DecorBook Classic : A Painter in the Family
- kathleen
- Aug 16
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 16
This is a bit of a shaggy dog story covering years so I hope you'll stay with me. The above painting was in Uncle Harold and Aunt Ethel's Seattle house all my life. It was big (about 24x36) and fascinating. I knew it was painted by a great uncle but who was he?
All I had heard was that he left his money to his housekeeper. My Aunt Dorothy gave me this little water color of his when I bought my first house.
When my mom died, I inherited a painting by my great uncle, John Thomas Nolf.
It's currently hanging in the living room. A couple of years ago, I started looking for another Nolf painting. Besides enjoying it now, I thought it might be nice to pass on one to each of my nieces. Last September, a somewhat affordable one came up on eBay.
description: John Thomas Nolf (1872-1950) American, oil on board, 22x18 landscape painting.
"It has some loss of paint, needs cleaning and a new frame."
Photos truthfully showed the damage.
offer : $1127.45
purchased : $1,000.
Old tape was stuck to the painting. Other photos showed other damage.
I found art restorer David Berlin on YELP. He came to see the painting on February 11, telling me it would take about six months to return as he had other work in his pipeline.
You can see the original brighter colors at the edges. Clearly, a dirty painting. As per David's quote, "To clean, remove varnish of pigment layer. In-painting of pigment loss upper left corner, varnish with archival varnish." $875 (gulp). It suddenly hit be that this was going to be more expensive than I imagined.
While David was here, he looked at my other Nolf painting and saw that it was clean with no need of restroring. Whew!
In April, David texted me a photo - the left half had been cleaned.
David took the picture in February and returned it in June. It was perfect - bright and light. I imagine it was just as the day Uncle John finished the painting, most likely in the 1930's. Next Sunday, I'll detail the exhausting hunt for a picture frame. In the meantime, have a wonderful Sunday!
Restorer David Berlin, berlinconservation.com, 925.899.5883
If you're interested, here's more info about a true character, John Nolf.
John (1872 -1950) and his wife, Mandella "Della." They married in 1900 until she died in 1933. With no children, word had it that he left his estate to his housekeeper. Good for him.
This photo was including in this article (link below) on Nolf's adventuresome life.
And his obituraryin the NY Times.
NYTimes, May 30, 1950
