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

I guessed Harry McGregor from H McGregor. Harry McGregor has a somewhat similar looking signature and style - that said the signature could be fake. I got "Brora fells Sutherland" from the similar paintings by other artists that are titled Brora falls.

 

I guess a possibility is that Harry McGregor got hold of a cheap oleograph by Richard Ansdell and painted over it.

 

Maybe "improved" it.

 

Have you put a blacklight on the paint to see if someone embellished? I had a client bring me a Jean Baptiste Camille Corot piece - thought it was a real painting thanks to the added brush strokes. The paint was newer and did react to the black light. It was nicely done and fooled the owner who paid a good amount of money for it!

 

They were, and still are.

 

I think this the most likely scenario. From what I can see, this has much more painting than a typical oleograph.

 

There are some retouch spots that glow under black light. A hair too. All of the main pigment looks original and doesn't glow differently.

 

Here is a detail of the edge. It has a hard edge that resembles a print, but also with some overpainting.

 

Something else I just thought about is that the stretcher bars are the angle-cut kind characteristic of America, and not the straight cut kind characteristic of Europe ...

 

It looks completely painted over, I'm thinking now that maybe H McGregor completely painted over an Richard Ansdell oleograph perhaps to save money on canvas?

 

Just to muddy the waters a bit - another way you might find an edge like that is if a painting on canvas has been lined by gluing it to a second layer of canvas. But I think the stamp of the British Association clearly visible on the back disproves that idea. It remains the best evidence arguing against this being an original painting.

If you are willing to poke a bit at the edge, under magnification, you might be able to determine if the underlayer is paper, or if it might be a second layer of canvas.

 

It doesn't look like there is any second layer of paper or canvas - if it was a print then it looks like it was printed directly on the canvas.

 

Very intriguing post this.Twists and turns....

 

Photo with light behind it:

 

It may not be something we can sort out here, based on photographs.

Finding out what the British Fine Art Association was would probably be very helpful. In addition to the notice in the English Mechanic that I linked to earlier, I have found some reference to it advertising in the London Evening News in the early 20th century, but not much else.

It might be necessary to take the piece to a paintings conservator to get a definitive answer.

 

It's also possible that the original was painted for the purpose of being reproduced. That's not uncommon these days and I'd bet the Victorians did the same.

 

Let me tag someone who is an excellent researcher.

@Figtree3 - Can you find anything about the British Fine Art Association?

 

also, the name McGregor looks like it was done in ink not paint indicating a more modern signature then early 20th c.

 

Thank you for tagging me. Unfortunately, I have not found much more than others have already noted here. I did find in the newspaperarchive database some ads in the London Evening News from 1913 and 1915. These were advertising Christmas cards for sale by the British Fine Art Association. It appears these ads were selling to distributors and stores, not to the general public. One ad refers to Private Christmas Card Sample Books. This British Fine Art Association was located in Manchester, and may have been a later iteration of the one who issued the picture. It's hard to tell.

That's really all that I've found. I suppose one could try to find directories of merchants or businesses of the time, which might be able to help in determining the time frame the company was in business.

 

I contacted the Royal Society of British Artists and they told me that they are forwarding my questions to a member that is art historian.