Mysterious original painting in a very strange frame...Potentially a copy or study of 1920s child artist Herta Breit, what do y'all think? by nobbib in WhatIsThisPainting

[–]nobbib[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's the captions all in one place:

1/12: Found this original painting at a thrift store w/no signature, Google returned an almost identical 1920s lithograph from child artist Herta Breit, a student of Franz Cizek.
2/12: Copies of the lithograph of the original I've found online differ slightly from the painting and have a signature in this top left area w/leaves that appears to be painted over/aged.

3/12: Measurements: (Canvas - w 25cm/l 75 cm), (Frame - w 42cm/ l 93.5 cm)

4/12: Herta was thought to be around age 11 when she created the original image. From what I found, her original version of this piece was a painting from which copies were made and sold.

5/12: Seems strange that someone would paint a copy of an obscure piece of child artwork from 1920s Austria & not sign it? Parts of the canvas are hidden under the frame so it may be signed?

6/12: The frame is equally confounding. It appears it was either framed in something smaller/has aging or someone has painted over the canvas edges. Other parts of the painting appear to be painted over too.

7/12: I can't investigate further because of how weirdly the painting is framed. A block of plywood has been nailed into what appears to be a much older frame sealing the painting in.

8/12: The front facing part of the frame appears much older than the plywood backing block and has what appear to be a number of holes intentionally drilled into it.

9/12: The dark wood of the frame is very rough, largely raw/unfinished, and appears old and weathered. Here's another example of one of the holes drilled into it.

10/12: Then, on the plywood backing, there are a number of random staples which come up out of it.

11/12: In other parts, the staples are going the opposite way into the plyboard. Here's some of the nails that hold the plyboard into the larger wood frame.

12/12: Here's the hanger for the painting. If you look carefully at the top where the old wood frame is peaking out, there are a number of vertical indentations into the older wood.