As a specialist in Hair's work, I find the different signatures fascinating.
Because this particular piece was on eBay, and because the seller wasn't familiar with the differences, it was originally listed as painted on upson board. I contacted the seller and described the difference, and the seller adjusted the listing to be accurate. It was painted on vintage waffleboard masonite.
That happens to be a rare occurance. I can only remember having seen only one other by Hair painted on this kind of board. So that makes two out of the thousands I've studied in the last decade and a half. It happened to be "jumbo" sized, 30x48 and was a rather plain orange-red river scene, repeated by Hair many times, with one curving cabbage palm leaning out over the water. A formula he executed repeatedly.
What is fascinating to me, however, is that that "jumbo" had an identical signature to this ocean scene. Scratched in on dry paint with "pointy A's" as opposed to the square topped A's that we are used to seeing in his scratch-ins.
Makes me wonder who did it. There must be a story behind it.
Hair's widow, Doretha, told me that Alfred himself signed all of his work.
ReplyDeleteI remember them when I was a kid in Fort Pierce they used to come and paint in the fenced-in area of my dad's shop the late 70s early 80s and they were known as The Highwaymen back then how someone claims the name was pinned in 95 is beyond me
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