Featured Old oil on canvas.

Fresh from a rural thrift store. No idea what I've found. Looks quite old. Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

square nails......I like that !!!

 

The Emporium merged with the Golden Rule Bazaar in 1897. That's your earliest date. 1906, the year of the fire, your latest.

Debora

 

Wonder if it's meant to be a real landscape. Not Tahoe. Looks a bit like Big Bear Lake but that's in SoCal.

Debora

 

Thanks for your reply and info.

It seem that Emporium Golden Rule Bazaar was the top department store of it's day. I got my hands on it's inventory list dated 1900 and the range of goods is vast, but no 'fine art' that I could find. Though you could have bought your paint, brushes and easel.

If they did sell paintings, would they have been 'good' ones?

I wonder if this painting was contemporary to late 19th century or, perhaps, earlier.
It's quite naive (amateur looking) which seems surprising to find in that type of store.

 

It does, doesn't it. I don't think the subject has to be local to San Francisco. Why not Big Bear?

 

Maybe the store had a picture framing service. The canvas is not mounted to a proper stretcher. It could easily be a local scene by a local amateur.

 

What a good idea. That explains lack of fine art in inventory and lack of technique in painting.
After googling early american landscapes I see that this one is very typical in terms of composition and subject. Maybe an amateur imitating the contemporary style.

 

I can only find reference to artwork but, of course, possible they did framing too. As to setting, there's nothing "local" to San Francisco that looks like that. Would have to be the Sierra Nevada and even then... Those cliffs are so distinctive. Could be painted elsewhere, of course. Could be a copy of another painting. Or could be a fantasy. Wouldn't have been cheap if from the Emporium and Golden Rule Bazaar.

Debora

 

What state did you find it in?

Debora

 

Napa, California

 

I hope you're not calling "Napa" rural! But that makes sense; didn't get too far from home. And does the landscape look familiar to you?

Debora

 

Relatively rural. Lot's of dramatic scenery around here, but nothing quite like that.