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I have an oil painting that was purchased in an Antique shop in Germany back in the early 1950's. It was tucked away behind a dresser sitting on the floor. My aunt liked it and bought it.
The picture must be from an amateur artist. I'm not good a judging scale in pictures, but either the ladies head is too small or her hand is too large or both. The artist name is hard to make out but it looks like a large captial J. followed by a small v. then the name Diggelen as best as I can make out. I've googled all sorts of letter combinations but nothing comes up to resemble the picture or name.
Any comments about the picture would be appreciated or how I could determine the name and history of the artist would be a big help.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the picture was bought without a frame. It was just canvas nailed to a wooden frame. The frame around the picture now is one that I put around it.
The picture must be from an amateur artist. I'm not good a judging scale in pictures, but either the ladies head is too small or her hand is too large or both
I'm just musing here but that distortion may be intentional. Elongated limbs and bodies which aren't quite right was a style in Germany in the 1930s. Take a look at this by Adolf Wissel to see what I mean:
The v may stand for von or van you could try that. With the v the person could also be Dutch.
It is fairly hard to find out about an artist that isn't well known. I spent 3 years finding information about an artist that I had a name for and knew that she was from Iowa. I used genealogy sites the most. Unless you luck out and have someone see it here you will need to spend a lot of time on the internet.
Corodeledawg...my pleasure. These hunts are fun. The 1930s German style was a form of expressionism. Sentimental or heroic. Neoclassicism which had roots, with its elongated limbs and distorted figures in early 16th century Italian mannerism. Modern artists were persecuted so this form developed much the way Soviet realism did. But it was shorter lived and hard to pin down because it reflects early art which had Kirche, Kuche, Kinde (church, hearth, children) at its center or classic heroic figures (very popular always in Germany).
Dealt in antiques and collectables years ago. First thing I learned (and I knew nothing when I started) was age and how appealing or well done something looked often has absolutely no relationship to value. Second thing was everything has value. Or most everything. Certainly an oil from over 50 years ago does. If this was done by an unknown amateur he or she probably copied what was popular at the time. A work by an unknown can have value because of that.
Perhaps you've found it but if not, here is an alphabetic listing of German and Austrian artists:
