Author Topic: Need help with signature on painting  (Read 2536 times)

Offline Karen McDonald

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Re: Need help with signature on painting
« Reply #36 on: Wednesday 12 December 18 14:56 GMT (UK) »
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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Offline Karen McDonald

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Re: Need help with signature on painting
« Reply #37 on: Thursday 13 December 18 10:10 GMT (UK) »
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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Offline Karen McDonald

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Re: Need help with signature on painting
« Reply #38 on: Thursday 13 December 18 11:54 GMT (UK) »
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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Offline Mike in Cumbria

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Re: Need help with signature on painting
« Reply #39 on: Thursday 13 December 18 14:29 GMT (UK) »
.

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.


Offline magnacarta

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Re: Need help with signature on painting
« Reply #40 on: Thursday 13 December 18 14:45 GMT (UK) »
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.

Offline Karen McDonald

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Re: Need help with signature on painting
« Reply #41 on: Thursday 13 December 18 14:49 GMT (UK) »
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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Offline Karen McDonald

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Re: Need help with signature on painting
« Reply #42 on: Thursday 13 December 18 14:50 GMT (UK) »
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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Offline Mike in Cumbria

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Re: Need help with signature on painting
« Reply #43 on: Thursday 13 December 18 15:17 GMT (UK) »
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!