We have a painting by Rosa Bonheur, we’d like to know if it’s an original and worth anything?
The painting is clearly very old, painted with black, tan, gray, and brown hues. The painting is of resting sheep, rams, and a single dog watching over, on a hillside (or hilly meadow) with a cottage and silo off in the distance. There are over 18 animals in the painting. Rosa Bonheur’s signature is in the left corner, slanted. The painting is extremely detailed, and almost alive. It’s 2.5 ft in width, 1.5 in length.
We have searched the internet for an identical painting or print, and have not found anything besides similar sheep scenes. So I guess our question is whether this painting may indeed be an original and whether or not it would be worth anything to anyone.
It’s very easy to tell if this is an original paintings or a reproduction of one of her paintings. Look at the side of the canvas. Look for flowing or jagged edges or dripped edges of paint that runs over the front edge of the canvas onto the side of the canvas when the artist is painting.
If the edges are slightly uneven or excess paint has flowed over the front of the canvas onto the sides then you have a real painting on canvas. If the image stops at the edge of the canvas in a perfectly straight line on each side of the canvas then you have a reproduction, a copy of a painting that was printed over a canvas to make the reproduction look like an original painting.
I really do hope you have an original Rosa Bonheur painting. She was an excellent artist and it would be great to have another of her original works show up for the world to enjoy.
Women Artistst: Rosa Bonheur
