Between the ages of 80 and 101, Grandma Moses painted over 600 significant works of art, and Ms. Rachow wonders if there are undiscovered masterpieces lying within us all.
Sunflowers, colored pencil by Grace Rachow
If you’ve been anywhere but under a rock, you must’ve heard about the Van Gogh recently verified as genuine. Sunset at Montmajour went from being a fake hidden away in an attic to the most significant art discovery of the century. The newly verified painting could fetch enough to put the United States in the black, if only the anonymous owner would donate auction proceeds to our national treasury.
This stunning Van Gogh news got me wondering whether I had any such treasures in my own collection.
I have plenty of worthless junk stored in my garage, and much of it is nicely framed. Some of these art items were abandoned by long ago roommates, or I picked them up at garage sales. I could’ve accidently acquired something of value.
The first candidate was a watercolor painting of my mother’s green bud vase. Yes, it’s true I painted this masterpiece as a child, and the watercolors I used were from an 8-color paint set for kids. From the looks of the crude strokes, the brush I used came from the paste jar at school. But my mother liked the piece well enough to preserve it in a charming midcentury dime-store frame. And as a bonus, I have that original green bud vase.
So the artist was still living, and she was in possession of the original objet d’inspiration. That was better provenance than the newly revealed Van Gogh had.
How much would this watercolor be worth? A bucket full of bupkis with a chaser of nostalgia.
I continued searching through my treasures. There was a charming collection of family snapshots framed with a multiple-peephole mat. This was put together 30ish years ago, and some of the romantic hairstyles and shoulder pad fashions were definitely representative of the period. But was it worth anything?
This was my family, and I had relegated them to the garage for the past 20 years, so it is a safe assumption this junky piece would not rise to the level of anyone’s treasure. However, the frame itself might fetch a dollar at a garage sale, and I could toss the photos into the big box of them I plan to sort through and put in albums some day.
Then, I hit pay dirt…and when I say dirt, you better believe that framed pieces can collect a whole lot of it after decades in storage. A quick swipe with my sleeve and, voila, it was The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Vermeer. She was framed by Mohr Art Galleries in Toledo, Ohio, and from the look of it, the framing was at least a hundred years ago.
Yes…yes…I know the so-called real painting is much older than that and is held by the Mauritshuis gallery in The Hague. But artists often do studies preliminary to the real painting. Maybe that is what I had. Luckily the seal on the back of the frame was already broken by the relentless march of organic decay. So I easily slipped the girl from her frame to check if there was any evidence of Vermeer on the back.
Alas, I discovered that this was not a painting at all but a photo repro of the girl. It was lovely presentation, though, and at the garage sale it might fetch two dollars for the frame alone!
I similarly investigated the Portrait of Robert Cheseman by Hans Holbein the Younger and The Man Wearing a Ridiculous Hat by Rembrandt. Repros all.
Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso…I had a garage full of fakes! The Picasso I’d painted myself via a class assignment in college. Three Musicians had looked simple, but it was challenging to get it just right. Still my effort had earned an A.
Hmmm…obviously, my art collection was not going to reveal any long lost masterpieces. However, the longer I stared at the fake Picasso, the more I wondered if I still might have what it takes.
I dug deep into another corner of the garage and found the box of art supplies I’d saved from college. The paints were petrified after decades in storage, but I still had colored pencils. And they don’t dry out.
The silverfish had made lace of my ancient art paper, but I had a new ream of cardstock from Office Max. That would suffice for a little experimental scribbling.
I was ready to go, but what to draw?
In honor of Van Gogh, I pulled out the yellows and browns and went to work making sunflowers.
