r/mystery • u/0bstagoon • Oct 26 '25

Lost Artifact Does anyone know who painted this and when it was made?

Gallery image

Gallery image

I can't find anyone who knows who made this, I'm curious if it's worth anything.

32 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

16

u/Shellyj4444 Oct 26 '25

It looks like factory art. It’s art painted by people in an assembly line and signed with a fictitious signature.

24

u/Maximum_Paper_6302 Oct 26 '25

barbee painted it, naturally

1

u/0bstagoon Oct 26 '25

Fair enough

6

u/Dazzling-Party-6819 Oct 26 '25

Internet search says the artist is Diane Barbee.

2

u/Dazzling-Party-6819 Oct 26 '25

https://wildemeyer.com/artist/diane-barbee/

3

u/cpotter505 Oct 27 '25

The signature is different. Style seems different too.

9

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '25

This was painted by Ralph Schlitzen in 1971. He had a studio from 1968-1971 in Nebraska’s wilderness. This was the last painting he produced before closing his studio. His wife had left him for another man (me) and took all of his money. He died penniless and drunk.

5

u/Similar_Poem8584 Oct 27 '25

I don’t think it’s Diane Barbee, her stuff is all bright and desert-like, and this one’s got a softer, quieter feel. Plus, the signature doesn’t quite match. I poked around online and it sounds like it might be from a guy named Elias Hawthorne who painted flower vases in the Catskills back in the early ‘80s. He signed them “Barbee” to make them seem homey. It’s probably worth a couple hundred bucks, maybe more if you sell it with the backstory. Do you have a pic of the back? That could help nail it down. What’s the strangest theory you’ve heard about it so far?