William L'Engle Art

Loggers WPA Depression Era Modern Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Oil on board, 24 x 30 inches. Signed verso. The framed painting measure 30 x 36 inches. BIO William J. L'Engle, Jr., was born in Jacksonville, Florida on April 22, 1884, a descendant of the Fatios, an historic name and prominent family. Francis Philip Fatio, Sr. (1724-1811), a Swiss native, brought his family and personal possessions to nearby St. Augustine and then developed his own plantation in Nueva Suiza, now known as Switzerland, Florida, on the St. John's River, about 8 years after Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in 1763. After obtaining a crown grant of 10,000 acres, Fatio imported materials from England and built a country estate where he lived the life of a frontier baron. The plantation buildings were destroyed during the East Florida patriot revolt of 1812, one year after his death. Bill's great grandmother was Susan Fatio L'Engle, a direct descendant of Col. John Washington, George Washington's great grandfather. Bill came from a family that had a distinguished military heritage; men from his family served in the Revolutionary War and later on the Confederate side in the Civil War. Another forbearer, William Johnson...