Unregistered

Hello,

I am looking for information about the artist H. McKay, who painted a scene entitled "At the Strand". My grandmother has the painting, which has (as is the age-old story) been in the family for a generation or two. My grandmother is well versed in art, as she is a painter herself, and has never been able to find any information on the artist, but does say that the painting depicts the Normandy coast (how she knows this, I do not know). I myself have been unable to locate anything on the internet or otherwise about the artist or the painting, so this is my first turn to others for information. Any clues would be a great help!

Thank you,
Artea
artea_sedai (at) hotmail.com

John

Perhaps "Helen McKay Steele"? Alternatively known as "Helen McKay Steele Brandt". Perhaps McKay was her maiden name, in which case that could work. There are only a couple of works of hers online; not bad but neither of which is a landscape.

Unregistered

That is certainly as good a lead as any I've found, and better than most all others! I have to refresh my memory of the painting when I visit my grandmother next, but the painting styles seems at least similar, though I don't know how much that is to go on. The only painting I was able to find of hers online was "Kitten With a Bell Collar", which is so dissimilar to "At the Strand" that it's almost laughable. But you never know. The only thing other than that I was able to find of her's online was a reception dress, donated to the Indiana State museum, and a colour lithograph from the cover of a woman's magazine in 1908 - a decent clue to the age of the painting, since my grandmother says that the painting belonged to her grandmother before her.

"At the Strand", by the way, is not solely a landscape, as it also shows what I assume to be local fishermen-and-women collecting what I assume are oysters in their nets. It's not the focus of the picture, but neither is it the least part of it.

Thank you!
Artea
artea_sedai (at) hotmail.com

John

Those are the same works I found online.

winc

Try spelling of H Mackay. I found one painting which appears similar, but no information as to time from of painting. I will email you the photo.

Unregistered

From the previous post, it does appear that the most likely match is the Scottish artist H. MacKay, the H. standing for Hugh. He did one painting named "On the Banks of a Loch", which has a sample online, as well as one with no thumbnail entitled "A Woman Fishing on the Banks of a Sunlit Loch". The only thing that comes to mind in the way of this being the H. MacKay (which is not a strong argument, but a point nonetheless) is that I do not believe that the painting of "At the Strand" is of anything relating to a Loch, but a coast - possibly the Normandy Coast, as previously mentioned. There still seems to be relatively little information of Hugh MacKay online, though; does anyone know anything more about him, or where to find more samples of his work?

Thank you!
Artea Sedai

Unregistered

My mother was finally able to take a picture of the paiting mentioned above, so I'll post it here to see if it rings any visual bells for anyone here. The painting is in it's original frame, though only a portion of it; it used to be much bigger, with a very wide border frame, apparently, but the larger part deteriorated years ago.

Unregistered

I believe the last name is spelled Mackey. I have a very similar painting with a signature that looks identical, but it is clearly an e, not a.