Theodore Richard TR Volkmann
Ye Olde Fayerbanke House-Dedham, Mass.
Was built in 1636 ansd is believed to be the oldest frame house now in these United States.
72" x 48", 6' x 4' approx. Oil on board painting signed T. R. Volkmann. There are holes on the frame for hanging this large and heavy painting.
ca 1920's-30's.
The Fairbanks House is the oldest known wooden structure in North America and is now a museum. We don't know the provenance for this painting other than it came out of New England to Winchesters.
Born Theodore Richard Volkmann (1886-1969) in Wilhemshaven where his father was a ship's carpenter. After an apprenticeship Theodor worked as a sign painter. Inflation after WWI led him, Wilhelmine, & infant daughter, Waltraud, to sail from Germany with $50 in his pocket in 1923. Arriving first at Ellis Island, a relative sponsor soon greeted them at their final destination, Boston, Massachusetts, which became their new home.
Most of his working life in the US was spent as a sign painter in Boston. Under the WPA in the 1930s, he painted city street signs and picked up work painting & hanging commercial billboards. At home, he remained a weekend artist, often making his own frames.
It was never easy letting go of his paintings, but they often became gifts at his wife's urging. If visitors to their home expressed a liking for a painting, Wilhelmine might ask him to paint them a copy. He never sold his paintings. A self-taught painter, he frequently painted ships, still lifes, & New England landscapes. He also tried his hand at painting afters of great masters' works, including da Vinci, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Frank Vining Smith , Montague Dawson, often using famous painting postcards, book illustrations, or magazine photos as guides. During the early days of the Great Depression, his painting after Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp sat in the window of a friend's smoke shop in Boston, in hopes of drawing customers' eyes to the fledgling business.
After moving to rural NH in the late 1950s, he continued his hobby painting, both oil on canvas & water colors. When he died, his final painting of a view out his dining room remained unfinished on his easel.
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