(Please Scroll Down and Page Ahead--Catalogue is Alphabetical by Artist Last Name)
Artist Dates: 1883 - 1972
Painting Title: Home at Great Neck
Painting Date: No Date
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Signature: Signed Lower Right
Provenance: Sotheby's
Condition: Newly Cleaned
Size Unframed: 20 x 16
Frame Condition: Good, With Wear
Artist Best Price: $42,300
Our Price: $15,000
Owing to increasing demand, we see China-sourced copies as a potential threat for collectors of Berthelsen. Having said as much we are now posting a forgery alert. We have seen two of the New York City landmark scenes that were clearly copies offered at major auctions, and a host more on E-Bay, where they are attracting ignorant bids. This is particularly true with the smaller sizes, and we see it as an increasing problem. Collectors should seek a professional opinion at all costs.
Our painting has just returned from a professional cleaning (with our restorer remarking that the work must have been hanging in the same place for at least 50 years), and we think the image is dramatically whiter and more interesting than even we first thought. Berthelsen, favoring the steeply sloping multi-stepped gothic revival roof of Tomick's mansion is showing us the sunset snowfall's fusion of earth and sky, repeated in the total glowing absolutely perfect whiteness of the dwelling and the heavens. We have now been looking at this work for a long time, and we have become increasingly sensitive to its serene power. Frankly, we think it epitomizes what Berthelsen did best, which is to envision our home as a resting place in all senses--really, this is an outstanding work.
