Featured Help w/Identifying Antique Oil on Canvas Painting

This is a 'Let it be' piece. Any painting can be made new again in appearance with restoration, one like this has real atmosphere in it's condition . . the composition is enhanced.

 

I do agree with Drew, that the piece is an enchanting relic as is-magic in it's ruin.
Here's a bit about another Tonalist's techniques,the great Albert Pinkham Ryder (a real visionary).
"Albert Pinkham Ryder famously incorporated unconventional,unstable materials, including bootblack, into his paintings.
Ryder's experimental & unorthodox methods, which also involved layering paint, resin, varnish, candle wax, and bitumen, were intended to achieve a desired luminosity and depth of color. He often worked on a single painting for a decade or more using a wet-on-wet technique, applying new layers before the previous ones had fully dried.
...his disregard for sound technical procedures meant that many of his paintings have deteriorated over time, developing fissures and cracks, and sometimes completely disintegrating."

 

Can you blow up that (& illuminate) part Jim ?

 

i'm now fully agreeing with this general consensus about leaving it alone. this was actually my first impression of the painting too. i did try some spit and a little solvent that i have in the lower right corner. you can kind of see the difference in that corner in the pic i've provided at the beginning of this thread. that corner has a flat look to the surface of it. i don't think it's especially damaged, but i'm definitely not going to do anymore. here are some closeups under good light of the bottom at both ends and along the center left. i see a couple of potential "sort-of" signatures, but you can really get a sense of what that area looks like. if anyone else sees a signature, feel free to chime in. these pics do give a good sense of the way there's absolutely no separating the varnish(or whatever it is) from the painting. i have to assume this was the intention of the artist.

 

good pics

 

here's that corner in outdoor light.

 

That surface almost looks organic, almost looks like leather....

I'd totally leave it 'as-found.'

 

That's the kind of age I like to see on true primitive furniture and 19th century signs.Venerable-like an ancient Bristlecone Pine !

 

i'm not planning on trying to clean it. but, the real question is, do you see anything that resembles a signature? i pose that question to anyone that sees this thread.

 

I don't. Google Images thinks it's a painting by Hudson Mindell Kitchell. It's certainly not unlike his work. You can compare size and canvas here.

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...-autumnal-landscape-painti-1205a-c-af54f968f5

Debora View attachment 544000

 

I can barely see anything that resembles a painting.......

 

it sure does look like his work. thank you.

 

I don't think so. Looks like fire damage to me. Exposure to extreme heat and smoke IMHO. I don't think there is any cleaning to be done here that would make much improvement.

 

what i actually wrote was, "these pics do give a good sense of the way there's absolutely no separating the varnish(or whatever it is) from the painting. i have to assume this was the intention of the artist." and based on what i've learned here from bosko69 and the information he's provided regarding tonalist artists and their techniques, i'm pretty sure that's correct. however, it's likely that when the artist applied what was possibly a final coat of some varnish in order to give the piece an additional atmospheric effect he was exprimenting with some new mixture of ingredients that just didn't hold up well over time. when i look at other examples of the work of Hudson Mindell Kitchell, and it sure does look like his work, i can see examples of textures that did work. now, this could be the result of heat, or intense humidity over time, or something else, but that's actually beside the point. i'm pretty sure this painting can't be "restored." it is what it is. if you start trying to remove those blisters, you WILL remove the painting too.