Featured Unknown painting, artist and period

Hi all,

Please have a look at this oil on canvas painting.. Has anyone seen a similar setting before? What period would you say this is?

Setting: Inside church or chapel, someone kneeling in front of a coffin, a dog is laying there as well. Someone standing with a book in hands (bible). Unfinished faces..

Dimensions: H64cm/W53.5cm H25.2in / W20.8in

Provenance: Inherited from great grandfather (lived in Brussels)

No apparent signature

At certain areas, it appears someone drew over the painting, maybe to finish the missing parts (thicker paint, less refined work).

In the back: no markings visible, only numbers from collection or past auction?

Thank you in advance for your comments!
Sam

Painting X - Church by Sam Hills posted Jan 9, 2021 at 6:06 PM

Back of church painting by Sam Hills posted Jan 9, 2021 at 6:09 PM

Dog by Sam Hills posted Jan 9, 2021 at 6:26 PM

 

The 3 gallery pictures you tried to attach are not set for viewing by anyone except you. You will need to allow "Members" to see them.

 

Thank you, I made them public

 

What a beautiful painting.
Love the atmosphere of that space.
I don't mind the softness of the faces at all.

Assuming that the frame and the canvas are original to each other, it should help. The style of framing may be particular to an era.

James.

PS: Adding a path to explore further...
https://medium.com/hidden-gem/asses...ition-part-ii-back-of-a-painting-45fe6a2cf892

 

The genre of your work is either a history painting or a genre painting depending on the artist's intent. Hard to tell from a photograph, of course, but... It doesn't look too old to my eye; I wouldn't be surprised if it was 20th century. Suspect the clothing is a bit of a fantasy but can be roughly dated by the size of the ruff. Ruffs were in style from the mid-16th to the mid-17th centuries and got increasingly bigger as the period went on before (mostly) disappearing altogether. So early 1600s. In Great Britain, that would be the Jacobean era. In Belgium, I believe that would be considered Golden Age.

Debora

 

I see her as accompanied by a page who is holding her psalter/book of hours/prayer book. She does not quite appear to be praying at this moment.

 

Sam Hills, continuing whether it is finished or not, note the similar atmosphere and softness of facial features is this Dutch painting by a follower of Emanuel de Witte. Just for a artistic comparison, not implying it is from a painter of that period.

I hope you have good luck uncovering more information about it!

 

Wonderful example.

Debora

 

I'm just imagining what this might look like without the old yellowed varnish...

 

Attendance by a page, especially in a costume like that, was highly unusual in the Low Countries in the early 1600s. Maybe French?

 

James, many thanks for your input and the editing. Do you think I should get it restored and framed? Any idea what a decent job would cost?

Very informative website link as well. What I learnt from the website is that the wooden links inserted in the frame were only invented in the second half of the 19th century. As you mentioned, unless the frame isn’t original, that is a good indicator for the period. That’s in line as well with Debora’s opinion of the actual painting.

The Emanuel de Witte painting has a lot of similarities, the dog, atmosphere and overall play of light. He was primarily drawing the inside of churches (1617-1672). I assume my drawing would be a much later reproduction or an attempt in his ‘style’. Maybe a Franco/Flemish School painting..

Here is another similar example by de Witte.

 

and those church windows really look like there is light coming through the canvas!

 

Sam Hills, I am merely armed with an overactive imagination and the internet as a tool.

Another thing to examine is how the canvas is attached to the stretcher. Does it appear to be molested? Are there tack holes in the canvas, but no holes in the wood? If it looks like the original canvas on the original stretcher, you're getting closer to when it may have been made. If it's an older canvas and a newer stretcher, that's a new path.

Varnish removal is a specialize art and is not cheap.

 

Is it signed down in the lower right hand corner?
I cannot tell, my vision isn't great.

 

I just checked the nails in the frame and two things came to my attention:

- There are holes in the canvas with missing nails and no corresponding holes in the frame
- The nails are flat headed, uneven sized and look quite old

This leads me to believe that the canvas may have been stretched on another frame in the past, i.e. the canvas could be older than frame.. Maybe the old original nails were kept, would this be the standard procedure?

 

I don't think it is, anti. Just some canvas texture catching the light.

 

Again, I'm just thinking aloud.

I would expect to see a new set of extra holes, with the new tacks placed onto fresh canvas.
OR
If the flaps were weakened or short, extensions would be glued on.

I would not get my hopes up for a painting that's older than the stretcher.

Still a fine painting that anyone would be proud to hang and enjoy.

That's my amateur take on it.

James.

 

Wow, that really lets the light in!. Beautiful painting