Help with partial signature on old painting on board

Found this today at my reg thrift - it was in back & hadn't been priced yet; the manager told me $80 and I wanted to leave it because I think he was charging me for the age, but it looked nice and it had an unusual back to the frame that I haven't seen before, so I went ahead and bought it.
Did I do good?
Can anyone make out the signature? I think it may be J. Hartford or J. Harrison?
Thanks

 

It's a very pretty picture, but it looks very fresh. Either someone has taken very good care of it, or it's probably not nearly as old as it wants to be.

What is it painted on?

Has the name been deliberately obscured?

 

It does have the appearance of a decorative painting in an older frame.

Debora

 

Beautiful 19th century gesso & wood frame-the quick painting technique was done in the 19th century for tourist/interior decor pieces and the left slant signature also somewhat period,but the surface doesn't seem to have any surface patination (old smoke,varnish crackle),the back mount looks old though-is it painted on a wood panel ? Sometimes they used to back paintings and prints with a wood panel or 'shingle'-which sadly frequently 'burned' the print it was mounted on,too much acid in the wood.That's why you have to be careful what you plant under your fir tree-acidic.

 

exactly Debora-'Decorative',quick but effective like the techniques a skilled faux finisher would use on wainscotting to fancy-up cheaper grade of wood.

 

It's painted on wood or board. It may pop because I used a filter & brightened it because phone camera came out way to dark. I'll try to take a pic with my reg. camera to see if it shows it differently. But I thought it was a 1920s - 30s or 40s. It has age I'm pretty sure

 

Just my opinion, from a look at the grasses in the water, it appears to be a factory painting, done by more than one artist's brush strokes. It's much newer than its frame. I doubt it was painted in the USA.

 

It looks like the back of the frame has been stained to look darker.

Also, are you sure the backer board isn't separate from the artist's millboard itself? I'd pop off the backer board to see the back of the millboard. You might find a sales tag from 1992. lol

Or, it could be the real deal.

 

I do wonder if it has been restored. Is this in-fill?


Could you get a close up of this area?

 

More close-ups would be helpful. It's always worrisome to see areas like this. The dark strokes really serve no purpose and see how quickly they were produced in quick rightward strokes. The artist didn't even bother to reload his brush with paint.

Debora

 

I thought those black rightward marks were supposed to be lily pads. Now I realize lily pads are supposed to be green... duh

 

That could have been the artist's intention but, if so, very sketchily done.

Debora

 

Yes, this is exactly what I see too..

The difference in techniques from the foreground to the back appears to be 3 or more painters.

You may be correct MOS that this is a filled in area, it sure does look like it.
Well, a good cleaning and repainting would definitely make this appear to be less old than it may be. But, I still think it's a factory painting stuck into an old frame. The subject matter is not high level, it's more a decorative painting.

agreed

 

I agree that it is sketchily done and verges on factory art at the very least, but I'm undecided whether it's an old turn-of-the-century sort of factory art, or a new Chinese sort of factory art.

 

I will try with regular camera - but usually after resizing etc, 3-4 pics my computer photo app stops - but not with phone camera photos; maybe need a new memory card for camera?

 

Photos with reg camera - that's old brown tape on back with the center left opened.