I was in Minneapolis over the holidays, and stopped in at one of my favorite places: Hunt & Gather, at 50th and Xerxes in the southwest corner of the city. It’s an antiques store that is crammed full to the ceiling with interesting and unusual items, with all displays expertly curated and installed to draw maximum attention. I was browsing the store when I saw this large painting above; my first thought was that it was a simple, naive or amateur painting, as the store has many examples of unusual art by unknown artists. But as I looked longer at this portrait of a man, my art history background was triggering some sort of association in my mind, but I couldn’t quite place it.
A couple days later, I was enjoying the current exhibitions and permanent collection at the Walker Art Center, also in Minneapolis, when I noticed the source of my previous visual connection: there on the wall, right in front of me, was Marsden Hartley’s “Cleophas, Master of the Gilda Grey,” 1938-1939. As I pulled up another photo of the painting seen at Hunt & Gather, it’s very clear that the amateur painter was making a large scale copy of Hartley’s original.
I’m not sure if the people at Hunt & Gather are aware of the source image for this painting, as it wasn’t noted as a Marsden Hartley copy, but I do like it, maybe even more so now that I know where the inspiration came from.