Featured Oil painting - landscape/romanticism hills/forest/lake scene.

Walked right by this at goodwill today, twice, because I thought it was one of those cardboard prints. Happened to stop and stand next to it in order to reply to a text on my phone and noticed it was indeed a painting. On masonite I think...dirty, the board is bowed out slightly in the center but... showing some skilled work I think. Yet to find a signature - but haven't had it out of the frame yet - and the dirtiness could be hiding it too. Hard to get a good capture of the real colors that show up in daylight.... About 32" x 16". Thoughts on where from or how old? I'm guessing at least 50 years old but I don't know how much older it might be.

 

Hi Aaron......If you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAINLY this is an OIL painting, then I MIGHT suggest a bit of spit & Q-tip gently in the lower right corner area......it "LOOKS" like there COULD be a short signature there after I lightened the image along the bottom.......but as in Life, nothing in life is for certain!!!! But I'm hoping there IS for you!!

 

Yep - definitely an oil painting - I dabbed at one spot with a cotton ball with some spit on it and got some brown gunk off, it definitely could use a cleaning all over. I'll work on it slowly - and I'll see if I can look at that right corner closer!

 

It could have an old varnish on it too which could be some of the 'brown gunk'........or nicotine......or, or, or!!!!

 

@Aquitaine - here's that bottom right corner - I've monochromed it...upped contrast, sharpened, leveled etc - there just might be something there.

 

Looking at the frame and assuming it is original to the painting.
I would say early 1900s - 1930s.

 

I think so too. This will be a real beauty once it is cleaned. You will probably be able to read what looks like the signature as well.

 

I like it.

Be warned: I've had atmospheric paintings where the "atmosphere" was all in the accumulated gunk and grime.

I would guess it's either amateur, or factory art of it say... which is to say an autograph piece by an artist who produced a lot of them, quickly.

Masonite was invented in the mid-20s, sooo...

 

I was guessing masonite but who knows. Some kind of pressed board it is...whether masonite not sure. Your point still stands ...early 20th at the earliest.

 

In many cases, frame and painting are unrelated, but I have to agree with cluttered. This frame and the painting appear to be from the same time period - 1920s.

 

Thanks mos, I didn't realise that masonite was that old.
A product resembling masonite (hardboard) was first made in England in 1898 by hot-pressing waste paper. Masonite was patented in 1924 in Laurel, Mississippi, by William H. Mason, who was a friend and protégé of inventor Thomas Edison. Mass production started in 1929.