Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Anonymous Painting of a Woman.


Anonymous Painting of a Woman.
Originally uploaded by V G.

*Call me Isadora. Born in 1932. Still unmarried and hopeful.*

Where did I find this painting? I became the owner of this painting by staying at my friend's garage sale just before they were packing up for the day.
I asked my friend, "Who painted it and when was it painted?" I checked the back of the painting for a signature or date. Nothing.
As far as I know it is anonymous. If anyone can identify the artist, let me know. This leaves many questions. There are so many unknowns, which is why it is the perfect piece for inspiring creative writing.
I'm guessing this woman was painted in the mid 50's. The canvas stretcher alone looks like it is from the 50's. It is painted in oil. The canvas is held on by nails hammered into the side of the stretcher frame, which is not done too often these days in the Art Stores around here in the US. Although, they still do it this way in Europe in some of their art stores. I will even be bold enough to say it is an art student's work because it has many nice qualities, but some areas are lacking the refinement of a more seasoned artist. Right now my husband and I call her, the original owner of our house. Our house was built in the 50's. She looks like she could have just signed loan docs. She was progressive for her time, being a single woman home owner.

Our secret fantasy is that the painting will one day be discovered on Antiques Roadshow. It is the student work of a famous artist now worth $500,000. I did say fantasy. This is highly unlikely.

I'm still coming up with stories for her. I may have to do another post on this painting again.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How fun. Hope the road show fantasy becomes reality. I'm glad she made it back home. Would hate to sign loan papers and never get to live in the house, or be forced to leave before my time! ;)

patrice said...

I like how frank comfortable the sitter is! I could live with that aqua color and table color, what is it, cranberry? Plus all the wonderful light and shadow on the face. I enlarged it and see that she has quite broad shoulders, and almost masculine features. Maybe the artist is a man, and it's a self portrait of him how he might look if he were a woman!! I agree with your comment that it looks like a student work. A study perhaps.
As for value, I'm guessing in the $7-10,000 range for insurance purposes. On a good day at auction it could go as high as fifteen.

patrice said...

...there should be an "&" between frank and comfortable above...