Posted 10 years ago
ho2cultcha
(5042 items)
i've spent the last few months looking at this painting i purchased from an estate of an old framer from my neighborhood who passed away a couple years ago. I'm convinced it's either really by one of the Guardis [leaning towards Francesco]. the details which are really finely done w/ a very fast and confident brushstrokes are amazing. unfortunately, nobody who can actually do an attribution for the Guardis will even look at an unsigned Guardi found in America. I've compared this painting to thousands of others which are attributed to the 'school of guardi' or the 'circle of guardi', and there's just no comparison, in my opinion. i wish someone else would take a close look at it and do some research on it and tell me what they think.
more pictures here: http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/72045-could-this-be-a-piece-by-francesco-guard
Was it in an old original frame? Is it on canvas or board? Just curious! It looks beautiful! and dimensions?
I wish I could help you with this one, it is a great painting!
thanks walksoftly. there was no frame w/ this one. i was able to closely inspect online the canvases of some paintings by guardi and it looks like an exact match. there are some words on the back too - in chalk, but i can't read them. maybe i can take some pics of the back and post those too...
to see more photos of this painting, go here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjCCykX9
here you can see the words/letters on the back. The top line reads: J U, and the second line reads: #6083. can anyone decipher the third line? any ideas as to what they mean?
I think it's 9126.
Or 7126?
Auction houses use number sequences like these.
I was wondering the same thing Kevin, if that's what they are they don't really mean too much.
i think you are right walksoftly - the numbers can be meaningless w/out more context.
I think this is very very special! Really! Wow!
thank you toracat. i'm in the process of making appointments at Los Angeles museums which have Guardi's in their collections in order to personally inspect and compare.
i just saw your original question toracat. it was not in a frame, but there were i remember seeing remnants of a beautiful old sansovino frame at the home of the deceased framer where i purchased it. i wish i had purchased that too, but it was in terrible condition - dozens of pieces. it's on canvas and the back of the canvas looks right for a guardi painting. it's a large painting - one of his largest capriccios of this type - hence a lot more detail than in many of his other ones. it measures 40" tall x 21.5" wide.