I bought a nameless oil portrait on eBay and discovered a hidden signature...
THE FARMHOUSE
One of my favorite pieces of art in our house is a vintage oil portrait I found on eBay a few years back. It was listed as “c1880 antique Victorian lady black dress with cameo portrait oil painting 8x10”, but I call her the stern lady. There was no artist listed, no title, no obvious signature or defining mark - she was just one of a thousand nameless oil portraits on eBay.
cabinet latches, pulls, pottery, + more kitchen sources
I bought the stern lady for $75 to hang in our pantry gallery wall, but she soon moved to the kitchen. For years now, she’s been a fixture at our rowdy meal times, a bystander to our family’s inner-workings, and a quiet confidant of all the intimate moments in-between. I feel something like reverence for this long-ago woman. There’s a goodness to her hardiness, a directness in her gaze that I admire. And I like her being here.
I never thought we’d learn more about this piece - eEbay is, after all, great for finding vintage art, but not for tracing it’s history. And there was no certificate of authenticity or documentation that came with the purchase. So imagine my surprise when a door recently opened into the stern lady’s past…
I was digitizing the painting for a project we have coming up and once the image below was opened in Photoshop I noticed some faint letters hidden on her black dress at the bottom left of the portrait
They’re really hard to see with your naked eye, so I blew it up and adjusted the brightness and contrast. And voila…
A signature!
Now I’m no expert, and certainly not an art historian, but both Garrett and I read the signature as ”A Durand”. A quick google search revealed that there was indeed an artist by that name in the 1800s: Asher Brown Durand (1796-1886).
Durand was an American landscape and portrait artist of quite some esteem. Born in New Jersey, he was an important member of the Hudson River School and considered the dean of American landscape painting for a time. I found plenty of his beautiful pieces displayed at prestigious museums like the MET during my research. I also found these two signatures from Durand (from here)…
Let’s take another look at the signature on the stern lady…
Not the exact same, but similar. Certainly similar enough to make me think my piece is likely by Asher Brown Durand. Why on earth would his name be on the piece otherwise?! But I’m no expert and a degree in art history would be helpful right about now ;)
Apparently you can have art authenticated, estimated, and sent to experts. But not wanting to spend money on the process (because really I have no aims besides learning more), I haven’t gotten too far down that road. But I’d love to hear from anyone who’s done this or knows anything about the process!
You can see from the side and back of the piece that’s it authentically old.
Another question I’m sure a few of you have…is the piece worth anything? It’s surely worth more than I paid for it, just based on what Victorian portraits are selling for these days (they’re having a moment, for sure!). But based on what I’ve seen Durand’s small pieces sell for online, I’m guessing it’s not the kind of sum you can take the family to Hawaii for.
So this is our stern lady’s stories end…at least for now. Is the hidden signature that of a famous American artist? Maybe? I think so…! Such an ambiguous ending, I know! But even so, I had to share this exciting discovery with all my old-house-and-antique-mystery-loving-folks out there!
If you find yourself wanting a similar vintage oil portrait, try either of the searches below. Portraits like this are poplar right now and sell at a premium, so you can opt for a print if you don’t care about the originality.
Here are a few fun portraits I found in a quick search…
