Talk:Jack M. Ducker
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Invalid assumptions & errors in the article
editI am researching this artist (of which almost nothing is known beyond the clues left by in his paintings and note there are some errors and invalid assumptions currently shown in the page. I will point these out in turn:
Dates of paintings It is routinely stated on many web resources that the artist's paintings date from 1910 to 1930. One recently auctioned painting was boldly signed and dated 1931 on the rear, suggesting the artist was still painting into at least the early 1930s.
Several paintings dated from the 1920s have been misread, with the '2' wrongly interpreted as a '1' or a '0', placing them one or two decades earlier than their true date. Most of the dated paintings carry a year in the 1920s, suggesting this was the decade in which the artist was most active, during the decade of recovery between the end of the First World War and the Stock Market crash.
Scottish nationality and Scottish subject matter We don't know for certain that the artist is Scottish or of Scottish decent. This is often assumed as his paintings often feature Scottish scenes and are thought to be the artist's earliest works. However, the artist also painted numerous English scenes and the most recently dated painting known to me is dated is 1931, which depicts a Scottish scene of Perth, Scotland.
In addition, the artist is known to have reproduced the same oil paintings multiple times, over a period of years, suggesting he painted and repainted landscapes that his market required. That the artist reproduced scenes repeatedly is often unappreciated, because although he sometimes wrote the name of the location on the rear, he often left it blank, making identification only possible against a known, identified scene.
Name of the artist and professional qualification Some of the artist's paintings, including some of those dated from 1926 to 1931 carry the initials 'M.A.A.' on the rear of the canvas, after his surname. This is most likely 'Master of Applied Arts', suggesting the artist was trained, rather than self-taught.
Though most of the artist's paintings have the name 'J M Ducker' on the rear of the canvas, at least one is known to have been signed in full 'Jack M Ducker', in the same style of handwriting, confirming the artist worked under the name 'Jack'. None of the recently auctioned examples have carried the name John or James.
Use of humans and animals Close inspection of the artists' paintings reveals that the artist's figures were an addition to the landscape paintings. Though the article notes that the artist frequently added figures or farm animals to the scene, it fails to appreciate that they were usually simply painted and are positioned in the middle or background. Whilst the artist's rationale for adding them may have been in part to add interest, their addition immediately clarifies scale, that would otherwise have been uncertain. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jmducker (talk • contribs) 01:34, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
A far amount of the above discussion - although illuminating - is either subjective or easily rectified within the main entry. For example: modification of the artist's nationality, which can be changed to "European" with a fair degree of certainty, but it can be described as potentially Scottish (which I've taken the liberty of doing); the vast amount of Scottish subject matter in the artist's oeuvre provides reasonable support of this claim.
Regarding the artist's name: it is documented in several different ways by several different sources. The first names of "John" or "James" have been called on a number of times by speculative auction houses to reference what is believed to be the same artist's work. Given this fact, it is worth mentioning that the artist's name harbors some doubt. This point of confusion is established within the entry proper.