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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: Karen McDonald on Saturday 08 December 18 12:30 GMT (UK)
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Hi everybody,
Normally I try and help other people in this section, but today I have a question of my own. ;D
In 1985, my then husband and I bought a painting from a gallery in Rayleigh, Essex. There were a number of similar paintings from the same artist in the gallery, mainly masses of blue with old ships. :) It's a matter of taste, but I really liked the painting.
It came with me into my second marriage, but we haven't seen it hanging for a few years - it's been up on top of a wardrobe for a long time.
Just recently I took it down and looked at it. For the first time, it occurred to me that I have no idea who painted it. So I googled what I thought I could see and came up with...zilch. OK, a photographer, and an artist who produces works which are very different from "my ships".
I have looked on the Internet and can't find a gallery on the main road through Rayleigh. OK, it was 33 years ago... :o So I can't call them. ???
Here is the signature:
(https://up.picr.de/34527389jz.jpg)
(https://up.picr.de/34527387bc.jpg)
(https://up.picr.de/34527386rz.jpg)
What I see is Hohing. Which is a pretty unusual name. The name definitely ends in "g". After the "g", there is a little dot/flourish on the canvas - it is not another letter. I thought I'd better point that out, as the photos are not brilliant and it might look as though there is another letter after the "g".
From experience I know that Google & Co. can function differently in different countries, so maybe I'm not getting all the possibilities showing here.
Any ideas? :)
I look forward to your replies & suggestions!
Best regards,
Karen
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I wondered if it was Haling, though that means an extra hook at the bottom of the 'l'. Not that it helped much.
However, I did discover a Rayleigh Art Group (https://rayleighart.wordpress.com/) - I wonder if anyone there might know of him/her?
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Could be Charles Holing?
Carol
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Possibly Holring
Add - or the lr is an h as you suggest - Hah or Hoh or Halr or Holr :-\
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@arthurk
Many thanks for that! I'll give them a try. :)
@Treetotal
I've just googled him. His style is very different (not that that is conclusive ???) but I have found a couple of photos of him and if they are fairly recent, I don't think he could be old enough.
@Gadget
I've just been googling the name, but can't find anything... :-[
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@Gadget
I've just been googling the name, but can't find anything... :-[
I've been doing a global search on the various genealogy sites. There are various people with similar surnames but mostly on ships lists!
It could be that it's not a famous artist. There are lots of minor ones that I know of that you'd not find on Google - not mentioning any names!
Is it worth contacting the various private art galleries in the area to check if anyone might know?
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Nearest are in Leigh. This looks promising:
http://www.estuarygallery.com/
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Nearest are in Leigh. This looks promising:
http://www.estuarygallery.com/
I've just written to Ian. Many thanks! :)
I doubt if the artist became famous, but I find it a little weird that there is absolutely nothing about him/her on the Internet...
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However, I did discover a Rayleigh Art Group (https://rayleighart.wordpress.com/) - I wonder if anyone there might know of him/her?
I wrote to RAG yesterday and a very helpful man named Colin wrote back almost immediately. He told me that the people who used to own the gallery in Rayleigh now have a business in another town (still in Essex).
So I have now written to that gallery and am hoping that the owners can remember the artist.
Fingers crossed! :D
And thanks again, arthurk!
Best regards,
Karen
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That's good - let us know what they say.
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Will do! :)
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Having carried out a search re the name, there has been several sales of "Hohing" paintings of ships, but no one has commented re the owner of the signature.
Malky
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Having carried out a search re the name, there has been several sales of "Hohing" paintings of ships, but no one has commented re the owner of the signature.
Malky
Thanks for that! I couldn't find anything at all...
Best regards,
Karen
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Have you got any links, Malky?
I've done searches and the only Hohing that is coming up is a Ken Hohing, Prof of Art at Rutgers University, USA and Tom Hohing, a printmaker. Ken is primarily a photographer. Neither seem to paint ship scenes :-\
No older artists named Hohing are coming up.
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There's this one - very similar to Karen's
https://www.ebth.com/items/9381904-oil-on-canvas-nautical-painting
https://ebth-com-production.imgix.net/2018/08/31/13/34/02/cf5809af-ee92-49b5-bbb7-b5ce231f6d72/IMG_9017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&w=880&h=880&fit=crop&crop=&auto=format
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Just found this link:
http://www.unm.edu/~wzahner/gallery.html
Scroll down.
Add - close up here:
http://www.unm.edu/~wzahner/ship.gif
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I've tried to enlarge the image to check the signature but none on the one that I've found.
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There's this one - very similar to Karen's
https://www.ebth.com/items/9381904-oil-on-canvas-nautical-painting
https://ebth-com-production.imgix.net/2018/08/31/13/34/02/cf5809af-ee92-49b5-bbb7-b5ce231f6d72/IMG_9017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&w=880&h=880&fit=crop&crop=&auto=format
That's remarkably similar - but who is he/she?
