Matson Painting - NOT an original--Thanks for the info!

The deal is I was told that this is one of the original paintings that were used for the Matson Cruise Lines menus .

It appears to be acrylic on canvas.

At one time the painting looks to have been mounted (by the bend in the canvas) but now it is flat

The image measures 16" by 23.5" although the canvas is an inch or two bigger

Markings--besides the measurements in the corner and HO53/50 there are no signatures.

Can anyone shed some light ? Thanks!

[ Edited by: leleliz 2010-07-14 17:45 ]

GROG gotta see that in person.

Hi Leleliz!

Sorry, but you were told a lie...

The original paintings done by Eugene Savage were murals that were about 4 foot by 8 foot and larger. Also, the colors and details are quite a bit off on yours. Below is a better image of a reproduction I found on the web so that you can see the difference in detail. Looks like yours is a newer knock off. Still cool though!

Max

Thanks for the information!

I had no way of knowing so I was only going off what I was told.

Do you happen to know value of a repo?

He's right, it's a copy.

Here's a larger pic of the image from a menu.

it's a known fact that the matson graphics people were notorious photoshoppers.

Here's some other info, if you're interested. Stuff that I didn't know until just know that I just found on a site.

Savage painted a total of 9 murals in the late 1930s, but because of the outbreak of war, they just sat in storage at Matson until they were finally used as menus with the relaunching of the Lurline in 1948. They were never installed in a ship or building. The menus became so popular that Matson started giving passengers a set of 6 "prints" when they disembarked. This explains why you find so many of the blank menus with nothing inside. They estimate that over a quarter of a million of these menu prints were given out, which makes me start to question some of those you see for sale at such high prices...

Really appreciate all the info and the research!

Still a cool painting regardless I think.

NOt as cool as an original of course!

Mahalo!