Is this the hand of Cornelius Krieghoff ?
Arguably the most popular Canadian artist of the 19th century and one of the most valuable:
This recently discovered painting on paper (a watercolour painting ) has seemingly been trimmed from its original format which, by the curve that's left in the bottom left hand side could have been either oval or circular in format.
It's provenance dates it from well over 100 years ago, as the senior owner of the piece, now an octogenarian, remembers it as a child in the family home and was told by her mother, many years ago, that it was`a wedding gift to her!
If it is right, it will be worth a small fortune.
A Biography: Cornelius David Krieghoff: (Born June 19, 1815 - died. March 8, 1872)
Cornelius David Krieghoff is I suspect about the most popular Canadian landscape and genre painter of the 19th century and is hugely collectable.
Krieghoff is most famous for his paintings of Canadian landscapes and the Canadian life outdoors, particularly in the winter and he is known to have painted a number of variants and copies of his most popular subject matter (ie: Running the toll gate).
Running the toll gate: Cornelius Krieghoff
Although he is considered a Canadian artist, Cornelius David Krieghoff was born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the son of a German expatriate father who taught him to paint and Belgian mother. It's believed that he probably studied art at the Düsseldorf Academy in the early 1830s, which had a strong genre tradition.
Artist: Cornelius Krieghoff
In about 1836, he emigrated to the United States and enlisted in the American army, fighting against the Seminole Indians of Florida.
Whilst in New York, he met a young French-Canadian woman, Émile Gautier, whom he married.
In 1840, he was discharged - Rumors exist that he deserted and went on a trip to Paris in 1844 to copy paintings in the Louvre. Settling in Longueuil, then Montreal in 1847 or 1848.
Kreighoff's early subjects were based upon his artistic reactions to the local landscape and in many of these works he placed his wife and young daughter in the scene. At the time, Krieghoff was ready to paint virtually any subject, including scenes of Indian life, portraits and landscapes. Peddling his paintings door-to-door for $5 to $10 each.
During one of his trips to Quebec in the late 1840s and 1850s, he met the Quebec 'bon vivant' and merchant John Budden, who urged him to move to Quebec and focus more commercially on genre subjects.
Krieghoff acceded and became the first painter in Quebec to specialize in this type of painting, which became extremely popular. His landscapes follow the European picturesque topographic strain, often showing small people pointing at and setting for the same scenic wonder.
This artist with an entrepreneurial bent was very prolific, executing in his lifetime an estimated 1500 to 1800 paintings.
Could it just be this is one of them.
David Freeman 2005
Worthy of note and for some caution, is that the notorious British art faker Tom Keating admitted to have painted hundreds of fake Krieghoff paintings in his illustrious career, none of which have been recovered to this day!
