Featured 1959 Portrait

I bought this portrait at auction today as nobody was bidding and I thought it was too well painted to leave. There was no signature visible but when I removed the frame it is signed with a flourishing monogram or initials.

I’ve not found any portrait artists with CP or C something P but wondered if any of you could make out if it is something else. It’s probably just a talented amateur but the sitter looks very

 

someones grandma.....

 

CTP mind you, I haven't an artist with those initials.

 

She has a lovely sweet face. Whomever painted it had some skill.

 

I agree, well painted and full of character as well

I would think an established lady by a portrait artist

 

Definitely not American - based on the date. We'd put 10/15/59 for October 15, 1959. Europeans put the day first then the month. Even though the artist board is from an English town, the date is also a clue.

 

Have Americans always used that date format or is it just since the digital age for file sorting/management?

 

To the best of my knowledge, it derives from the order in which dates are spoken. For example... In English we say "July 4, 1776" so the date is written 7.4.76. The French say 14 de juillet, 1789 so the date is written 14.7.89.

Debora

 

Ah okay. Thank you.

 

Ahem...

In American English you'd say "July 4, 1776". In English, we say "4th of July, 1776". The UK doesn't follow the American pattern.

 

Besides, the UK is in Europe. It is not a separate continent. It is one of several European island nations, which range geographically from Iceland in the northwest to Cyprus in the southeast

 

And we stole errr... borrowed many of our words from the French, Germans, Scandinavians, etc. (even Arabic and Hindu). In fact, almost anyone who had a nice and shiny way of doing something, we incorporated into our own systems.

 

That is the way languages evolve. I can't think of any language that suddenly appeared out of the blue without an older root language, and was not influenced by contact through trade, invasion, intermarriage, etc.

 

Linguistics is a fascinating area of study.

Debora

 

Absolutely. Because of all the influences, and tracing back to an origin, it involves so much more than language alone.

 

That portrait reminds me so much of Betsy Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth's wife...

 

Does look a bit like her.

Debora