George Pearse Ennis (1884 – 1936)
Forging a Gun Tube #1
46 x 37 inches, 1918
Signed lower right

Ennis created a series of paintings for Bethlehem Steel Works in 1918. Twenty-eight drawings and watercolors were first exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery in November, 1918. The oil paintings were on exhibit at the Sherwood Studios (NYC) in December 1918. The oils included Forge of Vulcan, Forging the Guns, Proving the Guns, Blowing Steel, Pouring Moulds, Ore Beds, Blast Furnaces, and Forging Torpedo Heads. These works were created to highlight the role of American industry in the war effort (WWI).

The known life of George Ennis as a painter began in 1884 where he was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He became a master of making hand-made stained glass murals and windows. He also became known as a painter.

He was a student at Washington University in St. Louis and at the Chase School in New York City. He was a participant in the Federal Art Project during the 1930s.

An American artist, Ennis eventually moved to New York, City and to his final home place in the small fishing port of Eastport, Maine. As an impressionist artist, Ennis used charcoal, pencil and pastel with his primary medium being of watercolor. Works in oils can be somewhat difficult to obtain.

In the 1920’s, Ennis made Eastport, Maine his permanent home where he had a school. Many of his works reflect the quiet coves and small, working harbors along the Maine the Maine coast. Ennis painted until his sudden death in an automobile crash outside of Utica, New York in 1936.

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