Helen Thomas Dranga Oil Painting of Polynesian Wayfinders, Early 20th Century

Item Details

Helen Thomas Dranga (California/Hawaii, 1865 – 1928)
Untitled (figures in boat), early 20th century
Oil painting on board
Signed to the lower left

Painting during the Golden Era of Hawaiian art, Helen Thomas Dranga specialized in paintings of the Hawaiian landscape, and Hawaiian and Chinese natives. She was born in England and moved with her husband Theodore Dranga to California and Hawaii thereafter. Many of her paintings are executed with a palette of violet grays that she experienced in the sky of her Hawaiian home. Dranga was among a group of artist who were featured in the exhibition Encounters in Paradise at the Honolulu Academy of the Arts. Other artists in this exhibition included Jules Tavernier, John Kelly, and Charles Furneaux. During her career, Dranga’s work regularly appeared on the covers of Paradise of the Pacific Magazine in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to the Honolulu Academy of Art, her work has been collected by the Lyman Museum in Hilo and important private collections.

• Item not examined outside of mounting

Condition

- scratches and markings to surface; wear and staining to verso; examined under UV light; repairs present to left edge; wear to frame.

Dimensions

- measures frame.

Item #

ITMGF43503