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There's this one - very similar to Karen's
https://www.ebth.com/items/9381904-oil-on-canvas-nautical-painting
https://ebth-com-production.imgix.net/2018/08/31/13/34/02/cf5809af-ee92-49b5-bbb7-b5ce231f6d72/IMG_9017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&w=880&h=880&fit=crop&crop=&auto=format
Very similar indeed!
And the name (whatever it may turn out to be :D) is the same.
How come Google couldn't find that for me?! :-\
(Having said that, with friends & family in England and Spain, I know that the search results here in Germany are often wildly different from those obtained in other countries... :P)
Best regards,
Karen
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Just found this link:
http://www.unm.edu/~wzahner/gallery.html
Scroll down.
Add - close up here:
http://www.unm.edu/~wzahner/ship.gif
Thanks for that!
I can't see a signature. either. The painting looks a little less detailled than mine, but the image is a little fuzzy.
Well, at least we are making a little progress! :)
Thanks again!
Karen
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BTW: Still no reply from the 2 galleries I contacted...
Best regards,
Karen
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You could e-mail the 'gallery' on the link I gave, Karen. e-mail address address is on his home page.
It's a University of New Mexico link :)
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Try Ken HOHING.
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Try Ken HOHING.
The Ken Hohing that I found earlier is a photographer - University of Rutgers. Not sure it is him - see my earlier post.
Add link:
https://finearts.camden.rutgers.edu/art-program/art-faculty/ken-hohing/
and
https://kenhohing.shutterfly.com/
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I didn’t look that closely, I was concentrating on the signature which matches the original picture.
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It is Hohing just who?
See Reply #11 onwards
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there you go then
Hohing Hoo ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
sorry .. my day needed lightening.
xin
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:D :D :D
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Nearest are in Leigh. This looks promising:
http://www.estuarygallery.com/
The gallery wrote back, saying they have been unable to find out anything about the artist, but that the painting is very well executed and that I should try contacting a couple of auction houses. There is one in Rayleigh which I will try first.
Best regards,
Karen
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Just found this link:
http://www.unm.edu/~wzahner/gallery.html
Scroll down.
Add - close up here:
http://www.unm.edu/~wzahner/ship.gif
Hi Gadget,
I have sent an E-Mail to Bill. According to his website, some of the pictures haven't been updated since the 1990s(!), and he was working in the uni library until 2003 (when I assume he retired, seeing as he graduated in the 60s).
So let's hope that he is still around and still reads E-Mail. :)
Best regards,
Karen
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I have just sent an E-Mail to the auction house in Rayleigh suggested by the gallery in Leigh.
Let's see what they say.
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The gallery in Billericay just wrote to say that they did own the gallery in Rayleigh, but not at the time our painting was on sale there. :-[
Oh, well. The search goes on...
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You could e-mail the 'gallery' on the link I gave, Karen. e-mail address address is on his home page.
It's a University of New Mexico link :)
Hi,
As I mentioned, I sent an E-Mail to Bill at the address on the uni website. And...Bill has written back! :) He sounds like a lovely person (and he is a dog-lover. :-*).
He wrote that he purchased 2 paintings by Hohing back in the late 1970's or early 1980's. They were very inexpensive... less than $25.00 each. He purchased them at a "starving artists sale". These sales were apparently travelling exhibitions of genuine oil paintings by unknown artists that occasionally came to local hotels in Albuquerque, where he lives. They were intended as a way for people with limited means to be able to obtain a "real" oil painting.
He bought the paintings when he was just beginning his art collection. Later, he gave away one of the paintings as a gift when a friend admired it and, eventually, gave the other one to the same person because Bill's collection had grown and he needed room.
He has also never been able to find out anything about the artist. Over the years, two other people have contacted him after seeing the painting on his website to ask if he had any information about him/her. They had also purchased paintings by Hohing, and their paintings were very similar to ours.
Bill was very surprised to hear that Hohing sold paintings as far away as England! Probably about as surprised as I was to learn that Hohing sold paintings in Albuquerque and may well be/have been American!
So who was this Hohing?! :o
Maybe something will turn up... :)
Best regards,
Karen
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Interesting.
So was Hohing a starving US artist in the 1970s, painting in a 19C style, or was it put in the sale by someone else??
Also, how did one of his paintings get to Essex if that is the case.
Hohing sounds of Dutch origin to me :-\
PS - nothing in my enormous collection of art books left over from my art school days - we had to study art history as well as doing artistic creations ;D ;D
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Problem being, is that I have found 5 individuals with the surname "Hohing", all of whom are/were involved in "Art" in one way or another, and then of course, there is "Ho-Hing". A never ending story me thinks.
