Big surprise for this antique enthusiast. An American acquired a painting in a second-hand store for 4 dollars, in New Hampshire, in 2017. The painting sat for a few years in the bedroom, before being stored in a closet. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, found no information on the Internet and forgot it in her shed. It was during a major cleaning last May, as the Boston Globe tells it, that she remembers this famous painting.
Curious, she decides to post photos on a Facebook group, “Things Found in Walls”. The buyer, referred by Internet users, contacted Lauren Lewis, a former museum curator who had already worked on paintings by the artist. Once analyzed, the latter confirms to him: the canvas is signed Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945).
“While it certainly has a few minor scratches and needed a surface cleaning, it was in remarkable condition given that none of us had any idea of ??its journey over the last 80 years”, she judges with our American colleagues.
The work is titled Ramona and was produced by the American painter for a reissue of the eponymous novel by Helen Hunt Jackson (released in 1884) in 1939. The book is about a young mixed-race orphan who suffers from racial discrimination and misery. The painting highlights the heroine facing her adoptive mother.
The painting will be auctioned on September 19 at Bonhams Skinner, a recognized house in the sale of antiques. The prize could be as high as $250,000.
