Engagement

Walter G. Ratterman (or W.G. Ratterman) was an American genre painter and illustrator who lived in New York and Woodstock. Ratterman’s artwork was published between the 1910s to the 1940s in various American books and periodicals, such as the “Saturday Evening Post”, “Good Housekeeping” and “Everybody’s Magazine”. He was also a member of the Artists Guild of the Authors’ League of America. Ratterman’s paintings portrayed ordinary people engaged in common activities and depicted aspects of everyday life. A great number of his paintings were painted “en grisaille” (in grey) because they were used for reproduction as illustrations in books and periodicals prior to the introduction of four-colour printing. This grey tone painting was also drawn as an illustration for a magazine short story with a southern American theme. It portrays the engagement of a fashionable couple at the local law office.