Old Painting Identification

Hello.....looks to me like mother is holding a dead infant....JMHO.....good enough reason for all to be sad............

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Yes, everything at the doorway and beyond looks like it was done by a competent artist. The interior scene is just a mess. I wonder if this is an example of one of those "restorations" gone horribly wrong.

 

Looking closer at the faces - I think there might be some evidence of that.

 

Following moreotherstuff's suggestion, I searched Biedermeier art and found this strikingly similar family portrait. It's like this is the dark and twisted version of the Biedermeier. It makes me wonder if my friend's painting is some sort of political, economic or even religious statement in the bizarre differences. And in that case, is that why the figures are obviously distorted? It does look like the little boy is reading scripture, over an apparently pregnant child, dead baby, and was this an incest situation? So many questions!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Familie_im_Vestibül_Biedermeier_c1840.jpg

 

(Biedermeier art)

 

That's kinda what I'm thinking! Or at least deliberate distortion.

 

That was the first thing I saw too. And the bible opened at some appropriate page. It is terribly sad.

 

I am seeing shades of Modigliani and Picasso in the faces -


Pretty sure it is a canvas that has been reworked in a different era than whatever it was originally.

 

It looks very different from Biedermeier paintings, imo, and much more recent.
It could be after a Biedermeier painting, by someone who wanted to convey the subject, but not the style.

 

For what it's worth, I see this in the painting:

A woman holding a dead or dying child. The child may have been born malformed, its head is hanging. If I were to push my imagination a little further, the depiction hints that the child may have been born with two heads. Aaaaright... criticize me on that one if you will; it's just an opinion based on impression.

The bearded man is not necessarily the baby's father [let's not go there], but the husband of the woman holding the child. Not a grandfather, his face is youngish, age a little over 40 I'd guess.

The mature woman's face is rounded but not too aged, likely of similar age to the man, i e his wife.

The woman with gray hair showing under a headscarf is a grandmother.

The short girl with protruding stomach may have been the unfortunate mother whose child died. Perhaps she was taken advantage of by someone outside the family. She also appears to be blind.

The little girl on the right, head leaning on the mature woman's knee is another young child or may be a midget sibling.

Her head, other proportions, are wrong for a child of an age that corresponds to her height.

Also, the dress is too "old" in style for a child of her height.

Not mentioned in previous posts is the boy seated with crossed legs next to the bearded man, with a book on his lap, his gaze directed toward the others in the group.

What book is he studying? A bible? To judge from the double columns of text, oddly highlighted, it is probably meant to show a bible. Perhaps a prayer is being read from it for the dead baby.

I first thought that the scene could be from the Low Countries. Studying the village buildings in the distance I am more inclined to believe the painting shows an Italian family with a fishing village by a sea, Mediterranean, or Aegean.The faces are oddly Italian looking to me.

I believe this painting was either in a room where there was a fire, or had hung above a fire place. There appears to be scorching on the left as if exposed to high heat. This made the head of the boy hard to distinguish.

If I'm wrong about the whitish areas being fire or heat damage and are maybe a result of a flash from a camera that sometimes causes this effect on an image, please correct me.

I put the age of the motif at mid-19th century. When the actual painting may have been executed I'd have no idea.

As far as the artist having been an itinerant painter, sure, why not. I could also be a student copy of a painting in a museum somewhere.

More ideas?

 

I won't deny that the child may be dead. It was a common enough occurrence, as are "last chance" images. The way the head hangs unsupported is peculiar. I just prefer not to think that way.

But there is a real market for images of that subject matter, so if you wanted to fake an antique...

I think that similarities to surrealism are coincidental. It's just very awkwardly painted. It's possible that's intentional. The faces look cartoon-like to me, and the rest isn't much better. One thing I can't get around is the picture frame behind the group.

It's difficult to accept that even an amateur would get the frame that far off square, and I can't recall ever encountering a frame made like that. For me, if you are looking for a point where the painting jumps-the-shark, that would be it.

The style still seems Biedermeier to me.

If it's old or new... I can't say.

 

@moreotherstuff - the thing I find the most distracting is how the stark shadows indicate a light source impossibly emanating from the dark corner, at a distance of infinity.