Malky
Then there's this :- https://www.fold3.com/document/272533218/
I do not know if it is relevant as I do not subscribe to "Fold3"
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Interesting.
Also, how did one of his paintings get to Essex if that is the case.
Not just one. There were several in the gallery at the time, all similar.
Very interesting!
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Problem being, is that I have found 5 individuals with the surname "Hohing", all of whom are/were involved in "Art" in one way or another, and then of course, there is "Ho-Hing". A never ending story me thinks.
Malky
Then there's this :- https://www.fold3.com/document/272533218/
I do not know if it is relevant as I do not subscribe to "Fold3"
I don't subscribe, either. The link you sent looks as though it is for a Chinese person by the name of Hing Art Ho, who enlisted in WWII in America. It's not impossible for it to be our artist, but... :o
Think I might contact the Hohings who can be found on the internet and see what comes up. If anything. ;D
Thanks!
Karen
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Hi,
Two more answers have come in.
The auction house in Rayleigh wrote to say that they don't know the artist and that such works are/were often mass-produced on the continent for the tourist trade. The artists are often unknown.
Bill in Albuquerque replied again, saying that, as he had mentioned in his first reply, he purchased his Hohings at a "starving artists sale". These sales usually offer paintings from all over the place, but in Bill's experience, many of the artists were based in California. They were the kind of artists that you see coming, mostly, out of China today. They paint similar subjects over and over, and the "starving artists sale" retailers stock their exhibitions with them.
He has heard that some of the artists were quite legitimate and respectable, but would use pseudonyms for the paintings which they mass produced. Hohing may have been one of these artists. Apparently, "Domina" is another signature that is often seen on these type of paintings..!
So maybe Malky's Chinese WWII-chappy in America did indeed mass-produce paintings under a sort-of pseudonym... :D
Best regards,
Karen
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Try Ken HOHING.
The Ken Hohing that I found earlier is a photographer - University of Rutgers. Not sure it is him - see my earlier post.
Add link:
https://finearts.camden.rutgers.edu/art-program/art-faculty/ken-hohing/
and
https://kenhohing.shutterfly.com/
Hi all,
Ken very kindly replied to my mail.
He is obviously not the artist, and wrote that his family history points to Stuttgart. Several years ago, he toured Germany with his son and E-Mailed several Hohings in the Stuttgart area who he had found on the web, in the hope of meeting them. Sadly, nobody replied.
He suspects that the painting came from that German ancestry, as he knows of no American Hohing who is/was a painter.
I myself have, in the meantime, been rummaging through the German online telephone books. There is not a single Hohing listed anywhere. There are, however, a handful of Höhings. So maybe the umlaut was dropped when a Höhing way back when emigrated from Germany...
Best regards,
Karen
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The auction house in Rayleigh wrote to say that they don't know the artist and that such works are/were often mass-produced on the continent for the tourist trade. The artists are often unknown.
Bill in Albuquerque replied again, saying that, as he had mentioned in his first reply, he purchased his Hohings at a "starving artists sale". These sales usually offer paintings from all over the place, but in Bill's experience, many of the artists were based in California. They were the kind of artists that you see coming, mostly, out of China today. They paint similar subjects over and over, and the "starving artists sale" retailers stock their exhibitions with them.
This sounds highly likely. I know you like the picture, which is what matters above all, but it really is a very generic piece of marine art. Loads of people paint (and painted) this type of scene and it has none of the majesty and originality that can be seen when really good artists tackle similar subject matter.
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We have a very similar painting also bought in the 1980's cannot remember who the supposed artist is (It's somewhere in our very full loft) After trying to find out, we were told hundreds of these paintings were produced and names that were put on there were just made up.
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This sounds highly likely. I know you like the picture, which is what matters above all, but it really is a very generic piece of marine art. Loads of people paint (and painted) this type of scene and it has none of the majesty and originality that can be seen when really good artists tackle similar subject matter.
Er...right. :P
I was actually only trying to find out something about the artist. Once I start on these things I'm like a terrier and don't want to let go until I get a result. ;)
The painting was inexpensive but is nevertheless pretty good.
Believe me, I wasn't under the mistaken impression that I could appear on the Antiques Roadshow as one of the people who discover they have been sitting on a fortune for decades...
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We have a very similar painting also bought in the 1980's cannot remember who the supposed artist is (It's somewhere in our very full loft) After trying to find out, we were told hundreds of these paintings were produced and names that were put on there were just made up.
I expect that's the case with ours, too.
Otherwise something would have popped up by now.
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Once I start on these things I'm like a terrier and don't want to let go until I get a result. ;)
That's a good trait!