Pcitum

Frank Ernest Beresford

Well, I've had, Halliday and 1922, now I have a Frank Ernest Beresford. Messages from the other side!

Anyway, a tatty,

dirty landscape with a 5 cm rent and damaged gilding, purchased for pennies and restored to rude health within 24 hours.

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.

Sabbath Eve and Family Devotions.

I bought this painting from Ebay, entitled 'Sabeth Eve'.

Reverse is written:

(Sabeth Eve)
by John H Thompson of Bd

1873

It has a magnificent, but damaged, frame. The painting has tar deposits and several tears.

A little search engine input - using the accepted spelling of sabbath - revealed Alexander Johnston (1815–1891) as the 'original' artist. The painting, at the Glasgow Museums, is called Family devotions.

Alexander Johnston's painting proved so popular, another version hangs in Leeds Museum and art gallery.

This one is entitled Sabbath Eve. Spot the difference.

The hungry public bought engravings of the image(by P. Lightfoot) and exhibited at the Royal Academy 1851.

So we have a popular image and a good quality frame. My guess is a middle-class family wanted the painting and commissioned J H Thompson.

And what of J H Thompson? He was a contemporary of Alexander Johnston and genre painter. John H Thompson 1808 - 1890.

Untitled, 1874.

The proposition.

N.B. Genre paintings are unfashionable - don't know why. The social history details they reveal are extraordinary. Completed painting.

George Henry Harlow. Girl with rabbit.

George Henry Harlow.

Bought this little canvas on Ebay. Filthy and the canvas frail. Circa: 1800.

I found similar images to this unsigned painting, which are the work of George Henry Harlow, 10 June 1787 – 4 February 1819.

George Henry Harlow

Finished canvas cleaned and polished.

After? George Henry Harlow or John Russell

Strange, when rummaging around on the web, and an image/print is found that is the same as a painting I've bought. Third time it's happened to me. This is the original post. I drew similarities to George Henry Harlow.

But then I found these prints, date ranges from regency, to mid and late Victorian, to Edwardian. A popular image! John Russell RA (29 March 1745 – 20 April 1806). 'My favourite rabbit.'

Mignon

Mignon by Goldscheider C: 1890, 75 cm. Bought at auction. The arm was wrapped in bubble-wrap and tied to her neck.

Strangely, someone had glued the remaining fingers on back to front.