Featured A.Van Der Meer oil painting

Hi all, I found this recently and I’m keen to learn who the artist is. I’ve found a number in USA auctions with references to it being a Holland born artist but no first name or any detail on the actual artist. All the others are in older-looking gilded frames - mine in a 1970s style frame (maybe a replacement or the others perhaps made to look older?). One of the auctioned examples is the exact same scene but with different sky and a few other changes so perhaps a favourite location for the artist? I’m assuming later 20th century. The work itself measures about 40cm x 30cm. Many thanks for any advice or leads.

 

The internet gives Eduard Alphonse Victor van der Meer (1846-1889) as the full name of the artist who has done similar scenes. But not the same signature as this one attributed to him by a Dutch auction house. And your canvas + frame appear to be quite new. Puzzling.

https://aca-auctions.nl/veiling/veiling-35-sessie-2/kavel/schilderij-olieverf-op-paneel-e-vd-meer

Debora

 

Looks like a hobbyist's painting, rather than a knock off of a famous artist.
The signature is very honest and straightforward.

 

Yes that’s similar work but I have found several with this signature, so I’d say a different artist. See for example:
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/106352793_a-vander-meer-oilc-winter-stream-outside-village
and the same scene with some variations:
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/843222_88-a-vander-meer-snow-painting-merrill-chase
plus others:
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/4427224_91-2-oil-on-canvas-landscapes-by-a-van-der-meer-16-x

 

Thanks and yes could be although I’ve found at least 8 others at auction so I think unlikely only a hobbyist? One had a bio of sorts taped to the back but still no name or dates. See in the photos of this one:
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/88887064_winter-scene-painting-by-a-vander-meer-signed

 

I retract my previous thought of it being a hobbyist, since you've found a few others, all winter scenes with same siggy. The price of the first one seems very high to me for what it is.

 

We cross posted about hobbyist lol

 

Alright, I took a good look at the last one you posted. The frame is typical to a Chinese factory painting, imported directly over, but I don't think the artist's painting is a factory painting. Probably used a recent asian frame.

 

Interesting, yes and it looks like a light pine canvas stretcher. I’d say mine likely done in the 1970s if the frame is its original.

 

The highest price achieved is only about $650 but others around the $100usd mark.

 

I think these are Mid-Century decorative paintings. The Merrill Chase Certificate of Authenticity certainly points to that. Explains the modern canvas + frame and the reworked subject.

Debora

 

From the internet:

"Merrill Chase galleries made a big business on contemporary starving artists. They were US based but sourced most of their artwork from painters throughout Europe. They added these somewhat dubious Authenticity papers to the paintings...

On numerous occasion, the signatures on the paintings were fictitious names, but ones similar enough to a famous name. Again, a dubious practice.

Most people bought works from this gallery in hopes of speculating that one or most would become the next van Gogh or Picasso and that their investment would pay off. A few prolific Paris scene painters have garnered numbers up to $10,000 but the majority of works, of which they imported tens of thousands achieve decorative wall art prices at auctions and sales."

https://www.justanswer.com/appraisals/br6so-in-laws-deceased-bought-painting-merrill.html

Debora

 

Thanks, that would explain their presence in USA auctions too.

 

The surname van der Meer is not uncommon. The name has the same origin as the name Vermeer. Only the name though.

Eduard van der Meer painted in The Hague in the west, and Groningen in the north. Both cities are in coastal provinces, which you see in the painting you posted, with one of those iconic water scenes.

OP's A. van der Meer painted scenes from the poorer, more arid heathland and fen regions in the east and southeast. Many paintings seem to feature typical heathland 'schaapskooien', sheep stables, with low, curved roofs.
On some of the paintings I see the type of church tower from my region in the southeast. You see similar church towers on Brueghel paintings btw. Jan Brueghel the elder originally came from Breugel, about 15 mins drive from me (just past van Gogh's Nuenen).

A. van der Meer's style is also later than that of Eduard van der Meer, and less accomplished, although I wouldn't call him an amateur. I saw many similar paintings in similar frames in interior decorating shops here in the 70s and 80s. Pleasing, attractive paintings, hand painted by someone who knew the subject well and painted variations on that subject.

It is highly unlikely A. van der Meer would have been starving or even struggling. The Netherlands already had a good social security system at the time. Although it wasn't perfect, no one starved.
Artists could apply for special artist's financial support, but not every artist did that. A. van der Meer probably didn't need to. He was what we call a 'broodschilder', a 'bread painter', churning out similar paintings on commission. Sometimes painters became broodschilder to support their 'real' art.
If he sold most of his work to the US, he would probably have had a satisfactory arrangement with Merrill Chase.

 

Thanks so much @Any Jewelry and @Debora, that all helps to piece together the likely origins of the work - while I would love to be able to identify the actual artist I accept that seems unlikely. It's a nice piece and cost me very little.

 

Funny, I grew up in the village of Breugel. I think you refer to Pieter Breughel the Elder here. His birth place is still up for discussion (could be also Grote Brogel in Belgium or "in the surroundings of Breda")).

 

I do think "van der Meer" was chosen by this artist for its association with other, more accomplished, Dutch artists of the same name. And the phrase "starving artist' shouldn't be taken literally. It simply means an artist who isn't (yet) able to make a living from selling his own work, usually (in his/her mind) because of a lack of rightful recognition by critics and the public. Van Gogh is one example.

Debora

 

I love Breugel, Nederwetten too. And the landscape around there is one of my favourites.

That's the chap! I blame it on posting way past midnight. I can't edit it anymore, but your post corrected my error.

Not necessarily, I have known quite a few van der Meer's over the years, it is not an unusual name. And I don't know if many people in the US know Eduard van der Meer. Or in the Netherlands for that matter.

 

I like the painting......it speaks to me....
but I see Avander....written as the 1 st name...