Painting identification wanted

[oggbashan]

I'm at a loss. Books I can do - paintings I can't.

This is cut and pasted from a message to me. What is wanted is an identification and preferably a link to an image of the picture described. The lady in the picture was built a la Rubens:

"The pic was in our schoolbook and about 20cm x 10cm (upright format) Two persons, a painter and a woman (maybe his wife or lover), he sitting, she standing and I don't know exactly but I would say that he lifts her skirt with his hand. And I remember that it maybe was a selfportrait of the painter and his wife.

The picture was dark, but it had colours, it was not a sketch, no ink. It was an oil-painting. And when we had it in school, it was in the GDR(East Germany)

The woman wore a dress with a wide skirt and she was not fat, but well-proportioned. Maybe it was not lifting the skirt, maybe it was a gown with a lifted skirt.

...The woman seemed to be Rubenesque."

Any ideas, please?

Og

 

[Wills]

Og

Use this link, it may help
http://tigtail.org/tvm/x1/northern.html
It is a vitual gallery of paintings, on the 'third floor' is a search box, type in your description and the 'elves' - their description, not mine - may be able to find your picture.

It's an amusing but helpful site, particularly if you know the name of the painter.

Will's

 

[oggbashan]

Thank you, Wills.

I have tried the link which is very useful but I haven't found the answer. I think I need to get on my higher speed link and google for hours unless anyone has any other ideas.

Og

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Ogg--

You mean that you don't have the image yourself? That someone just emailed you the description of the painting? I assume that the image in the schoolbook was 20X10 cm, not the painting itself, right?

At least try and pin down the style or era. Romantic, cubist, renaissance, whatever... Mediterranean or N. European?

---dr.M.

 

[oggbashan]

I gave all the information I had. If I can find an image that seems a reasonable fit I could email to my contact. I would expect the image to be western European 19th century or earlier because my contact thought the picture was like a Rubens.

My first thought was the Arnofini family by Van Dyke but that lady looks obviously pregnant (but wasn't - that was fashionable dress).

One other clue which may be a red herring. The original may have been in a museum or art gallery in East Germany.

Og

 

[oggbashan]

I don't know anything about art...

Oops.

What I meant was "The Betrothal of the Arnolfini" by Jan Van Eyck.

Og

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Re: I don't know anything about art...

Oops.

What I meant was "The Betrothal of the Arnolfini" by Jan Van Eyck.

Og

Isn't that the one where she's preggers? With the funny convex mirror on the back wall?

The other one I thought of was Dutch and shows an artist from the back as he's painting a nude: one of those picture-within-a-picture things.

Unless you can narrow it down as to era or artist, all I can think of is that you go over and start googling your hat off for images. Either that or post a query in some usegroup.

---dr.M.

 

[shereads]

Sounds like "Big-Ass Woman Got My Hand On Her Leg" by Carl

Carl always sets up an unregistered booth on the sidewalk outside of the juried show, during the annual Coconut Grove Art Festival. He works in acrylics.

Should I track Carl down for you during my dog-walk today, Og?

 

[oggbashan]

Re: Re: I don't know anything about art...

Isn't that the one where she's preggers? With the funny convex mirror on the back wall?

Yes, but she's not pregnant. It was a fashionable style at the time.

Unless you can narrow it down as to era or artist, all I can think of is that you go over and start googling your hat off for images. Either that or post a query in some usegroup.

---dr.M. [/QUOTE]

I agree. I'm looking for a needle in a haystack and I don't even know whether it is a needle.

Thank you for the advice.

Og

 

[oggbashan]

Sounds like "Big-Ass Woman Got My Hand On Her Leg" by Carl

Carl always sets up an unregistered booth on the sidewalk outside of the juried show, during the annual Coconut Grove Art Festival. He works in acrylics.

Should I track Carl down for you during my dog-walk today, Og?

I should leave him in peace unless his work is likely to have been featured in East German schoolbooks. Perhaps he was - as an example of decadent capitalist running-dog art?

Og

 

[Black Tulip]

If it is 17th century, you could try Rembrandt, he did a lot of self portraits.

Peter Paul Rubens you already searched?

How about Paulus Potter, Jan van Scorel,
or in the same style as Anthony van Dijck, Pourbus.
Cornelis de Vos (painted his own children, is in Berlin).
If it is a bit naughty: Frans Hals.
Pieter de Hoogh.

You could also try: de Hollandse school, getting Dutch painters from that period.

Good luck.

 

[Quasimodem]

... Books I can do - paintings I can't ... "The pic was in our schoolbook and about 20cm x 10cm (upright format) etc ... Any ideas, please?
Og

Can you find the book and identify the illustration from its description?

Or, is it a customer who is trying to identify the book with an inadequately described illustration?

Just a thot.

(A "thot" is a clotted thought.)

 

[Guest]

 

[oggbashan]

I have written back to my friend with the suggestions so far.

I hope I will get some more clues.

Thanks for the help. I have enjoyed looking through the art.

Og

 

[Guest]

 

[shereads]

Og, not to alarm you or anything, but Carl is a little upset that you don't want the painting.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Ogs,

If it was in an art book then it was most likely a famous painting and for whatever reason it was probably considered an excellent example of the style. Reasoning that it was a self portrait by the person's memory you could probably google self portrait and then look for artists with whom you have name recognition. You can eliminate a large number of artists as their styles do not fit such as Dali, Picasso, Vermeer etc.

Another idea would be to mail them back and find out when they went to school and where. You might be able to identify the textbook used for the class and find the work via that route.

Good Luck,

Colly

 

[oggbashan]

Thank you, Colly.

I have sent a copy of Holman Hunt's "The Awakening Conscience". If nothing else it should give some idea what NOT to look for.

School idea not much use. The country doesn't exist any more. All the schools have been changed and the schoolbooks junked because they were biased in favour in Communism.

Og

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Ogs,

The school book Idea may still work. While the school, records etc. are out of favor you may well be able to find a university course in poly sci that makes comparrisons between what was being taught in the east and west while there were two Germanys. A quick call to the registrars office might also yeild a list of the books that were "approved" reading for the time period. In some ways you actually have a better shot with one of the old communist countries because cirriculums were tightly controlled and rarely changed. Here in the U.S. the books used this semester may not be the same as last semester and may well not be the one they want you to use next semester.

I think it is worth investigating at any rate. With such a vague description it could be one of any number of paintings by a whole host of artists. The approved text book list for art history in the east German school system is quite likely to be far less broad.

-Colly

 

[Quasimodem]

Og,

I took a look at Holman Hunt's "The Awakening Conscience."

To my mind, it looks more like "Needing To Pee, Before The Private Concert Is Over."

My mind just isn't organized to make use of great works of culture.