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Help identifying artist
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Message
Posted
Hi, I'm hoping someone might be able to help in identifying the artist of this work. It's been in the family a while. I think it's supposed to be Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, probably acrylic on board and from framer details was possibly painted around the early 1900s. I've included a close up of the signature but I'm really struggling to make it out. I've included the framers label from the rear in case it is of any use. It's very naive in style but has a charm and I'd love to know more about it if possible! Thanks
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Posted
As is so often the case, a totally indecipherable signature…
It could well be Don Quixote and Co, but if it was painted around the turn of the century, it won’t be acrylic!
Impossible to tell from a photo what it is, but doesn’t particularly look like oils due to its lack of any lustre… could be egg tempera I suppose!
I think you’ve already arrived at the conclusion that it isn’t particularly well painted, obviously an amateur hand.
More than that I can’t be of any help!
My learned colleague and art historian Robert Jones will no doubt look in later, and cast his knowledgable opinion… but I wouldn’t expect anything too revealing to come from him, we’d need to see the painting first hand!
Posted
And Alan is quite right: no enlightenment is to be expected from this quarter! As he says, if its date is anything near to 1900, this isn't acrylic. Acrylics were developed in the 1940s, and only really entered general use around, what.... 55 years ago.
I can make nothing of it at the moment - I'm sure you're right about the intended subject, but again I agree with Alan: it doesn't look much like oil, and there again it doesn't look like egg tempera either; maybe Gouache? I've had a bit of a bad day, explanation under the Oil thread, but I will try to research it tomorrow. Don't hope for too much! Alan is actually three times right - we'd really need to see this out of its frame, and with the aid of a magnifying glass: and even then, I wouldn't be too hopeful of an identification.
If it's on canvas - my eyes are dim, I cannot see (I think they've got it in for me) - you get poetry here: verse, anyway - if it is, it probably IS an oil; but all I can say of it at this stage is a) at least the artist could paint a straight spear, and b) don't get your hopes up....
If you like it, and it's been in your family for a long time, though - of course it's worth keeping. Won't make you rich, but - you've grown accustomed to its face: and there is a value in that.
Posted
Hi Alan and Robert,
Thanks so much for taking a look. I realise it is difficult without being able to see it in person. I'm guessing a bit on the timing, I based this on an estimate of the generation of relatives it came from and finding a date online for when the framers were in Great Dover Street (but frustratingly I can't seem to find the same reference again to double check). It's painted on some kind of board (not canvas) and Gouache sounds possible although I don't know much about that medium (I'm almost certain its not oils). I tried to take a clearer photo of the signature but not sure it really helps much!
Posted
Yersss .. well: I think the first name starts with J, and the second, the initial A, then the third a B, but what comes between these two is anybody's guess - the second name could even be "Boot", but if it is, that's no more help than if it isn't.... because a) it might not be, anyway, and b) I don't know of any artist named Boot.
You would be fully justifiend in assuming that I don't have a clue at this point.
Posted
Apart from having the satisfaction of knowing the artist, it’s a forgone conclusion that because he or she is an amateur artist, they won’t be listed anywhere, making further reference hunting no easier.
There are millions of amateur painters, that won’t come as any surprise I’m sure, I certainly can’t decipher the name either!
Gouache it probably is then! I never thought it was oils… and possibly painted on compressed cardboard, cheap but adequate (to an extent), but it will degrade eventually! Fine at the time for an amateur artist!