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A murky Canvas Found Inside An Old Barn in North Wales Help Please:) T Ubsdell??
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Message
Posted
I've saved the picture, cropped it, enlarged it to as high resolution as I can, and I think it's an area of the painting that's been painted out with white - I wonder why (if that IS the case). It's not a good enough painting to go to great expense over investigating, but an X-ray might be interesting. If it has been painted out, it should be reversible - but as it might be lead white, not by an amateur.
Now - I'm not that strong on literary imagination, but if one of you out there in POL-land is into writing detective stories, you could have a lot of fun with this one - e.g. what dread secret did this painting hold, etc.... Go on, I'm almost serious: see what you can make of it, if you like to dabble in fiction... plus, the actual answer should be just as interesting.
Posted
Well Robert since you ask…..
This painting features the same house that is shown in Cezanne’s ‘La Maison du Pendu’. It was painted before Cezanne’s work and Ubsdell, unknowingly, caught and painted a dubious character outside the house, and there was speculation that this disreputable gentleman had actually committed a murder in the house - le pendu was not a suicide. Naturally on seeing this painting, this nasty gentlemen went to great lengths to acquire the painting for the sole purpose of destroying it, but couldn’t afford it. So getting a friend to create a diversion in the gallery, he quickly and crudely defaced the painting by covering up his own image in a thick layer of lead white. Much to his surprise so effective was the diversion that he was able to steal the painting and escape via the back door. On getting home he was quite taken with the painting and in the end he couldn’t bring himself to destroy it, so he hid it in the attic.
Edited
by Tony Auffret
Posted
The white area looks like a chalk bank to me; if someone had painted over it wouldn't they have painted over the fence as well rather than round it?
From what I have been able to discover Thomas Charles Ubsdell was the son of the more famous painter and died of hepititis in 1885, two years before his father. If that is a chalk bank in the picture it would fit in with a south of England setting.
From My Heritage:
Thomas Ubsdell was born circa 1839, in birth place, to Richard H C Ubsdell and Mary A Ubsdell.
Richard was born circa 1815, in Portsmouth, Hants.
Mary was born circa 1816, in Queenborough, Kent.
Thomas had one brother: William E Ubsdell.
Edited - sorry, should have read page 1 more carefully, Thomas got there before me.
Edited
by Peter Smith
Posted
Take your point about, in other words, well, why paint around the fencing, then...? But - does it really look like a chalk bank, either? Plainly, this painter could tackle trees and figures - not brilliantly, but adequately; would he not have done a better job of a chalk bank? I wish I could see the painting properly, but there is a touch of mystery about it. I'd love to know what the answer is, but tantalizingly - I doubt we ever will. It's like reading a murder mystery with the last three pages missing. "And the killer is....." - turns page: nuffink.
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