Featured THRIFT STORE FIND CARMEN BONANNO PAINTING - GOOGLING SHOWS ONLY PRINTS?

I found this today & liked it, so I googled the name to see if he was a known artist. Right away came up different prints available by him so I knew he was known & bought the painting.
But when I got home & searched more - all I saw were prints by him! Now I thought they made prints from paintings - of known artists - and if all the print by this guy were of his paintings then he's painted a lot of paintings - but I couldn't find one for sale (or an example).
Has anyone heard of Carmen Bonanno?
NOTE: I just looked again & found his bio - it appears he painted murals & churches before getting into etchings.
so if this is a painting by him is it rare? Or valuable? Is it the same Carmen Bonanno?
As always I appreciate any help.

PS - Carmen Bonanno Bio:
Carman Bonanno was born in New York but returned to Italy at the age of nine. He attended various schools in both Southern Italy and Sicily before entering an art school in Rome, then supported himself by painting murals and sacred pictures in a number of churches. He returned to New York in 1931 and studied etching and drypoint techniques at the Art Students League. Bonanno served with the U.S. forces as an aviation engineer in both North Africa and in Italy during World War II. Both during and after the war, he worked on a number of fine drypoints and etchings which were published in both Italy and in New York by the Associated American Artists. Equally gifted for both his figure studies and views of Italy, Carman Bonanno's work received wide acclaim both here and in Europe.

 

Are you sure you have the same Carmen Bonnano? The works that come up with an internet search are of a trained artist. Yours does not appear to be so. (Not without its charms, however.)

Debora

 

That said... at a (very) glance signatures look similar.

Debora

 

I'm not sure if it's the same person - that was my last question. And I thought the signatures looked close too

 

A couple observations:

-The paint looks quite bright for a painting that came from the 1930's or earlier
-It's strange that no other paintings are seen from the same artist (only prints)
-To me, the frame looks intentionally aged, especially the dark varnish and "dimple marks" perhaps added to indicate an older piece.
-The smoking gun (to me perhaps), and assuming this is an oil on canvas, is to look on the back of the painting, and look at how the canvas is attached to the stretcher. If you look on the edges of the stretcher and you see staples, that's not good (though it's always possible the painting was restored). If you look and see nails, this might be a good signal. More info on this topic found here:

https://www.drloriv.com/Tips/ID/452/Tips-from-the-Back-of-your-Painting

Added note: If you do happen to see nails, try to take note of their condition. For a piece as old as this, I would expect to see some "rust in place" which looks quite different from period nails placed at a later date.

 

It feels like it's on board. It has a piece of cardboard on the back of the frame (held in place with small triangular metal pieces so I can't see the actual board.
And while it isn't dark, some of the brightness came when I click 'Auto Correct' when I save photo to computer from my camera.

 

Yeah, I'm super cautious to say "it can't be" or "it isn't" because I'd hate to stick my foot in my mouth. Personally, when I'm evaluating artwork I find, I really like to see correlation and similarity of other works. On one hand, you could potentially have the ONLY painting done by this artist (or at least the only painting known of). On the other hand, it's strange that other works wouldn't be available, even though the painting might not necessarily be a "master work."

I get the sense whoever did this painting was very familiar with their capabilities and limitations, and worked to maximize the quality of their work without exposing some of the underlying weaknesses of their abilities. Juxtapose this with the catalogue works of Carmen, and the catalogued work suggests an affinity towards line perfection and symmetry. Personally, I'm finding it challenging to connect between the two styles more than anything else described above because the painting doesn't share the same perceptual qualities of the sketches.

 

Can we see the back? The more u show, the more accurate the comments will be.

 

Here is the back taken inside & outside

 

The woman in the left foreground appears to be dressed in post-World War II clothing. 1950s from the look of it.

Debora