Estate Sale Find Mystery

[Xanthenx]

I found this quite beautiful autumn landscape oil painting at an estate sale. It was painted on stretched canvas, and housed in a solid wooden frame. The frame was apparently made in a Spanish (probably Mexico) speaking country, per the term HECHO being printed on the rear of the frame though the subsequent text has faded.

The painting is signed in the lower left hand w.brook which I can find no match between the hits online of similar names and the painting style of the artist that actually painted this work. I was hoping someone here at treasure net might shed some light on the origins of this painting (fingers crossed)

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[Jarl]

What you have is probably a Chinese reproduction. Here's what's going on with these type of paintings. They're generally hand done reproductions produced in China's 'Dafen' art workers village. They reproduce just about any previously existing work, from the masters or other well known artists on down. Not much from what I've found about their art is ever original to the artists producing these works. The artist's, though totally capable of original work with their skill sets, do not even prefer to be called 'artists' more so than simply, 'art workers.' Dafen today and especially in it's heyday back in the 80s and 90s was strictly in the business of mass production. Okay, so, they create a slew of paintings on canvases and when they are ready to ship, they simply roll them into a large tube and send them to furniture companies in America or Mexico to be framed. The cost for sending that amount of paintings ready-framed from China would be enormous, of course. So they come here or to Mexico in tubes to be stretched, framed, labeled, packaged or whatever and sent off to stores or furniture outlets to be sold. This would explain why your frame is stamped 'Hecho en Mexico' on the back, but the painting was almost certainly done in China. Now, that's disheartening to some, but, if you like it, who cares? That's all that matters. You can pick these types of paintings up in thrift and Goodwill stores very cheaply. But, if you're into reselling, these are an easy item to sell for a reasonable mark up. I hope this helps.