Large Maritime Painting - Acrylic on Canvas - (ID: Bernard Dufour)

The signature takes up a big corner of the painting, so it shouldn't be too hard to make out... but it is. For the image I've tried to darken the background to bring the writing to the fore. Looking at it again, it might not even be a Bernard!

There's no date, but it feels quite 1960s/70s. It came in a horrible 1980s metal frame, with the label for a (now-defunct) local framers on the backboard so this could be a later addition. Or the artist might be have felt a little bit retro that day.

I don't know if the boat registration hints towards the painting's origin? I couldn't find any 'MA' on any British records.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Could Be French artist Bernard Defour , I will check further.

Yup that's your man born 1922

They remind me of fishing boats moored off the South coast of Andalucia so Malaga?

Sorry it's Dufour

why are you sorry Ed,is he not worth much?

On ebay 140488432107

dantheman wrote:why are you sorry Ed,is he not worth much?

No I spelled his name wrong

Oh, excellent - cheers, Ed. Yup, definitely B. Dufour - found other examples of his sig.

It didn't occur to me that the last letter was an 'r', I could only see 's'.

I'll check on up the Malaga registrations in a bit. Ta for the suggestion.

£200 on eBay. It'd be nice if it was worth that - mine was a tenner from Hemswell.

http://search.aol.com/aol/image?q=Bernard Dufour&v_t=client-browser10-auth

Weve' had a few nice bits from Hemswell centre , including a1965 , 6 piece handbuilt bernard rooke lamp base .

Oh, this was from the carboot bit in October. Never actually bought anything from the antiques centres there.

Spotted a few similar paintings to mine dotted about on t'interwebs. £150 - £250 seems to be the going rate for these nice-but-formulaic touristy pieces.

Some of his more abstract portraits are a bit more stunning, though.

Small 'well I never' bit of information...

Bernard Dufour starred in the role of 'the artist's hand' in the extended close-ups of the main character painting in the film 'La Belle Noiseuse' (1991) - the rest of the character, when in repose, was played by Michel Piccoli of 'Belle de Jour' fame.

I saw it years ago and loved it.

a dealer here claimed that Dufour worked as an assistant for Buffet ( another Bernard) and actually painted a lot of his paintings