London's Bicentennial (Snippet 47)

 Known Londoners - Glenn MacNutt - Artist - 1905-1987

   Mr. Macnutt was born in London and died in Pubnico, Nova Scotia in 1987. This obituary appears in The Boston Globe on Oct.19, 1987.

  "Glenn Macnutt, 81, of Boston, An Artist, Died Friday in His home After a Short Illness."

   Mr. Macnutt was born in London, Ontario, and grew up in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He came to Boston in 1924 and studied at the Massachusetts College of Art and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School.

   He specialized in watercolor paintings, which are exhibited in many public and private collections all over the country, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard University, Tufts University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Institute of Chicago and The Brooklyn Museum.

   He was also represented in exhibitions at The Critic's Choice in Cincinnati, the Royal Water Color Society of England, and America's Top 40 at the Frye Traveling Exhibition.

   He was a member of the National Academy of Design, the American Water Color Society and the Guild of Boston Artists.

   He received many awards, including the Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize from the National Academy of Design, the Emily Lowe Prize from Allied Artists and six consecutive awards from the American Water Color Society.

   His paintings have also been featured in various publications, including American Artist Magazine.

   Mr. Macnutt leaves his wife, Evelyn (Simpson); two daughters, Jean Aho of Bridgewater, Maine, and Karen L. Macnutt of Dorchester; a son, Glenn Stephen Macnutt of Danville, N.H.; a brother, Donald Macnutt of Digby, Nova Scotia; three sisters, Evelyn Meuse, Vivian Snow and Frances Peters, all of Digby; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

   Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, in the McHoul Funeral Home, Dorchester. Burial will be in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Dorchester.

Sources:
   I did not find anything about Mr. MacNutt in the local (London) area. His name sometimes appears as Macnutt.
  A short biography with a self-portrait appears in the Dorchester Atheneum.
   There are references to him and his work in The Boston Globe. For example: 

"A Few Works Stand Out in Watercolor Show," The Boston Globe, June 19, 1988.
  A biography is found on askART.com and here is a portion from it:

"Artwork by Glenn MacNutt"

1905 London, Ontario, Canada - 1987 Pubnico, Nova Scotia. Known for: Sea-landscape and genre painting, illustration.
   "The following biography is from Karen Macnutt, daughter of the artist, and from the booklet she has written titled "A Sketch of Glenn G. Macnutt": . Glenn MacNutt was known primarily for his landscape paintings, and was a pioneer in using acrylic painting. Born in London, Ontario, Canada, he earned many prestigious honors during his career including a chair in watercolors at the National Academy of Design, New York. He was a Dolphin Fellow of the American Watercolor Society, a Member of the Allied Artists for both watercolor and oil, Past President of the New England Water Color Society, and a member of the Guild of Boston Artists. His parents blended two of Canada's pioneering blood lines of people, the Scots and the Arcadians. His mother's people were from the French speaking village of Pubnico, Nova Scotia, and his father owned a music store in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia."

Post Script:
  These "snippets"are being provided to celebrate London's 200th birthday. The official London website is found here: Celebrating 200 years: London's Bicentennial.
   The subjects of the snippets have varied widely, but a few recent ones have been about those from London who have become well-known - e.g. Frank Colman and Kate Nelligan. 
The Bonus:
  For information about another talented Londoner who moved to Boston and recently became a major benefactor to Western University, see this "Homage to Bill Hodgins." 

  Back in better days, The Boston Globe had a weekly column consisting of "Canadian American News." To see some of the stories from the '50s and '60s see:
"Canadian American Relations." 

The Pretty Work of Mary Petty

    

   The New Yorker has been celebrating its centenary year for most of this year and the single issue for Sept. 1&8 comes with two covers. Inside there is a short piece about Mary Petty who "contributed a series of thirty-eight vividly colored, magnificently detailed, and flawlessly composed covers, which, at least in this New Yorker cover artist's opinion, have never been surpassed in their complexity, their richness, and, most of all, their humanity." The author adds, "they're brilliant watercolors of exquisite construction, set pieces with the charm and detail of a doll's house." Petty also published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker.
   The author of the article about Perry and the covers she produced notes in the first sentence that "In the pantheon of New Yorker artists, the name Mary Petty hardly registers." Given that she is relatively unknown and given the beauty of her work (which should not be judged by my poor photo above), I thought it worth calling your attention to her.
   During almost 40 years as a contributor to the magazine, she produced 273 drawings and 38 pen-and-watercolor covers. A collection of her drawings is found in This Pretty Pace which, a reviewer notes, we should all have a look at if we are interested in "sheer perfection." The book also includes an essay by James Thurber, "Mary Petty and Her Drawings" and on the dust jacket, she is compared to Hogarth and Daumier. Harold Ross, The New Yorker publisher gave her cartoons his highest rating of "AAA" one "A" more than the cartoons of Thurber.
   Apart from producing covers and cartoons, she also provided illustrations for books by others. Her last cover for The New Yorker was on Mother's Day, May 19,1966. It is the one on the bottom right above and if the image was better you would see an older woman in an elegant room pulling a cord which breaks. 
   Apparently Petty quit abruptly when two of her cover submissions were rejected. She had lived a rather reclusive life with her husband, Alan Dunn, who also was a New Yorker cartoonist. It ended tragically. 
   "In early December, 1971 she disappeared, and was found by Dunn in a hospital, having been badly beaten in a violent assault. Permanently brain-damaged, she lived the remainder of her life in a nursing home, dying five years after the attack, alone." 

Sources: 
   I can assure you that a search for her art work is worth the effort. The article referred to above is: "The Mysterious Cover Artist Who Captured the Decline of the Rich: Mary Petty was Reclusive, Uncompromising, but She Peered into a Fading World With Unmatched Warmth and Brilliance, Chris Ware, The New Yorker, Aug. 25, 2025.
  The Wikipedia entry is helpful as usual. In it there is mention of the fact that she was assaulted, but I did not find any evidence of it in the New York papers. The American National Biography entry does provide additional information: 
  "Petty's career was tragically cut short when on 1 December 1971 she was assaulted and badly beaten by a mugger. She was found on Ward's Island three days afterward, bruised and incoherent, and never wholly recovered. She died five years later at the Pine Rest Nursing Home in Paramus, New Jersey."
  The book review of This Pretty Pace is here: "The Art of Mary Petty", Russell Maloney, NYT, Nov. 11, 1945. Her obituary: "Mary Petty, Cartoonist, Dead; Chided Wealthy in New Yorker," Barbara Campbell, NYT, Mar. 11, 1976,
   A major source is found at Syracuse University. See: "The Alan Dunn and Mary Petty Papers", which provides additional biographical information. 

CANCON: 
 For New Yorker covers by a Canadian see: "Bruce McCall RIP-1935-2023".
 Another Canadian, Barry Blitt, has done some, and here you will find a couple that depict two recent American presidents: "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words."