Featured Do I have a Gold Medal winning Painting from the late 1800's ?

I have Scottish Highland scene (Brora fells Sutherland) by Harry McGregor (see attachments) that is stamped “Gold Medal Par?? ??ibition 18??” with the Royal Coat of Arms and “British Fine Art Association”. Is this a Gold Medal winner ? ... if so which Exhibition it was in? I think it says "Gold Medal Paris Exhibition"

Better resolution photos at:
michaelgioffredi.com/Files/McGregor/

Thank you.

 

The Paris Exhibitions were held every 11 years until 1900. Looks to me like that that number ends in 8, so that would be 1878.

Pretty sure it's some kind of reproduction. I'm put off by that copyright line, and the British Fine Art Association seems to be an organization that sold prints by subscription.

 

Your photos are small & very poor quality. Any chance you can get better pics?

 

Better resolution photos at:
michaelgioffredi.com/Files/McGregor/

It is definitely a real oil painting. The quality and style looks characteristic of known work by McGregor.

 

Then I don't know. Commissioned to produce paintings for the Association?

 

Here'a an eBay listing for something called an oil-a-graph on canvas from the British Fine Art Association.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19290250...-53481-19255-0&campid=5338722076&toolid=10001

 

I am also suspicious about the copyright stamp.

Here is a brief discussion of "oleographs":

"Occasionally, when we receive a painting into the studio, the medium is revealed to be different to what our client believed it to be.

One of the most common culprits of this case of mistaken identity is the oleograph.

Defined as ‘a print textured to resemble an oil painting’, the process of creating an oleograph involves attaching a print onto canvas and then adding varnish to create the close look of an oil painting. Oleographs can very convincingly resemble oil paintings, especially as the varnish yellows with age.

Oleography was widely used in the late 19th century, and involved the process of chromolithography, using a range of between 15-20 colours. A stamping process is used to imitate a canvas surface and the thick strokes of oil paint."

https://fineart-restoration.co.uk/faq/oleographs-what-are-they-and-can-they-be-restored/

A medal winner would be a likely subject to reproduce in this way.

 

after seeing 2manybooks' post about oleograph, I'm just overwriting my now irrelevant comment about "oil-a-graph".

 

I have not been able to find much information about the British Fine Art Association, but I did find a page in the 1877 publication of The English Mechanic and World of Science (April 13, 1877, pg. V), which announces a "Special Gift to the Readers of The English Mechanic - GRAND PRIZE ENGRAVING - The British Fine Art Association have made arrangements by which they are permitted to present to every reader of the English Mechanic a Coupon entitling them to receive a copy (21 inches by 15 inches) of the splendid STEEL ENGRAVING, "THE PROPOSAL" (Copyright)."

https://www.google.com/books/edition/English_Mechanic_and_World_of_Science/QUc_AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1

So they seem to have dealt in copies of various types.

The picture that @moreotherstuff linked to shows the same stamp on the back:

 

Why does your picture say H McGregor on front, but Richard Andsell on back? There's a question.

 

I wondered about that! And I can find no artist Richard Andsell. Thought perhaps a misspelling of Richard Ansdell.

Debora

 

Thanks for the input everyone. The surface texture of the painting exactly matches the brush strokes. Is that possible with a 19th century oleograph? If this is a reproduction, its a very good one ... I'm not sure why it says Richard Andsell either.

 

I've heard of these, but haven't seen many. They were a way for the middle-class folks to hang fancy pictures on the wall without the fancy price tag. In the UK even dealers get fooled sometimes.

 

A bit more about oleographs:

"Traditionally the term Oleograph referred to lithograph prints over painted in oil paint to recreate the look of oil paintings." (emphasis added)
https://www.artpublish.com/oleographs-monoprints-and-acrylographs/

"Oleograph refers to over-painting some of a lithographic edition to simulate oil paintings. The method was usually used to add interest to coloured lithograph reproduction prints on paper. Adding varnish and texture also protected the paper and the print could be displayed without glass.

Lithograph reproductions that are usually commercially published in large editions, on a fast printing machine. Some of the edition might be used to make oleographs. The technique goes back into the last century. It did mean that oleographs had some hands-on factor, but the whole operation was usually a commercial process without any involvement by the original artist."
https://www.howtobeanartist.org/single-post/acrylographs-and-other-prints

A close examination of the edges of your artwork, under magnification, might reveal if there is a layer of paper that might be an underlying lithograph.

 

Yes, an Oleograph can do that.

 

Richard Ansdell did win a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1855.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ansdell

Perhaps the British Fine Art Association got their stamps mixed up, (in addition to misspelling Ansdell's name).

 

He also painted in the Highlands.

Debora

 

Thanks again for the info. To complicate things further, I found a very similar painting listed as by Alfred de Breanski Sr:

http://www.artnet.com/artists/alfred-de-breanski-sr/brora-falls-sutherland-i78xu6b__aTAxPujxWKmrA2



I've been looking it over carefully, to me the thicker impasto areas must have been hand painted.

 

This is very similar. Francis E. Jamison. The Highlands must have been alive with painters.

Debora

 

If we assume that this is an oleograph copy, it might be possible to locate the original painting, which would settle the issue. I have not found much on H McGregor. How did you identify it as Harry McGregor? Is "Scottish Highland scene (Brora fells Sutherland)" the title of the painting and, if so, how did you identify this?