@argon38wrote:
... I'm still bemused by the dearth of information about the artist. If he had an established reputation then I could understand the high prices, but nobody seems to know who he was.
I agree. I wouldn't say that the artist was great, like an American Impressionist who might have shown at the same galleries as Tourney in the 1930s. His work is genre paintings taking after the Dutch Baroque that was wildly popular at the turn of the century but only affordable to the wealthy. Tournay's work does fall firmly into the potboiler category to me eye. He probably made a modest living. He may have signed this genre work with a pseudonym, while signing his more "serious" projects with his real name.
Why a painting like this has value may have more to do with the public perception than the artist's merit. I could take one of the "Van Der's" works off of a museum wall, and bring it to a mall and put it next to this Tournay and 90% of the buying public would choose the Tournay because it was signed and he is a "known" artist, if I told them we didn't know who the artist was for the unsigned museum work.
When the price of French impressionist's paintings went into the stratosphere, suddenly the value of American Impressionist (artist's that were seen as copy cats and poor cousins) suddenly gained in value and found a ready audience. The same can be said for several regional artists, like the mid century California and western artists who gained sudden favor in the 1980s.
Sometimes, for someone like a Tournay to be 'found' all it takes is a dealer with a little local art shop somewhere (perhaps in the town where Tournay painted) to feature the work and establish a value. Then the buyers will beat down the door. Or a well placed WorhtPoint listing seems to be able to do the trick as well.
