Mystery Painting acquired by Art Gallery in Toronto
April 7 2020
Picture: The Star
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada, are appealing to experts to find out more about one of the gallery's recent acquisitions.
The mid-eighteenth century painting entitled "Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom" is believed to have been painted by a European trained artist living in some part of the globe. Currently, absolutely no information is known about who the sitter was or where it was painted.
As the AGO's assistant curator of European Art Adam Levine explains;
'Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom' is an extremely rare work because few depictions of people of colour by European-trained artists from the 18th century have survived.
Given the scarcity of works that are like this painting, it really ecnourages us to cast a wide net with our research and talk to experts all around the world.
Update - Bendor here, adding my two pence worth;
When this picture came up for sale at auction, there was mention of traces of a signature, 'J Schul.. fec.' This was linked tenatively to names such as Johann Caspar Schulz (1735/50-1846), Joachim Christian Schulz (1721-1786), and Johann Christian Schulz (active circa 1750). I can't make any convincing matches to these names myself, and I wonder if J. S. C. Schaak (active 1759–1780) might be a name to consider. He's principally known for painting General Wolfe, on a small scale, but he did larger works, such as these and these.
