Gorgeous portrait of a lady reading to her little fella. Though unsigned, it is believed to be painted by James Edwin McBurney in the 1920s. I purchased a group of paintings from a dealer that came from the estate of James McBurney years ago - some of the paintings were signed and some were not - I am not an art expert so I cannot guarantee authenticity - only that it is believed to be done by the same artist. The painting itself is in very good condition with no cracking. It could use a professional cleaning (though I like the authentically old look). You can tell it is very very old and there are small mildew spots on the back, but wood frame is very sturdy.
20 x 26.
Bio on artist:
A painter, illustrator and muralist, James McBurney was born in Lore City, Ohio. He studied in New York at the Pratt Institute and with John Twachtmann and Charles Davis, and in Philadelphia at the Drexel Institute and the Brandywine School of Art with Howard Pyle. He then went to Paris where he enrolled in the Academies Colarossi and Castelucho.
From 1901 to 1913, he was in Los Angeles where he gave private lessons and taught at a local highschool. One of his students was California artist Mable Alvarez. He also conducted art classes at Laguna Beach, which along with other artists' summer classes helped develop the art colony at Laguna Beach. He was also a muralist in the 1915 Pan American Exposition in San Francisco.
In 1919, he left California to teach briefly at the A.E.F. University in Beaune, France, and then went to Chicago, where he had an opportunity to paint murals. Working there until his death on March 2, 1955, he founded an art school, was Art Director for the Chicago Art District and for the City Parks and Recreation, and was active in the WPA Mural projects that have been rediscovered and are being restored in recent years in Chicago.
In Chicago, his murals are in the Palmer Park Field House, Woodlawn National Bank, Parkside School, Wentworth School, Scott School, and Tilden Technical School. Murals are also at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and the State Agricultural Expo Building in Dubuque, Iowa.
Affiliations included the California Art Club and the Cliff Dwellers in Chicago. He exhibited with the Pan-Pacific Exposition in 1915 in San Francisco.
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