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Help to identify artists (Geo. Harnark??)
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Message
Posted
Hello,
I have a similar painting which has always hung in my family home. Nobody ever seemed to know where the painting came from. The style and signature are the same. Please see attached. There is a pane of glass in the frame so it's hard to see what's going on behind. It looks like oil on canvas.
I have no info on the artist. I think I need to sell it on, as I'm clearing out the attic!
Emer
Co. Waterford, Ireland
Posted
Tried again, but didn't get far: there are Harnacks who were painters, but no one named Georg or George (which is what Geo. would have stood for). I found Adolf von Harnack - a theologian; Clara, whom I mentioned before; an Arvin Harnack; but no George or Georg - one could speculate that he was a prolific amateur or jobbing painter who, if the scenes above reflected the times in which he lived would probably have flourished in around 1750 to 1800. But he might just have painted rustic scenes from a reconstructed past. These are pleasant enough paintings, but do look to be studio-bound - even allowing for dirty varnish, they are very subdued in colour and tone. A handsome frame on the second one, but impossible to date, at least from the front.
A curious point - where did the name Harnack come from in the first place? It wasn't mentioned in the earliest post, or if it was I can't see it - was it just suggested in a comment; and if so, what prompted the suggestion?
Incidentally, look at the colour of the paint right against the frame, and the yellowed varnish to the left of it: the second painting would benefit from a good clean: it was a lot brighter when first painted than it looks now.
Posted
Tried 'Harnark' too, but that just leads us right back to this site - there are Harnacks aplenty, but I couldn't find any Harnarks. Are we quite sure this name is right - if only he'd had a more original name than George he might be easier to find! But I suspect the real reason he's hard to find is that he wasn't a major painter.
Edited
by Robert Jones, NAPA
Posted
Hello Robert, hello Alan,
Wow, thank you so much for all your help and efforts! I am an absolute amateur, and, like Robert, when I Googled George Harnark, I was directed to this site. As for the name, Robert, the name Harnark was in the subject line of this query, I guess that's how Google found it. I think both the initial inquirer and I then both provided photos of the signature.
What you say about the painting makes sense to me, he clearly wasn't a great painter, or there would have been some trace of him. As I say, this painting was just hanging forlornly in our hall for years, and I used to look at it coming down the stairs, and wonder what the story behind it was. I never thought to ask my parents, who are no longer with us. I think I'll ask a family friend, who lived in our house before we did. He's in his 70s and has a great memory, he may be able to shed some light on the subject.
I was also curious about the gentleman who started this thread. As this is a UK website, I assume he is based in Britain. I'd be curious as to how one painting ended up in Ireland and the other in Britain. For a jobbing painter, someone took the trouble at some point to bring his picture overseas!
I would not be competent to remove the glass from my painting. I guess dirt would explain the monochrome aspect of my picture, which makes it very gloomy...
Again, thank you all so much for your valuable time!
Kindest regards,
Emer
Posted
Thanks for your reply Emer, always appreciated and I’m sure that I speak for Robert here also.
Like most old oil paintings, it would probably benefit from a clean, but it isn’t cheap to remove old varnish as it’s considerably time consuming as you can imagine.
Invariably the process nearly always requires some further restoration/repainting of the original surface.
I’ve done a fair bit of restoration work over the years so I speak from experience here.
We didn’t quite reach the desired conclusion, but an interesting topic nonetheless!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
Indeed, Emer - thanks for the thanks: we don't always get them.
On cleaning - Alan's quite right, this is no job for the enthusiastic amateur: a professional conservator would be quite expensive - cleaning a large oil-painting isn't something you can do with a bit of turps on a cloth - but you would get a much brighter, cleaner picture for your money: provided your painting IS a painting, not a print, as being shown behind glass suggests it might be. Given the quality of the painting, I probably wouldn't - I'd just enjoy its background appeal, as it were: the mellow feeling a grubby old painting can so often impart. But although it's not a great work, it's nice enough to take a bit of trouble with it, if you have a fondness for it.
Posted
Hello Robert, hello Alan,
Once again, thanks for your input an your time! What you have both said sounds reasonable to me. I also would have assumed that behind the glass was a print, but on closer inspection, I do think it's an original oil painting.
I also agree that it would be crazy to spend money on it, but maybe to just appreciate it for what it is, and for its background.
As for the desired conclusion, well, the painting is what it is! I have more respect for it now, actually, having listened to the considered opinions of two experts. The notion of a jobbing artist, the time period, etc., it's all terribly interesting!
Thanks and have a great summer!
Emer
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