This Carl Hoerman (1885 – 1955) oil painting suffers from a brittle canvas that lacks strength, as well as a contaminated paint surface from tar and nicotine. Located through the signature is a bad scrape. In one of the windows, there is an area where the painting was hit, and two more scrapes exist in the sky on the right-hand side. The stretcher bar needs more lift to support the canvas, and the frame is contaminated with dirt, has cornering issues, and would help the canvas if it was backed-up. Therefore, it will also be restored.
Across the internet this painting has been called the Italian Harbor and was given a date of 1937. With a little cleaning we discovered the date, right next to Hoerman’s signature, is clearly a 27, and, after some investigation on the internet, we believe that, more specifically, the harborscene depicts a part of the island of Capri, based on the color of the buildings, the mountain structure in the background, and the landmark clocktower on the right hand portion of the painting that appears to be the Piazza Umberto I.
Stay tuned for more. As you can see from our cleaning tests, there is plenty of contamination that needs to come off.