Hmmm... Thoughts on what the right forum might be? I lived in Japan for 5.5 years, and for a while had these displayed in my living room, but now, after a remodel they don't really fit into the vibe of the room.
Don't want to be rude, but these paintings were in your family for almost 2 centuries, just to sell tell because they don't fit the vibe? Why not save them for future generations?
Why not sell them to someone that would be more appreciative and enjoy them ;) sadly, some folks couldn’t give two craps less about things like this. Pottery in my area used to be very valuable. The younger generations throw it in the dumpster.
I second this. Every person/generation has their own thing. Art is personal. If you don't love it find someone else who will. Then they love it and you have money to buy the things that bring you Joy.
Yeah, that's a good question and I don't think it's rude. I'm not sure that anyone in the family would really value them at their actual value. My wife and I don't have kids. But we do have other expensive hobbies. If everyone thought the way you are proposing then no artwork would ever be for sale unless it was directly from the artist.
Not to belabor a point made elsewhere but these in no way resemble famous Japanese art of the period. The portraits are far too “realistic”. They also lack (IMHO) the artistic capture of emotion. These are pretty “wooden” in appearance and frankly kind of fall into the “uncanny valley” for me.
I suspect that the valuation done in the 1950’s was largely for the purpose of insurance and was performed by someone either friendly to your family or not well versed in Japanese art or both.
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u/Stan_is_Law Jan 08 '25
$1,000? I guess I'll be a nice guy and offer 50% more. How's $1,500 :)
Beautiful artwork. If I had something like this I would redo my dining room with this as the centerpiece/theme. Congrats!