# What is this painting? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 22, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462 "2011-10-22T17:37:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/1 "2011-10-22T17:37:55Z")
This painting was purchased around 1950. We have no idea where it was purchased or who painted it, but the owners did a lot of traveling. It seems to be on some fine linen glued over some board or canvasboard. [Flickr](http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/69010533@N08/6269812090/) Does anyone have any idea what this is? Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/2 "2011-10-22T18:03:37Z")
Looks like a representation of Australian Aboriginal Rock Art. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/3 "2011-10-25T13:07:28Z")
Thanks John, I had the same feeling but that’s all it is (I’m not an expert in these things). Does anyone else have opinions or evidence either way? (my one bump!) ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/4 "2011-10-26T02:18:14Z")
I’m not an expert by any means, but it doesn’t look like indigenous Australian art to me - the forms are all wrong. It looks more like an interpretation of American or even European indigenous rock art. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/5 "2011-10-26T02:30:35Z")
Here we go: [http://archaeopedia.com/wiki/index.php?title=Kitsch](http://archaeopedia.com/wiki/index.php?title=Kitsch) It’s a (presumably) modern copy of iconic New Zealand rock painting style. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/6 "2011-10-26T04:01:25Z")
Yep, I was gonna say it’s ancient Maori art, but I wasn’t sure. We used to have that design on… er, something that I can’t remember. A stamp, maybe. Edited to say: [Yes, a stamp.](http://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/146762-Maori_Art-Commonwealth_Day-New_Zealand) ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/7 "2011-10-26T13:16:15Z")
Yes, Maori rock art is the winner!! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/8 "2011-10-26T13:24:31Z")
Also, see this: [http://www.artandobject.co.nz/Auctions/Browse/ID/59/LotID/049](http://www.artandobject.co.nz/Auctions/Browse/ID/59/LotID/049) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/9 "2011-10-26T14:59:53Z")
See, THIS is what I don’t like about Real Life. If we were living in a bad novel, that’d turn out to be part of a map to reveal the location of the Treasure of the New Zealand Templars. The other parts of the map? Well, you’ll just have to read the next chapter… (Oh, did I mention how dangerous the modern descendants of the New Zealand Templars are, and how they’re only about an hour behind you as you criss-cross the globe to construct the map?) (With a rag-tag band of quirky sidekicks you collect along the way… oh, and a gorgeous-yet-brilliant Maori Rune expert, of course…) See [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=628038) for other “Things that would be the start of something if they happened in a movie”. But of course, don’t lead to diddley-squat because we’re stuck IRL… ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/10 "2011-10-26T15:15:09Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > Also, see this: > [http://www.artandobject.co.nz/Auctions/Browse/ID/59/LotID/049](http://www.artandobject.co.nz/Auctions/Browse/ID/59/LotID/049) I hope you find it’s worth something (if you don’t want to keep it, that is)! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/11 "2011-10-26T15:27:58Z")
Do Maori do stamping? The reason I ask is because the item in the original post: [Flickr](http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/69010533@N08/6269812090/) and the one linked later by ratatoskK [http://www.artandobject.co.nz/Auctions/Browse/ID/59/LotID/049](http://www.artandobject.co.nz/Auctions/Browse/ID/59/LotID/049) have some identical elements, just rearranged. Look at them side by side. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/12 "2011-10-26T15:38:22Z")
**Isamu** I’m going to keep it and have it restored (it has some mold). **Motorgirl** it appears to have been done by a poet/artist named A.R.D. Fairburn. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-painting/600462/13 "2011-10-26T15:40:58Z")
A good Antique Road Show candidate.