the imagery of poverty to almost a virtue.

Kenneth Hartwell exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Society of Independent Artists, the Salons of America, the Library of Congress and the Carnegie Institute. His works are included in many collections including the Brooklyn, Toronto and Philadelphia Museums as well as the Library of Congress.