the next 15 years before launching his own advertising company, deGarthe Advertising Art, in 1945; however, it was the onset of World War II that rekindled his passion for fine art. Biographer Douglas Pope recounts that when the Soviet Red Army invaded Finland in November 1939 deGarthe was determined to return to his homeland to fight. With his four other sons already enlisted, Edward Degerstedt begged his middle child to stay in Canada. Inspired by the work of Alex Colville and other prominent Canadian war artists, deGarthe resolved to use his art to inspire others. Around 1940 he began painting under the tutelage of Leonard Brooks. Over the next few years deGarthe would study oil painting under Stanley Royle at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. deGarthe later studied marine painting in Rockport, Massachusetts under Stanley Woodward, followed by Emile Gruppe in East Gloucester, Massachusetts and George Groz at the Art Students League in New York City. He also spent many winters studying in Europe at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere in Paris as well as Académie Julian in Paris and the Accademie di Belle Arti in Rome. Throughout his career de Garthe worked in many mediums; however he is best known for his atmospheric oil paintings depicting scenes of life on and around the rugged Nova Scotia coast. He also completed works in charcoal, pen and ink, lithograph and fresco and, in later life, sculpture. Beginning in 1942 deGarthe taught commercial art at the Nova Scotia College of Art, now Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (NSCAD), later teaching younger students at the city's YMCAs and YWCAs and at his own studio. deGarthe became a prominent member of the Nova Scotia arts community and a strong promoter of the province's artistic tradition. In the early forties he joined a lively "round table" of Halifax's most influential artists including gallery owners Marguerite and LeRoy Zwicker, prominent editorial cartoonist Robert Chambers, photographer Robert Norwood and war artist Brooks. During his career deGarthe created a number of important works in oils, notable among them Looking for the Mothership, an evocative 1955 painting depicting a dory carrying a lone fisherman, searching for his lost home schooner. The same year, the Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts, now the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, acquired its first deGarthe painting, Out of the Hurricane. In 1963, deGarthe created two large murals