Who Is Burnett?: An Internet mystery
I was on an e-bay type website today, and saw a painting for sale. It was a lovely french impressionistic painting of a Parisian street scene, delicate, pretty and signed Burnett on the bottom. Wanting to do my due diligence before a purchase, I searched "artist Burnett" on Google. The first thing I saw was the Google Shopping result which showed the works by this illustrious artist priced anywhere from 250-1500 dollars, "What a deal!" I thought, as the one I was bidding on was just 19 dollars, plus s&h. But then I noticed that none of the Burnett paintings were being bid on in EBay, and I still wasn't quite sure who this "Burnett" was. So I kept looking.
A few hits down, after finding nothing of interest, I saw this website:
http://www.chateaurustique.co.uk/index.php/morsels-and-miscellany/burnett-paintings/
The article promised to explain the mystery of Burnett paintings. After espousing a few notable theories on the subject, the article ended with a revelation.
"The truth? It was in fact the artist Caroline Burnett who has survived the myths to become the legend. An American artist, listed in the Who’s Who of American Art, she lived and painted in Paris. Her medium was oil and she always signed BURNETT at the bottom right of her paintings. She painted in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, inspired by the scenes surrounding her. Her Moulin Rouge painting was bought in 1971 at $1000, but her paintings have been bought and sold worldwide for pennies to fortunes.
Although various voices in the art world and collectors of paintings have articulated their enthusiasm for her work, it is the individual who has commented most on their personal enjoyment of her vibrant scenes and the love for her depictions. The beauty of art is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder, and Burnett’s work seems to be adored throughout the world."
Finally, some concrete answers. Contented with my search, I continued to peruse the website, which appeared to be for a UK-based antiques seller, however, every single item that appeared to be for sale was listed as already sold, except for one chest. When I tried to buy the chest, there was no link to do so, or even a way to add it to my cart. How curious. Could it be that this site was fraudulent? But why? Who would go to the trouble of making a fake site just to continue a myth of an artist? "Burnett" had me back on the line.
As I continued searching I found hits for a C Burnett, a W Burnett, a Ron Burnett, a Carolyn Burnett, and a Caroline C Burnett, who even has her own askart profile page, complete with biographical information.
http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?artist=10007740
I found yahoo answers pages from various people asking about the signature or the worth, none of whom were given satisfactory responses. Obviously, this Artist with a capital A did not exist, but who was creating all this art, and how had so much misinformation been spread? And why?
I could see a potential answer to all of this. A few people in the U.S. had been duped by a scam-artist selling online in the 2000s, and now they were selling them on Ebay and at flea markets, hoping to recoup the cost. It didn't answer all my questions, but it at least made sense.
Then I found an online forum about Burnett, and my brain unraveled.
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=005m1X
Here I found posts starting in 2011 from people who had bought Burnetts as much as 30 years ago, or found them in their Grandmother's attic, or in a new house in crawlspaces, people who has bought Burnetts in Oregon, Texas, Arkansas, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Turkey, Germany, France, Spain, people who had bought the works from reputable art dealers, door-to-door salesman, or at thrift stores, from prices ranging from 1000 dollars to mere cents. One even saw it going for 2000 dollars in a professional art gallery in Brussels. People claimed it was made by Parisian street artists, by factories in China, by San Franciscan college students, and by a real C Burnett, a British or American woman or man who painted in the 20s, 50s or 70s. I wasn't just hooked now; I was obsessed. I had stumbled upon a huge art-world conspiracy. I had exited through the gift shop.
And then just as I was finishing this post, as I was ready to expose this mystery to the world, as I was planning in my head a grandiose documentary where I would film everyone on that forum in exotic locales in front of their Burnett paintings that would culminate in me finally discovering who Burnett was and it would be Banksy, as I was thanking my lucky stars I didn't buy that fraudulent painting, I found another result.
http://www.justanswer.com/antiques/6gq3b-two-caroline-burnett-paintings-size-20x24.html
From an expert appraiser:
"Thanks for the inquiry! Paintings by Caroline C. Burnett appear at auction with some frequency and sell at the $125 to $200 level (for smaller paintings). Similar large format paintings of similar size typically sell for $200 to $300 and as a pair at $400 to $600 as these mid-century Paris scenes are still very popular. It is likely authentic (as long as it is a painting and not a print) and these pictures were produced in large quantities for a tourist market. Their value is primarily decorative, but people appreciate today how well-painted they are and they remain popular."
After hours of searching and obsession, my mystery was unfurled simply and inelegantly. Sometimes, a Russian nesting doll just reveals similar, smaller Russian nesting dolls. You unwind a ball of yarn completely and it ends up just one long piece of yarn.
I should have bought the painting. I could have made a couple hundred bucks if I sold it. But I probably wouldn't have sold it. It was pretty, and it may have been nice to buy something pretty. I had focused so much on the story behind a piece that I had forgotten how to just admire it. I had obsessed so much about creating a mythos behind a work that I had ignored all aesthetic needs.
