{"title":"Roxanne Gribbin","description":"\u003cp\u003eWorks inscribed Roxanne Gribbin, attributed to the Reno artist of that name recorded in 1982. Read the full story on the \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/artists-roxanne-gribbin\"\u003eartist page\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"portrait-of-a-woman-oil-inscribed-roxanne-gribbin-c-1965-1975","title":"Portrait of a Woman, Oil on Canvas, Roxanne Gribbin, Reno, c. 1970 to 1985","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Painting\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA head and shoulders portrait of a fair haired woman turned three quarters to the viewer, painted in oil on canvas and held in a reeded stained wood frame with a small cast ornament at the corner. She looks out and slightly past, the mouth closed, the expression composed and a little cool. The hair is swept up and back from a side part in a full soft wave, and a pale scarf or collar is gathered loosely at the throat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe handling is the best thing here. This was painted wet into wet in a single sitting, and the painter left most of the warm toned ground showing through rather than covering it. The background is barely touched. The shoulders and the scarf are suggested in a few broad sweeps that stop short of being finished. All the work went into the face, and only the face is fully resolved. That restraint is a trained decision and not a shortcut, and it is what separates this from an amateur likeness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe palette is deliberately narrow, running ochre and cream and raw canvas, with three places where the painter let color in. Green sits in the brow and the shadow of the eyelid, a warm pink carries the cheek, and a clear red marks the lower lip. On a ground this quiet those three notes do all the work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe face of the painting is unsigned. On the back of the canvas, written in pencil high on the raw linen, is the name Roxanne Gribbin. The standard indexes of American artists and the auction databases carry no painter of that name, and when we first catalogued the portrait we took the name to be the sitter's. The Reno newspapers of the 1980s tell a different story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey record Roxanne Gribbin, sometimes printed Gribben, as a working Reno portrait painter. In January 1980 she gave a demonstration of animal painting to the Reno chapter of the Nevada Artists Association. That June she opened her own gallery, Innovation Arts, at 1583 South Virginia Street. In May 1982 she won first prize for portraits at the association's spring show in Yerington. By Christmas 1983 she had joined the Artists' Co-op Gallery on Mill Street, where her pastels were selling well and, as the arts columnist Velda Morby put it, she took commissions for portraits. One of those commissions was reproduced in the Reno Gazette-Journal in 1985, and in 1986 she took first place for pastels at the Nevada State Fair. In 1989 she shared a show of pastels at the newspaper's own gallery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA trained portraitist who demonstrated, exhibited, sold and took commissions in Reno is exactly the painter this canvas asks for, and we now attribute it to her, with the pencilled name on the reverse as her own. The sitter is not identified. Her hair and makeup suit the 1970s and early 1980s, which places the portrait at about 1970 to 1985. Every newspaper source is listed on the \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/artists-roxanne-gribbin\"\u003eRoxanne Gribbin artist page\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMedium\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOil on canvas\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSubject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHead and shoulders portrait of a woman, three quarter view; sitter not identified\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eArtist\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAttributed to Roxanne Gribbin, Reno, Nevada, portrait painter active 1980 to 1989\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSignature\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNone on the face of the painting\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eInscription\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRoxanne Gribbin, in pencil on the reverse of the canvas\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTechnique\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAlla prima, painted wet into wet with the toned ground left exposed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFrame\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eReeded stained wood with a cast corner ornament, wired to hang\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDate\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1970 to 1985\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePaint layer sound and stable. Canvas taut on the stretcher. Light surface grime and minor frame wear consistent with age. No tears, losses or restoration seen.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePortraits of strangers are the most undervalued thing in the picture market, and the reason is that buyers think they need to know who the sitter is. They do not. What a good portrait gives a room is a human presence at eye level, and this one has a real one. She is not smiling for anybody. The painter caught someone slightly guarded and left it at that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe colors make it easy to place. Ochre, cream and bare canvas sit against almost any wall, and because the background is nearly empty the picture reads as calm from across a room and only resolves into a face when you come closer. Hang it in a hall, a stair, a study or above a chest where someone passes it every day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd there is the name on the back. A Reno portraitist wrote it in pencil so that whoever came next would know, and forty years later the newspapers have given her back her story.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67656741355625,"sku":"VE-1822","price":1094.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/01_2fe1ad23-4ca3-4830-84f4-09d5d660f994.jpg?v=1791873801"}],"url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/collections\/roxanne-gribbin.oembed","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}