Large Original Unsigned Family Portrait

Came across this well done huge oil painting that is a portrait of a family. Couldn't take it off the wall due to the weight and size but it is definitely an original and old, but not very old. It is unsigned but wanted to know if anyone could know this artist. Note: found this in a rural antique mall in Georgia.

Image Gallery Link: https://imgur.com/a/DQnOp84

 

most kind folks here will not click on a link from a new member.......

 

It doesn't look old to me and I suspect that if it sat somewhere for 30 years, that's its age. It looks staged and oddly modern - like a theatrical recreation. Looks thin enough on the canvas that it could be a print. Just my opinion. Hope I'm wrong.

 

My guess would be it is a cast from a movie. Can’t quite tell if it is a painting, but I think it is. Info might be on back. Artist would certainly be an illustrator.

 

It does appear to be a movie prop! 1940s but the clothing is earlier. Now if you could match the RKO movie to the painting...

Here's a list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RKO_Pictures_films#The_1940s

Or someone may recognize the actress. Or the actor.

Debora

 

Looks to me in the detailed pictures a print . So not a painting at all I think

 

I might be seeing things that aren't there but this rather looks like a signature to me.

 

Going by the background I would guess this was copied from a photo studio portrait. Stylistically it makes me think of Thomas Hart Benton & his contemporaries.

 

Seems to be so little 'paint' on the canvas it's difficult to bring out what @say_it_slowly finds as a potential signature.....which it looks like it could be....even if it's a copy of a print.....Maybe MOS could do more with it than I could...

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I was thinking paint-enhanced photo, straight off. It still looked funny, but if it's an old RKO movie prop it would be dead on. I'd be some of the actors in the "painting" were in whichever movie it was made for.

 

Sorry, I don't see anything there.

 

I'm not at all sure there is something there but thought perhaps Noah might give it a good look just in case.

Something sort of like this though my edit program doesn't make it easy to trace.

 

Good idea, when I go back around that area I'll take a high definition photo of the area that seems a signature could be. Also regarding whether or not it's a print, from being there in person it very much did not seem like one though I know there are advanced ways to make things appear like paintings but based on the texture and cracking I remember, I don't think it is a print.

 

The woman looks very very familiar, Jane Wyman? but maybe not. The clothing is civil war era including the school pinafore on the preteen

 

Tantalizing, aren't they? They both look so familiar. Once identified, one's sure to say "of course."

Debora

 

Jane Wyman. That's who she looks like to me. (But I don't think it's she.)

Debora

 

It's that 1940s sausage roll hair. Aka victory roll hair.

 

The clothing era and family size, I would say it is The Magnificent Ambersons "dreamteam cast". That is definitely Jane Wyman painted in the slot for the majors deceased wife if so.
Then the girl would be Isabel? (actress was dolores costello). There are too many 'sons' present!

RKO didnt do many Civil War/turn'o'century that would entail such a backdrop. I am sure there is a movie I just missed that is liekly correct. Maybe a movie that never passed to production after test takes??