I’ve been selling, buy and trading art, documents (including birth certificates), antiques and paintings for many years now. Outside of, or with the exception of, the 2009 certified copy of Barack Obama’s 1961 Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya, Coast Province General Hospital birth certificate I’ve never encounter any problems when conducting a sale or a trade.
One example of a successful sale (W. Steiner oil painting) is provided directly below:
W. Steiner oil painting. Transfers of Ownership. From Grantor Lucas Daniel Smith to Grantee Paul Reynolds…. by Lucas Daniel Smith
I did some brief research on the artist ‘W. Steiner’ who painted the excellent quality impressionistic painting shown in the post.
I may be way off base here on my logic trail, but IF I AM CORRECT, this is REALLY INTERESTING.
(1) Consider that there was only one (1) painting by ‘W. Steiner’ that I could locate in a Google Search.
(2) Consider that the painting shown of the Van Housen Farm (museum) located at Rochester Hills, MICHIGAN was done by W. Steiner.
The rather casual reference seems to indicate that it was painted by a LOCAL ARTIST. I magnified the painting but could not see where the painting was signed. I think this is another indication that the painting, though of excellent quality, was done by a LOCAL, AMATEUR ARTIST.
(3) Consider that Dr. Wendy Steiner taught for a while at the University of Michigan at ANN ARBOR. She is now a distinguished professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. The distance between ANN ARBOR and ROCHESTER HILLS is ONLY 59 MILES.
Dr. Steiner is obviously an ART EXPERT.
(4) Consider that Dr. Steiner’s web page gives an indication of her artistic interests.
(5) Finally, consider that Dr. Wendy Steiner identified herself simply as W. Steiner on the following syllabus she created in 1996 for a course she was teaching at the University of Pennsylvania.
Could the painting’s artist, W. Steiner, actually be the distinguished professor of English, Dr. Wendy Steiner?
I can certainly envision her, probably as a fairly young lady, painting the marvelous, impressionistic oil painting bought and then later sold, hopefully at a good profit, by Lucas Daniel Smith!
According to Dr. Wendy Steiner’s CV linked below, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan from 1976 to 1979.
Thus, IF Professor Wendy Steiner is indeed the artist who created the ‘ocean, beach and seagulls’ painting, she most likely would have completed it sometime between 1976 and 1979.
Since, according to her CV, she received her BA from McGill University in 1970, IF she was the artist, she would have been in her late twenties or early thirties at the time the painting was done.
Professor Steiners Life Info
Photo of Professor Steiner relaxing on a BEACH
IF the ‘ocean, beach seagulls’ painting was done by Dr. Wendy Steiner while she was a professor at the University of Michigan, I suspect that it shows an impressionistic view of one of the southern beaches on Lake Michigan.
For example, the awesome ‘Warren Dunes State Park’ beach, complete with seagulls, is only about 160 miles driving distance from Ann Arbor and would make a nice weekend getaway trip.
Beach Area at Warren Dunes State Park
Continuing on with my speculation regarding the ‘ocean, beach and seagulls’ painting:
It’s possible, of course, that Dr. Wendy Steiner, if she was in fact the artist, could have created the picture sometime after 1979 when she moved from Michigan and was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
In that case, perhaps the painting represents a view of a beach on the Atlantic ocean.
However, due to the rich yellow color chosen for the sky, I think the painting was inspired by the artist’s view of LAKE MICHIGAN AT SUNSET.
It’s hard to believe that viewing a SUNSET on an East Coast, Atlantic ocean beach could possibly inspire an artist to create such a wonderful painting.
However, if the painting was done at SUNRISE, it certainly could have have done sometime after 1979 on an East Coast beach.
— and, of course, in conclusion, everyone must understand, without additional hard evidence, the ‘W. Steiner’ who created the ‘ocean, beach and seagulls’ painting may be an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PERSON than the widely known professor and cultural critic, ‘Dr. Wendy Steiner’.
This has all been just ‘fun speculation’.
Vivid Sunset on Lake Michigan
Image Credit: Craig Sterken Photography
CraigSterken.com
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3713/9475045218_9ae87ca3b3_z.jpg
TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT TO A MORE POLITICAL DISCUSSION ~ THE HOUSE OF REPS VOTED TO DEFUND THE FRANKENSTEIN UNAFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE BILL , BUT CONTINUE FUNDING TO KEEP THE GOVERNMENT RUNNING .
THIS IS A MAJOR VICTORY FOR ALL CITIZENS OF AMERICA .
Bruce,
I think that it is very possible that Dr. Wendy Steiner may be the painter. I am thinking of contacting her.
Documents and paintings sometimes sit for many years tucked away in closets, attics, file cabinets (and sometimes passed on to second hand stores) before being reunited with their owners or being brought to the attention of the public.
Thank you for your time and research into the possible identity of painter!
Penn Humanities Forum
Excerpt:
Wendy Steiner
Dr. Wendy Steiner is the Richard L. Fisher Professor of English and Founding Director of the Penn Humanities Forum at the University of Pennsylvania.
A graduate of McGill University who took her M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale, Dr. Steiner is a world-class scholar whose work is also well known to the general public. Her book The Scandal of Pleasure: Art in an Age of Fundamentalism (Chicago, 1996) was on the New York Times list of “100 Best Books of 1996.” She is widely published in the scholarly and general press, with over 150 articles and reviews on books, painting, architecture, and general culture. She was on the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle and has been a judge for the National Book Award.
In her latest book, Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-Century Art (The Free Press, 2001), Steiner considers how modernism, in literature and the performing arts, as well as in visual art, replaced beauty with more negative attitudes, such as alienation and anxiety. Her other books include Postmodern Fictions: 1970-1990, volume 8 of the Cambridge History of American Literature, Pictures of Romance: Form against Context in Painting and Literature, and The Colors of Rhetoric (all from University of Chicago Press); and Exact Resemblance to Exact Penn
Dr. Steiner taught at Yale and the University of Michigan before joining Penn as assistant professor in 1979. Promoted to associate professor three years later, she was named full professor in 1985 and was awarded the Alan G. Hassenfeld Term Professorship of Humanities in 1988 before being appointed the Richard L. Fisher Professor of English in 1993. She has served as master of Penn’s Modern Languages College House, director of the Penn/King’s College Program in London, and chair of Penn’s English Department.
……………………………………
View the complete article at:
http://humanities.sas.upenn.edu/steiner.shtml
Bruce,
Last month I sent an email to Wendy Steiner. She also emailed me back.
I have now forwarded to you both of the emails.
Bruce, below is another detective story regarding a relatively recent find (which nobody suspected at first and then wouldn’t believe after it was suspected) of a Leonardo da Vinci which was sold at Christie’s in New York, before it was even suspected as a Leonardo, for a relatively measly sum of approximately $21,850 in the year 1998!
Name of painting: La Bella Principessa aka Portrait of a Young Fiancée.
Date of creation: 1495-1496
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Lucas,
I did some more work on the project and I now think we need to give up the ‘MICHIGAN” connection with Dr. Wendy Steiner.
Specifically: I now believe the WATERCOLOR(?) painting shown in the following link was done by the local Michigan artist – WILLIAM STEINER at a much earlier time, and not by Wendy Steiner, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan in the mid 1970’s
http://www.rochesterhills.org/DocumentCenter/View/2132
See – http://www.rochesterhills.org/index.aspx?NID=548
That being said, it is still POSSIBLE the artist for the OIL PAINTING, ‘ocean, beach and seagulls’ and signed by ‘W. Steiner’ COULD have been Dr. Wendy Steiner. However, I no longer have any real ties to link the two together.