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A small unsigned painting
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 25, 2018
This was the story of how the author came to buy a 'small unsigned painting' at an auction in Melbourne. Previously he had been addicted, so he tells us, to collection artwork. Personally, I see that as a plan with no flaws, however, he had sold his collection and promised to stop collecting. ok.
As a consequence, all Stephens's energy goes into tracing the provenance of this one small painting. He is sure that it is by Lloyd Rees, a very well known Australian artist and that it is dated from around the 1920's.
This is a slow book in many ways, I personally loved it; it looks into all the ways one can trace the provenance of a painting; the framers, the x-ray techniques, hunting through possible past owners and looking through the body of work of the artist and the other artists her knew and worked with. As a consequence, this book is also a fascinating (to me) survey of artists in Melbourne and Sydney from around the 1920's. The historical side of the book interested me as much as the minutiae that surround an old painting.
Written as a kind of personal diary or research history I would tentatively recommend it to anyone who is interested in art authentication or in the Australian art scene of the period. 'Tentatively' because this is a odd sort of book, I suspect not everyone's cup of tea. Interesting rather than thrilling, told in a matter of fact manner with few flourishes, a non-fiction on an obscure matter.
I really enjoyed it.
As a consequence, all Stephens's energy goes into tracing the provenance of this one small painting. He is sure that it is by Lloyd Rees, a very well known Australian artist and that it is dated from around the 1920's.
This is a slow book in many ways, I personally loved it; it looks into all the ways one can trace the provenance of a painting; the framers, the x-ray techniques, hunting through possible past owners and looking through the body of work of the artist and the other artists her knew and worked with. As a consequence, this book is also a fascinating (to me) survey of artists in Melbourne and Sydney from around the 1920's. The historical side of the book interested me as much as the minutiae that surround an old painting.
Written as a kind of personal diary or research history I would tentatively recommend it to anyone who is interested in art authentication or in the Australian art scene of the period. 'Tentatively' because this is a odd sort of book, I suspect not everyone's cup of tea. Interesting rather than thrilling, told in a matter of fact manner with few flourishes, a non-fiction on an obscure matter.
I really enjoyed it.
December 29, 2019
If you love a paper chase this unusual book is for you. On the surface it is about one man’s obsession to authenticate a small unsigned painting. It is a quest that lasts five years through the labyrinth of public records, art books and catalogues, other paintings and even the early Sydney telephone exchange. Below the surface it really is a an examination of identity, what peculiarities identify a work and more importantly for this reader, what a painter’s life was like in Sydney in the 1920s.
The book is written as a diary with mediations and investigations into a wide range of subjects that might help the author identify the small unsigned painting. Here is his first sighting of it in 1993.
“I first see the painting hanging amongst a thousand others at the viewing of Joel’s auction in the Malvern Town Hall, Melbourne. I am on holiday from Sydney with my wife, a film director.....The painting is of a house on the foreshore of a bay or harbour. In front of the house is a red boatshed. In front of the boatshed is an ambiguous shape, possibly a boat or ramp. The house is partly obscured by foliage on the right of the painting. On the left, a tall tree emerges from shrubs and wavers against the sky above the horizon line which is exactly halfway up the painting. A headland can be seen on the extreme left. My initial “flash” that it might be an early Lloyd Rees, perhaps early 1920s, is probably on the basis of the thickly but confidently modelled oil paint, the quiet mood and the rather intimate nature of the subject.”
Scheding uses every clue from the painting to track down the creator of this artwork - the frame, a phone number on the back, the possible location of the painting and the choice of colours and style of the painting itself. Late in the quest another name is thrown up and I must say I lean towards this possible artist rather than Rees. A not to be missed book for art lovers and historians.
The book is written as a diary with mediations and investigations into a wide range of subjects that might help the author identify the small unsigned painting. Here is his first sighting of it in 1993.
“I first see the painting hanging amongst a thousand others at the viewing of Joel’s auction in the Malvern Town Hall, Melbourne. I am on holiday from Sydney with my wife, a film director.....The painting is of a house on the foreshore of a bay or harbour. In front of the house is a red boatshed. In front of the boatshed is an ambiguous shape, possibly a boat or ramp. The house is partly obscured by foliage on the right of the painting. On the left, a tall tree emerges from shrubs and wavers against the sky above the horizon line which is exactly halfway up the painting. A headland can be seen on the extreme left. My initial “flash” that it might be an early Lloyd Rees, perhaps early 1920s, is probably on the basis of the thickly but confidently modelled oil paint, the quiet mood and the rather intimate nature of the subject.”
Scheding uses every clue from the painting to track down the creator of this artwork - the frame, a phone number on the back, the possible location of the painting and the choice of colours and style of the painting itself. Late in the quest another name is thrown up and I must say I lean towards this possible artist rather than Rees. A not to be missed book for art lovers and historians.
October 28, 2017
I lved this book. It was full of detail about paintings and the mystery behind identifying an unsigned masterpiece.
April 30, 2017
I found this book at my work's book sale. It's about an art collector who comes across an unsigned painting at an art auction and believes it to be by painter Lloyd Rees. He sets out on a mission involving intense research to find out. At the time of reading this, I was visiting Armidale (for Valentine's Day weekend <3) and went to the New England Regional Art Museum where I saw two Lloyd Rees paintings in the Hinton the Munificent exhibition. It was a beautiful weekend but as for the book - it didn't really end, so I didn't really like it in the end!
July 21, 2018
Brilliant. Highly informative.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews