The Barn - Part 2 (Heirloom Painting)

Disclaimer: *I wrote this post and then decided I’d better check my facts with M before I call her grandmother and my great-grandmother nuts. I should rephrase ‘nuts’ as ‘slightly delusional in her old age’ or ‘incredibly gullible and non-analytical’ or ‘overly sentimental and persuaded by her own version of reality’ – nuts is a much shorter descriptor.*

This last visit to the barn I claimed a picture that has moved between barn locations, perhaps for the entire time my family has lived in W. The picture has some water damage. I love the frame. I’ve seen it dust and spider covered in a corner of the barn for years. For the first time I turned it over on Saturday. On the cardboard backing, my Nana wrote the following:

Walden

July 4, 1982

To our beloved Carrie, Bill and Kristen Elizabeth

             
This lovely New England Harbor scene was painted for Granddaddy’s father (James Thomas Simms) as a gift to Jim’s mother (Lillian Josephine Gregg Simms) when they were first married.

             
Hope you will enjoy it as much as we have.

Love always,

Nana and Granddaddy

Here is the painting, now hanging in my apartment.

I have several questions, which I hope further research will solve. Number one, the image in this frame is a print not a painting. Number two, there is no artist signature and the backing is not in great shape, so easily taking it out to see if a signature is just out of sight is problematic. Number three, if my great-great-grandfather did commission this painting, where is it now and why did they have a print of it?

Not to accuse her of getting confused or anything...okay, that is exactly what I am doing, but reading what she wrote – that we will enjoy it as much as they have...how long did they have this print for?

 J, you are the art historian, is there a way to find it? Not to be a snot, but I think it is entertaining beyond hilarious to see how ridiculous older relatives sometimes are. I’m willing to be wrong but I’m about 99% sure Nana was simply confused. Perhaps the painting was some how connected to Granddaddy's family, like they lived in the town where it was painted, but it is clearly a print and not a painting. From her note, she may have had a hard time distinguishing between the two. As M text me “Nana loved a good story and believed everything she heard”...sounds like my grandma, who will be highlighted in a post later this week, involving another barn discovery.

 It is a great story, sham family heirloom contrived by sentimental mind.  Some legit stuff was also past on, which might lead others (like my grandmother) to believe ALL the stories Nana shared, but this is how false history is constructed people, by ladies like my Nana (who I do remember with great fondness for all her quirks).

One of my favorite stories about her involved the throngs of owl items. Owl candles, owls on top of magnifying glasses, owl wood carvings. The lady really like owls, she was decades ahead of the current cutesy owl trend. She also had a plethora of mischievous grandsons who would move her owls to different places to annoy her. One day she asked them not to move them because it "hurt her heart" to have them out of place. If you could hear her voice, she was such a hoot.