Painters Online Logo

Login/register

Studio

Can anyone recognise this painting or it's artist?

Welcome to the forum.

Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.

Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.

Hang on Studio Wall
Author
Message

Zekoslav Mrkva

  • New Member
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 2
Posted
Hello, we have found an old painting in the basement, but we don't have any clue about it's artist or age, so if there is anybody who can recognise it, please give us any information :)

Alan Bickley

  • Prestige User
  • Reputation: 11904
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 4496
Posted
I don't have any idea, sorry, but are they original or prints?, If you're not sure I/we, can give you a guide on how to check. my guess is prints, but I hope I'm wrong.

Syd Edward

  • Prestige User
  • Reputation: 4602
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 441
Posted
the picture is painted in a very old style but this impressive work has a quite modern frame I would have expected an ornate gold frameof possibly greater weight and section. My guess is that its a print and therefore of little monetory value im afraid.The owner doesnt mention any sign of an artists signature and that is a very odd omission for such a work.To check ,it should be taken out of the frame and the surface examined front and back and any marks noted and of course the medium used established as an oil which incidentally should be evident through the ( glass? ) Its a mystery., could be a Poussin, early 1600 s and very well preserved ! Syd

Edited
by SydEdward

With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

  • Prestige User
  • Reputation: 24825
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 8654
Posted
It looks very like a print to me, too - and the photo, or the picture, or both, are too indistinct to form much of an opinion. The frame is all wrong for the age of the picture, which reinforces the feeling that it's a print - a print of what, is the question; but it doesn't matter all that much in terms of value, because if it's a print it'll be worth only a few pounds. Let's assume it's a painting for a minute, though - the style is early, say Claude Lorraine, with those figures in classical poses and costumes in the foreground; and if it is a painting, it might well be a copy of an earlier and better known work - there's something not quite convincing about the figures, but that might just be that it needs a good clean. Bits of the painting look familiar from somewhere - it's a French style, or possibly Italian. Beyond that - and I'm not even confident of any of it, really, I wouldn't want to venture. It's glazed, is it? If so, clean the glass, or take the picture out of the frame, and take a better photo: it should then be possible to form a much more accurate opinion.

Alan Bickley

  • Prestige User
  • Reputation: 11904
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 4496
Posted
NorthLight is right, it is impossible to tell anything from this before a close inspection. If you take it out of that modern frame, all will be revealed very quickly, it could be a lithograph print, which I feel sure it is and printed on paper stock, or, and don't hold your breath, you will see canvas, or wood panel with oil paint on it, and perhaps a signature. If it is a print this is quickly identifiable, quite often without the aid of a glass, look and see if you can spot the 4-colour printing process, a series of small dots, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (or CYMK) as it is referred to, if you can, then you have a print and probably of little value.

Edited
by alanbickley

Keith Orange

  • Forum Member +
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 240
Posted
The style and subject matter looks similar to landscape paintings by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Claude Gelee (aka Claude Lorraine). Both were French born yet lived In Italy for most of their careers. The style is called baroque. I imagine your picture is a print of an original. There's some similarities between the composition in your painting and one by Claude in the Ashmolean in Oxford: http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/objects/makedetail.php?pmu=730&mu=732&gty=asea&sec=&dtn=15&sfn=Artist%20Sort,Title&cpa=1&rpos=1&cnum=&mat=&pro=&anum=&art=Claude%20Lorrain&ttl=&sou=

Edited
by keora

Michael Robinson

  • New Member
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 2904
Posted
I thought it showed similarities to paintings by Francesco Albani so I googled him and found half way down 'Erminia's Stay among the Shepherds' which is at the GalleriaColonna, Rome. So sadly its either a copy or more likely a print. Edit: Unfortunately I can't seem to make a link to the painting work but if its googled in images there are at least two sites documenting it one in colour one in B&W (Scala Archives and catalagofondazionezeri )

Edited
by PatriciaMcB

With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

  • Prestige User
  • Reputation: 24825
  • Last active:
  • Posts: 8654
Posted
Very well spotted - will just go and look. If it is a copy of that painting it's almost 100% certain that it's a print. Still, the question wasn't actually about value - so maybe yours will turn out to be the best answer on the thread. Edit: I can't actually find the particular painting, but Albani painted an awful lot of very similar pictures; and Erminia crops up in paintings by Carracci amongst others. I fear the questioner doesn't have an original old master - the very best this might be is a copy, but I doubt it's even that. And here it is: it's in a museum in Rome. Patricia MacB clearly has a wide and deep art education behind her - so far as I remember, I'd never heard of Albani until today.

Edited
by RobertJones