Featured Erna Scharff

I recently joined this group and what a rabbit hole! So much cool stuff out there and some very dedicated people looking for answers and just as many answering them.

Three years ago a painting at a thrift store spoke to me. A month later and close to $50 marked off the cost, I bought it. Until yesterday I've had no luck finding any answers as to who painted it. Thanks to this great community, the "picture" is becoming clearer. Well, sorta.

Journeymagazine, in January, posted a painted he got at an auction, looking just like mine. Signatures are different as are some details. And yet another member, SIS, found another version of the same painting on line.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

Here are two other versions:

 

You learned quickly how to post!
Ok, I made a notation, a new thread is started.
So now we have 3 different versions. The one from Live auctioneers does not show signature.
I will not have a chance, until later to look.
You can investigate on
Invaluable.com or Askart.com.
Maybe someone else has some input, too.

 

Can you also add a pic of the back of yours and the dimensions, please. U may be able to add to the top post, hit edit. Thanks

 

The dimensions are 40"x30".

 

Crazy how all three are different. The one I have has more birds, the liveauction one has no dinghy. More mysteries!

 

Part of the bio on Erna from Askart
She was known primarily for oil landscapes in a very Germanic style. Her paintings are sometimes misindentified with those by Ralph Scharff or Dollie Scharff; although her painting style is distinctively different from theirs.
Haven’t found sig. yet.
So mainly Oil painting.

Ralph mostly watercolor on paper.
Mostly horses.
Signed. Did come out clear, see Askart for his works.


Dolly painted in oil
Her signature is here (a little difficult to see) left hand corner.
Dolly below
https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=Awr9DujxC91aSSkAFEZx.9w4;_ylu=X3oDMTByM3V1YTVuBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMzBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1524464753/RO=10/RU=https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6762933_227-dollie-c-scharff-american-oil-on-canvas-pas/RK=2/RS=aoJV2A.TqjgV4zAZCwsTAIxbEbI-

Note the link above is from Live Auctioneers. I will look elsewhere for her sig on another site, in case.
More later.
I’m beginning to wonder if Live Auctioneers made a mistake.

 

http://www.askart.com/artist/Dollie_Scharff/125250/Dollie_Scharff.aspx
This is Dolly’s work from Askart.
I don’t see a sig.

 

A friend looked at mine and immediately said Erna Scharff. She lives in Italy and her dad dragged her around museums and such. She ID'd so quickly because of how the men were painted. I found this on Ebay, and yes, very similar in my opinion. And the signature is what I've seen on her other pieces. Sadly, not like the signature I have.

 

What I would think is it seems safe to rule out the other two artists, although they have been mistakenly attributed, so it’s a bit of a mess.
I would try to do more research on Erna. It does seem as though she’s had done more landscapes than anything else.
Try to use legitimate resources, rather than ads.
Regardless of who these 3 works are trying to be attributed to, it seems odd they are all different versions, but I can’t speculate on that.
In the mean time, enjoy your painting!

 

The Ebay seller is out of Vero, near me. Maybe I'll contact him. I'm having no real luck on-line, but will ask my friend in Italy if she knows anymore. I looked up where Schartt is from in Germany and it is landlocked.

 

http://www.europeanart.gallery/landscapes.html
I don’t know anything about this site, it does give some titles, and printed references (need to translate page)
They show sig. on left hand side. Don’t know how they authenticate.

 

Does the top back of your frame say something starting with a W?

 

Not home now, but will check it out.

 

Now to open another can of worms.....
Run the name Schartt, and you will see many for sale, some signed right side, some left. They are mostly cottages and landscapes.

 

Hahaha!

 

It’s erna Scharff. My grandmother lived in the same building as her in Brooklyn and my parents had numerous works of her (landscapes) with same unforgettable signature