Frame It!

 

QUESTION: I love collecting older works of art—not the type found in galleries and museums, but those found in flea markets, antique shops and shows. While some come with frames, many don’t. And those that do have frames often don’t look right in them. How can I tell what type of frame should go with a particular work of art? How have frames changed over the centuries? How does the age of a frame relate to the art work?

ANSWER: Most people who purchase older art works don’t bother to change the frames that come with them, even if they aren’t the best for the art works they surround. 

Most two-dimensional antique and vintage art works----paintings, posters, and prints---had frames, but it’s not unusual for them to be sold without them. Often the existing frame is an inappropriate replacement, or isn’t in perfect condition. While restoring a frame is often a simple procedure, finding the right one can be as time-consuming and challenging as discovering the work of art, itself.

An overwhelming frame on a delicate painting robs it completely of the experience of the delicacy, and conversely, a painting that’s strong and powerful, for example, will be  short-changed by a thin, delicate, fancy frame.

Quilts, tapestries, murals, wood and paper panels seldom need a frame. A frame is, however, an essential for any other art form which existed since the Middle Ages when the frame was integral to the art. Cabinetmakers, architects, gilders, and wood carvers made the first frames in 15th-century Italy. From Italy the craft of frame making spread throughout Europe. 

Some early settlers to America brought with them framed works of art, introducing the craft and frame designs of 16th- and 17th-century France, England, Holland, Spain and Portugal to the Colonies. The earliest frames were not only decorative, but also reflected the tastes and fashions of the time and often the artist's concept of what was right for his work.

During the American Federal Period from the late 18th- and early 19th-century, wealth increased for many who then sought the better things in life. The larger pictures that people hung singly and the groupings of smaller works were frequently completed with simply ornamented gilt frames that mirrored the understated furniture of the period.

Few homes were without pictures through the classically dominated Empire period from 1810 to 1830. Despite frequently being hung high above eye level, the paintings boasted elegant frames of gilt moldings, later in the period, when Empire furniture had become more elaborate and less graceful, frames, too, became extravagant featuring ornately carved plaster and lots of gilding. The exceptions were the narrow black frames used for prints. As the Victorian period embraced the American scene and became ever more ornate, frames followed suit.

By the middle of the 19th century, frame making had become a well-established industry in America. Most were mass-produced and lacked the fine quality and individual creativity of handcrafted ones.

For those seeking to collect works of two-dimensional art, a knowledge of frames— their history, styles, makers, design and material details—is very important. This can be accomplished by learning from dealers in fine frames, frames restorers, and museum curators, as well as doing a lot of reading and studying the art works in museums to see how and which frames have been used.

While choosing the wrong frame doesn’t physically damage a work of art, it damages it aesthetically. To ensure that a particular art work has the right frame, the date of the painting should match the date of the frame. During the late Victorian era, the preferred frames were wide and heavily embellished. During the years of the late 19th-century Aesthetic Movement, decorative frames continued to be used but were flatter. Another consideration should be the color of the frame appropriate to the date of the art work. 

The frame’s width depends on whether a work of art has a busy or a simple composition. Fancier frames complement busy art works while simple ones do the same for simple works of art. 

The frame should always complement or enhance the work of art it surrounds. It should never go with the style of the room that it’s in.. If the art work doesn’t fit in that room, it doesn’t belong there. 

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Those Romantic Winter Scenes

QUESTION: I have two George Durrie prints I'm trying to find out about. I know that One is called “Home to Thanksgiving” and the other one is “The Road-Winter.” What can you tell me about George Durrie and his prints?

ANSWER: George Henry Durrie’s work has often been confused with that of Currier and Ives. He dealt with the same subjects, mostly rural winter themes, and his style is very similar. This is no accident, for while Durrie painted on his own, Currier & Ives marketed his work after their firm became the premier seller of hand-colored lithographs.

Born in Hartford in 1820, Connecticut, Durrie began studying with portraitist Nathaniel Jocelyn in New Haven in 1839. After mastering his painting skills, Durrie traveled throughout his home state of Connecticut and then through New Jersey doing paintings on commission. Although he gained a reputation for his rural landscapes, he also painted still lifes and scenes from Shakespeare to be used as illustrations.

Durrie became especially known for his snow scenes which earned him the nickname “the Snowman.” The paintings this person inquired about above are two of his more famous ones. Like Natanial Currier, Durrie was a meticulous artists, including fine details in his scenes, providing an record of 19th-century rural life. He paid special attention to the foliage and animals in his paintings, making them all the more realistic. But his method was more stylistic than realistic, catering to nostalgic images of farm life that people liked, rather than brutally realistic ones. Pioneers who had traveled West from New England especially liked them.

Though he began painting New England summer farm scenes, he soon discovered that if he added snow to them they became more appealing to the public. Durrie has been credited with adding the “snowscene” into American painting, creating a wintry ambiance that can be found on many Christmas cards today.

Durrie’s reputation preceded him and soon Currier and Ives knew that they had discovered a winner. They had gained success marketing hand-colored lithographs, and his landscapes matched their style of quiet country motifs. Even after his death in 1863, Currier & Ives continued to use his paintings for lithographs, eventually producing 10 lithographs of his work. Among his most popular prints were Cider Making, Winter in the Country, Getting Ice and Winter Morning.

He painted "Home to Thanksgiving" in 1861, only two years before his death. Currier and Ives published the large-folio print from it in 1867. The print originally sold for $1.50. Today, an original of this print sells for many times that. The emphasis here is on an “original” 18x27-inch lithograph in good condition with uncut margins, not a reprint of it.