[Leica] IMG: Painting Question

[jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols)]

Hi, George,

Thanks for your comments.  I finally tracked down the artist from the 
signature "Kiley".  The painting was done by Grace Kirby Wiley, who used a 
contraction of her maiden name and married name as her signature. She was 
born in 1877 and died in 1952.  She began her art education in her home town 
of Smith's Grove, KY and then attended the Cincinnati School of Art.  The 
example of her work that is on display at the Kentucky Museum, which shows 
the same signature as mine, is listed as "Oil on board".  I suspect that the 
times in which she lived led her to experiment with readily available 
materials.

My Mother's aunt, who gave her the painting, also lived in the same little 
town and obviously knew the artist.  I think the example that we have is 
much nicer than the one on display in the museum.

Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George Lottermoser" <imagist3@mac.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org>
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 10:41 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: Painting Question


> Rabbit skin glue to wood - yes.
> But to glass - never heard of that before.
>
> Sounds like someone wanted to
> prevent cracking of the paint
> by gluing the canvas to a substrate
> which would not expand or contract.
> Given the brittle nature of glass;
> it seems like a poor choice.
>
> Regards,
> George Lottermoser
> george@imagist.com
> http://www.imagist.com
> http://www.imagist.com/blog
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist
>
> On Feb 15, 2009, at 1:13 PM, Jim Nichols wrote:
>
>> I know there are a lot of photographers out there that are  knowledgeable 
>> of the art world.  I have a question about the  painting depicted in the 
>> attached link.
>>
>> This painting was given to my Mother many years ago by an elderly  aunt 
>> who lived in central Kentucky.  I have always assumed that it  was 
>> painted by a local artist, but had no luck tracing the source.   When it 
>> came into my hands about twenty years ago, the frame was in  need of 
>> refinishing, so I disassembled the painting to work on the  frame.  What 
>> I discovered was that the canvas was wrapped around  and glued to a sheet 
>> of glass.  At some point, the glass had been  severely cracked.  I 
>> carefully assembled all of the glass pieces  and taped up the glass to 
>> hold it all together.
>>
>> My question is this:  Is this a common practice, backing up canvas  with 
>> glass?  I have never encountered it before.
>>
>> The painting is shown here:
>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Painting.jpg.html
>>
>> Comments and answers welcomed.
>>
>> Jim Nichols
>> Tullahoma, TN USA
>>
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