Hi listers - I am looking for any information/scholarship on a specific type
of late 19th/early 20th century portrait.  These works seem to be the
product of either itinerant artists or persons with commercial art
background, and actually look like the painted photographs of the period,
but I don't think that these paintings started as photographs. They
sometimes have rather dramatic backgrounds, as one might find in set for a
theatrical production.

Another characteristic of the portraits is that the subjects often look like
propped up corpses.  Children are especially strange looking in many of
them. The images have a photographic quality but are often a tad grotesque,
to put it nicely.

Many of the artists who seem to have painted these portraits may have also
done murals in houses, signs, and other artistic work. Here in PA it seems
that these fellows are frequently German immigrants (not PA German, but mid
19th century German immigrants, so this is not Pennsylvania Dutch folk art)
- and often have some other extenuating life circumstance, such as
alcoholism.

I have also seen portraits of this type in the Southeastern US. 

I would imagine that these paintings would be found more frequently in
historical society collections rather than art museums.  Right now I am
interested in the style specifically so the paintings do not have to be from
Pennsylvania, although that is my main focus.

Any info would be much appreciated!

Candace Perry

Curator

Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center


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