Featured Medeival Princess Painting

No, nothing. Nothing at all.

Debora

 

Curious. There is something sort of Asian about the face of the op's portrait. I wonder if it might be one of the Chinese copies/reproductions being produced recently. Some of those we have seen have been artificially aged to appear antique. The lining on this one could be a way of hiding a modern canvas.

 

Here's how the auction house described it. And curious the most notable paint loss is over the signature.

https://www.auctionninja.com/presti...art-painting-signed-royal-figure-1580939.html

Debora

 

I noticed that, too. And now see that the only photos @Budding Collector posted are from the auction listing. It will be interesting to see if we hear from him again.

 

I am seeing none of that here.
And as I said before, your painting is very charming, but this naive painting style would not have been accepted from Dutch professional artists of the period, at least not those who painted the upper classes. Remember, at the time Dutch painters were highly regarded throughout the Western world.

 

& the painting is creepy , to boot !

 

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Nothing here in the Netherlands either.
There is an Otmar (Ottomar) Elliger from Gotheburg, Sweden who settled in the Low Countries. His son Anthonie also became a well-known painter at the time. Neither painted in this naive folk style of course, they worked at royal courts.

 

No, me neither except for what I found listed above here. I am reaching out to a couple of professional authenticators / appraisers to see if they can find anything. Any references would be appreciated. I have a conservation specialist ready to accept it and do their thing, but would like a valuation or something just to know what I have.

 

"No, me neither except for what I found listed above here." And where exactly on the internet was this found?

Debora

 

@Budding Collector, we might be able to find corroborating information if you tell us where you found the information you quoted about "Matthias Elligers", as Debora has requested (twice). It is helpful to be able to trace such information, and to assess whether or not it seems to be accurate.

But, I think you should also be prepared to accept our earlier consensus that this painting is unlikely to be an 18th century work, and certainly not of the quality expected for an 18th century court portrait.

 

So sorry everyone. I did not check back for any further postings since my last about the Chat GPS info about Mattias Elligers which was bogus by the way.. but I didn't receive any emails indicating such.... Don't believe Chat GPT. I did take it to a conservator. She said it is and old painting and very curious about it. She even went to far as to say she sees over paint on the signature and she thinks there is another signature under the "Elligers" one. I'm just not ready to sink a couple of thousand into it without having a little better feeling that it's worth it. She also determined that it is a "floating" liner on a European stretcher.. I'm ready to remove the painting from the stretcher carefully as she said to examine the verso of the original work. I can post my own pictures of any part of the painting should someone want to see it. Thanks again all...

 

Ah, ChatGPT. If you had only told us the 'source', we could have told you what ChatGPT is. Yes, it collects information, but it also makes a lot of things up. After all, it is artificial intelligence, not real one. It can't identify hitherto unknown paintings for you.

I think we all agree on that.

What did she base that on? Did she give any specifics?

 

She kept looking at it in the sunlight, then under UV light, then wiped some sort of spirit on it which did clean it up a bit. You can now see the hair which is brown. There also is a lot of overpaint. She did look at on her easel, then up in the air, and went on for over 1/2 hour. Then finally pointed me to an appraiser friend of hers that wants $250 / hour 3 hour minimum.. But again, I don't want to waste money if there nothing here.

 

She stayed away from the signature area in fear of removing more of the flaking paint.

 

I am not familiar with a "floating lining". Did she mean that the old/original canvas is not adhered to the lining, just resting on it as a means of additional support?

 

Yes... That's what she thought. And also said for me to be very careful if/when i did remove the painting from the stretcher. And also that it would probably not go back so easy without a stretching tool.

 

By any chance, did she determine the fiber of the canvas - linen, hemp, or cotton?

 

No... she didn't say anything about that. I can reach out and ask her.. We got along great and I'm actually helping her out with something unrelated, so we are in touch anyway.

 

Good, that should be helpful.

Sorry - I keep coming up with more questions. Looking at the one photo you
previously posted of the edge of the painting, I don't see much evidence of earlier tack holes. But perhaps this shows one? -