Bertha Müller

Oil on Canvas. A Portrait of a Girl in a Bonnet. Unsigned - auction description - and that was it. Anyway. I liked it, and the one other bidder dropped out after one low bid.

The painting was coated in a thick gloop of glossy varnish. The frame was modern and the back covered in new, brown, paper - it didn't auger well.

Paper removed revealed a 19th century canvas and stretcher bars. There is a signature. Faint, bottom left. Definitely looking up.

Bertha Müller. The first name is relatively legible, Bertha. The second name fades as it nears the the end - of paint on a brush. I thought this was Swedish folk dress, but it's probably Austrian...

The signature enhanced and compared to authenticated signature.

Bertha Müller reframed and finished.