Where did this painting come from?

January 9, 2019 2:45 PM

Found a cute little linen painting at Goodwill and am curious about its history.

I'm a Goodwill fiend and picked up this little framed thing today. It's painted, not embroidered, on what I'm guessing is linen. I don't imagine it's valuable, but haven't really seen anything like it before and would love some context. Can anyone help me out?

posted by Polyhymnia to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Response by poster: I tried to pry the back off, but the cloth is attached to the plain cardboard backing. I think you're right that it's screen printed.
posted by Polyhymnia at 3:32 PM on January 9, 2019

I hate to say it, but it kind of looks like someone framed something like a linen dishcloth? The clothing on the men looks like it is from the 1700s, and the hunting rifles with the flaring muzzles look like blunderbusses. Makes me think its depicting a scene in England/Europe.
posted by gudrun at 3:52 PM on January 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Haha! Don't worry, I had exactly the same thought. The closest thing I've been able to find online is Wert linen, so at least that's something!
posted by Polyhymnia at 3:55 PM on January 9, 2019

It looks like a print made to embroider on. My great aunt bought those sometimes (back in the -60's and 70's). When the embroidery was finished, she'd mount it on pillow cases or tea warmers or even furniture.
posted by mumimor at 4:33 PM on January 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

The clothing, guns, and gun stands seem to be late 1600s, early 1700s to me. The guy on the left immediately made me think of Cavaliers
posted by Jacen at 8:44 PM on January 9, 2019

Yes the motif is a hunting scene from maybe the 1600's, but the drawing style is very post WW2. I know somewhere I have a book illustrated with the same style but I just can't remember what book it is (so I can look at the book date and narrow in the dating of your picture). BTW it is a lovely picture.
posted by mumimor at 9:36 PM on January 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

I found it, it is my Betty Crocker New Picture Cookbook from 1961. Ooh my gosh, I just discovered how valuable it is from looking for images to post. Normally I just look at it for laughs. But I couldn't find good images of the illustrations and vignettes. Anyway, that is probably your timeframe, from about 1955 - about 1965.
posted by mumimor at 2:55 AM on January 10, 2019 [3 favorites]