jlove01
Jul 6, 2010, 09:13 PM
Hello, I also have a similar issue with a portrait of my late aunt who lived in Holland most of her life from the early 1930's on. I was handed down the portrait which was supposedly done by a rather well known Dutch painter of the time, knowing her tastes and the crowd she and her late husband kept it could be just about anyone and possibly as the story goes someone rather famous? The signature was very long and typical Dutch type name, very hard to read, but to make matters worse she damged the lower right corner with improper cleaning years ago, after it was left to me I had a fellow who does restoration work for the local fine arts museum clean it, re-strech the canvas and touch up the damaged lower right corner to blend it in with the whole painting. He did a fantastic job and one cannot even tell it was touched up, he did however brush over faintly the already difficult to read signature? I had taken a close up photo prior to the work, using a 45 degree pitched light to try and bring out the letters, I was only mildly successful. Do you have any advice for how I can get a proper ID on this artist name? I live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Jay Love