1915 Ivan Olinsky Oil Painting
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GUEST:
This painting came to me from my uncle's auction after he had passed away. This painting was in an earthquake in either San Francisco or just barely outside of San Francisco. And they were selling all of the artwork and everything off of the street.
APPRAISER:
Oh, my goodness.
GUEST:
And my uncle bought this and two or three other paintings, and after he passed away, this was auctioned off and there was only one other bidder on it, and I purchased it for $50.
APPRAISER:
I see a lot of inscriptions on the piece.
GUEST:
That was a lady that sponsored several artists in the area, and he painted this to give her as a gift, and that's how she received it, and then it was sold later at her auction.
APPRAISER:
Ivan Olinsky was born in Russia and immigrated to the United States, in fact, did study at the Art Students League in New York, and is known for his American impressionist style. One of the things that his patron, Mrs. David Gray...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
to whom he dedicated this painting for her friendship and for her health in 1915, one of the things he was able to do because of her patronage was to go to Europe and study. So his combination, then, of American impressionism and the more loose and evocative European impressionism is seen in this really beautiful scene of the Plaza San Marco. And you have the beautiful broken brush stroke of the impressionist style. And of course this lovely dedication to Mrs. Gray. It's an oil painting, it is oil on canvasboard. It's the original frame. I'm sure he had it framed in Venice. The back of the piece has the Gray property insignias, so Mrs. Gray did a wonderful thing in the style of the Medicis and the style of Isabella Stewart Gardner. The importance of patronage can't be denied. He's an important American artist. It's a lovely image of a scene that is always popular, Venice, an American artist painting in Venice. For auction, I would probably estimate it at between $4,000 and $6,000.
GUEST:
That's nice.
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