Need help on signature watercolor painting.

bar le duc France 1940 Clock tower painting, I can't figure out the signature I think the first name is Denise can't figure out the last name.

 

Well, I didn't do much better than you did, but there are others that will be along, for sure!!! I did both enlarge and invert the image, so maybe someone can help......and I do see the start of the last name as......Nisar?nén??tn.....I think.....best I can see & do.....BUT, I love the painting!!!!!

 

Denise Nésarmánien, Nisarmánien? Neither are surnames I know.
I think Denise was probably an amateur with some talent, so I doubt her name adds anything to the value.

 

Think it is Denise & that last name also starts with a D.
Désar(m)?____ with another é toward the end, perhaps iére. This would be quite a usual French construction

 

Found the clock tower. The rubble is probably WWI-related damage; this town is in the Meuse region, and that area of eastern France was hammered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar-le-Duc

 

So I found this engraving in between the clocktower painting and the blank paper behind it not sure what it is, they are all the same sized paper and were in a frame and the clocktower painting was in the front, this adam and eve was in the middle, and the blank paper behind it, I wouldn't of known that it was there unless I took it apart. Is there a reason it is there?

 

It's not adam eve though it is Apollo and Diane
https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/407294/apollo-and-diana

 

Interesting link! According to what it says there, "Prince Albert bought the painting as Adam and Eve, which is understandable since the protagonists have no obvious attributes and as nude types are very like those of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, a subject which Cranach painted with many variations."

So it might be that at the time that print was made it was still thought to be Adam and Eve, and later corrected to be Apollo and Diana.

You asked about why the print was behind the painting. I've found in the past that sometimes things are kept or put behind other framed items. I'm not sure whether it was thought that a space needed to be filled to make the newly-framed item fit better? Or if people just didn't care if they kept the older item inside when something new was put into the frame? Does anybody here know about that?

 

Hi KJ, Do you have a photo of the frame? I see a lot of this type of multiple framing. The original picture is kept to help fill out the rebate around the edge of the frame with the new work placed over the original picture so it can be seen. This helps keep the new picture flat and protected and perhaps allows the owner to reuse the original picture or remove the new picture at a later stage. Does that make sense? I also see paintings or sketches on the back of boards as well. I recently bought a small French Impressionist painting in Australia which had a gorgeous figure on the reverse plus other fillers to support the painting.

 

I actually don't have the frame I took it out of the frame awhile ago & put these three pieces in a book so they stay flat, then I recently found the book I put it in but still did not know what they were.

 

Really? Just after I wrote the post I was in a panic because I couldn't find the painting and realised I had done exactly the same thing. Put it between books to press flat and then forgot where it was. Ive just been in a total panic looking everywhere for it. Just found it in a covered folder. Phew!! I hope what I said about how yours was together made sense.

 

Yeah I can understand that they would switch to what they wanted on a particular day

 

And to keep flat like we both did

 

Hi,
I saw a wonderful frame with a dirty Turner painting looking like a magazine cover. It was priced higher than I wanted to pay. It sat in the thrift store for 3 years that I know of. Finally the store manager reduced the paining way down. I bought the picture and took it home. While taking it apart I found a wonderful photograph of Niagara Falls it was covered by the Turner. The Turner was a magazine cover dated Jan 1921. After investigating the Niagara Falls photo found out it was taken in 1911 by a well known photographer. The photo sold for 235 dollars, the Turner cover went into the trash and I cleaned the frame and it sold for 75 dollars. Not bad since I paid 7 dollars for the deal.
greg

 

Now that's a nice rate of return!