My father is deeply involved with the Freemasons. Alas, I know nothing about Freemasons and he knows nothing about art. I will show him the signature at any rate and see if it strikes a bell. He has countless "symbols" and "codes" books having to do with the Masons. Wouldn´t it be divine if the artist is common knowledge within such circles? -------------------------------------- -Chad W. [url]http://chadwys.com[/url]

I just want to assure you that although there has been no follow ups lately members like saintluc, wasbach, kungzi, chad etc don´t forget a painting. Many posts have been solved years later, much research has to do with chance, I have tirelessly researched paintings before and found nothing only to walk into a gallery or auction or flick through a book years later and bang. This is a good picture and this may sound controversial, but 18th and 19th century American painters (in my opinion) wern´t that ´good´ in general - by that I mean they lacked a lot of formal training compared to European counterparts, but they are held in high esteem in the States and rightly so because they documented the social history of an emerging nation. You find the same with other colonial countries; Australia, NZ, SA etc. I rate this as a relatively important work and I´m sure someone will stumble upon the artist soon. -------------------------------------------- www.pietafineart.com Old Masters, New Eyes Fine Art Gallery, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery 11 July 2007 - 10 February 2008 http://www.virtualmuseum.info/press/103.asp

That´s somewhat comforting! I know it can sometimes be a long and tedious road. As for the Mason connection. As part of my shotgunning I sent stuff out to local branches and also tried some generic ´freemason art´ related things. No hits anywhere though. I´ll definitely keep trying! Thanks for the help.

Have you tried this resource? http://www.nationalheritagemuseum.org/ "The National Heritage Museum in Lexington, MA is an American history museum founded and supported by 32° Scottish Rite Freemasons in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction."

This makes interesting reading. nyart http://books.google.com/books?id=LLL28xCRM00C&pg=PA331&lpg=PA331&dq=William+Sidney+Mount+freemason&source=bl&ots=9uepZ0spk6&sig=T9EOFKvjXtfgji7WI2PDnojd3y4&hl=en&ei=UOgKTZ2cG8H98AbOv

I don´t know if it is helpful or not, but here is some basic information my father sent to me. image attached -------------------------------------- -Chad W. [url]http://chadwys.com[/url]

After reading all of the threads I am surprised that no one has brought up David Johnson as the artist. Johnson has a somewhat similar monogram that he used on his paintings - especially the D with an intertwining J Tom Slusar