Eugene Fehdmer painting

I bought a painting at a New Orleans estate sale signed E. Fehdmer, 1892. The only info I can find about him is that he was Dutch and was somewhat well known for his country landscape paintings. The painting is 30x23 and in good condition except for a small hole at the top. The back of the frame has a label that says A. Woodgate and someone wrote Mr. Spartali(?) very large on the back of the painting itself. Hoping someone can tell me anything about the painting, the painter, or if it has/had any value with the hole on top. Thanks View attachment 117267

 

Woodgate was probably the framer, Spartali the person who had it framed.

Looks like a watercolor to me. You really need to get that wood off the back. Wood and paper don't mix. The acid in the wood creates brown discoloration on the paper (called foxing) and will eat through the paper eventually. Not sure what can be done with the hole.

 

hole doesn't help.....but not the death of it.
Wait for some of our Dutch experts to show up....

The mat too....will hurt the painting...

 

Label should read:

A. Woodgate
Picture Framers
140 Fetter Lane
London

Debora

 

Welcome to the forum ibpbg.
I am one of the Dutch antiquers. I can't find the name in my lists of Dutch painters, is there a site you found your info on? Maybe there is something there to help my search.
It is a charming picture. From the landscape and farmhouses it looks like it is situated in the southeast or the east of the Netherlands.

@gerspee , @opoe , @benbenny007 , anything rings a bell to any of you?

 

https://www.1stdibs.com/amp/art/pai...fehdmer-wooded-landscape-figures/id-a_633152/

There’s a short bio here.

 

In that case this landscape is probably Belgian. That makes sense. I live near the Belgian border and we have a similar landscape here.

 

Don't know if Fehdmer was collected by the carriage trade or if Woodgate framed for same but here's information on the Spartali family of London.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Spartali_Stillman

Debora

 

Yes, Marie Stillman's father Michael Spartali was an art collector. May be your painting's original provenance.

http://janmarsh.blogspot.com/2015/01/marie-spartali-2.html

Debora

 

There is some info on the web about this Polish-Belgian artist Eugene Fehdmer (1846-1918) to be found at an number of sites and even at www.rkd.nl the national Dutch Institute of Art History. But it will helas all be irrelevant here as this is a reproduction. It shows the discoloration of printing paper, especially at the scratches which reveal how thin the image layer is; watercolour pigment, in its watery medium, sucks deep into the paper. And an artists' watercolour sheet would have a different structure from the one seen on the detail with the damage. Finally, unpolished spruce was the cheapest material for the reverse of a frame, seen never on unique pieces but often on printwork produced in quantities. I hope the price was negligible...

 

Welcome to the forum, @birch.