Monora, 1911

Was digging around in the attic the other day and found the picture shown to the right. I had put it up there a while back because I didn't think it fit into the decor of any of the rooms in our house. And isn't it just the case that when you look on an object unseen for a time that you come to think of it in a new way, with new possibilities? "Hmm," I thought to myself, "This could work in your room now." It's a fairly dark frame and picture, so now that I'm rocking a light brown/dark brown theme, with 'antique brass' fixtures/doorhandles, this painting really fits in there.

What I have found out in a little online research today is that it is by Edmund Osthaus (though, I don't see a signature on the painting). The red "MONORA" near the dog's left foot threw me off the trail at first, because I thought that was an artist's signature. Monora, however, was the name of the setter bitch (that being 'female canine') that is depicted --- she was the 1910 National Champion hunting dog. According to a Red Fox Fine Art biography page, "Oshthaus ... produced a series of postcards, lithographs and calendar pictures for duPont, including every national champion from the first, Count Gladstone IV in 1896 through Monora in 1911." This print, listed in an online auction site, looks like a closer-cropped version of the image, with a slightly different background.

Brushstrokes and layering are visible in the painting, and looking at the back, it is stretched canvas on a wood frame. I don't know what this means as far as the painting being an original. Comparing to the postcard image's crispness and as a judgment call, I'm pretty certain the painting I have is a reproduction. I guess to find that out for sure, I'd have to take it to the Antiques Roadshow.