Late Victorian genre painting. Who's the artist ?

I've put that frame and two others up for sale on dba.dk, antikviteter. You'll have to come to Denmark to buy it. See you then ...

 

The painting itself looks pretty amateur. I think someone tried to make the painting look old by copying of a old picture and stuck the painting in a old frame. The painting lacks detail. I think the frame would be worth more than the painting itself.

 

The girl is painted accurately but the background a little blurred. Probably inspired by the photographs of that time.

 

The "blurring" is atmospheric perspective, a painting technique designed to create a sense of depth. You can see it (famously) used here.

Debora

 

If I could, I would travel for that frame.

 

Debora, hardly atmospheric perspective in a library. My guess would be inspiration from photos. Have you figured out who the artist is ?

 

@Golgatha , do you have any information on the provenance of this painting? Maybe there would be clues in the ownership history that could lead to determination of who the artist was.

 

Sadly no. I bought the painting at an auction and - as you know - auction companies are discrete about who put things up for their auctions. The only thing I'm relatively sure about is an American or English genrepainter around 1890-1900.

 

Because there is no atmosphere in a library?

Granted, the blurred library background isn't particularly skilled, but here's an example that might better portray the use of atmospheric perspective indoors.

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp (Rembrandt)

 

Rembrandt has very little in common with an American or English genrepainter from around 1890-1900.

 

Well that took a weird turn.

 

Is the panel solid, or is it plywood?

 

In an earlier post he said the panel was mahogany.

 

I couldn't have said it better ...

 

I want to ask you what you meant by the above statement and at the same time, I don't want to engage you further.

It's a real pickle.

 

What I meant was that in 'Mona Lisa' there's an endless perspective in the background. In my genrepainting there's a short perspective in a library. Big difference.

 

And what I meant was you can't rule out atmospheric perspective because of "short perspective in a library."

 

Just say "atmospheric" and drop "perspective" and all will be well.

Personally, I don't think either applies and would just say "loosely painted".

 

I think "loosely painted" is more than fair.

 

Feel free to return when you've identified the artist.