Our ersatz trip to Italy

[pegkerr]

My father and mother went to high school with a man named Richard Serrin, who is an amazingly talented oil painter of the old school. He paints like Rembrandt. My dad ran into him again at, I think, their twenty-fifth high school reunion and became extremely interested in Richard's situation. At that time, Richard was working as a church janitor on practically starvation wages, while he was working on four nine foot by nine foot canvases in the church basement: the Last Supper (see it here), the Trial, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. Dad, with his typical energy, began a whirlwind fundraising campaign to enable Richard to finish the paintings, and to support him. Richard's wife really credits dad with saving him, as he had been about to give up his career in despair. Richard and Dorothy have been very good friends of the family ever since, although for many years Richard has been living in Italy, painting.

My brother had the brilliant idea to commission a painting from Richard to give to my parents, showing the entire extended family. Richard flew over to the States and took photographs of all of us, and used them to paint a portrait of my parents, their children and all of their grandchildren, all gathered in a casual crowd in an actual piazza in Italy in front of a fountain. (Dad, where is that piazza located again?) Some of the children, including Fiona and Delia, are sitting in a horse drawn carriage waiting to be taken on a tour, Rob and I are paying the driver, Dad and Chet are in the foreground studying a map. My sister Cindy, holding a camera, is pointing at a woman across the square. The portraits are absolutely lifelike. I have not seen the painting, but Dad sent me a .jpg file, and I have it up on my computer wallpaper.

I wish I could show it to you all, but of course I can't, not having the rights to do so. [Edited to add: I will ask my dad whether it would be possible for me to do so.] It makes me wistful, looking at it. There we all are, enjoying our vacation in Italy. Who knows if we will ever get there?

Read a little more about Richard Serrin here.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

What a fabulous family treasure! I would love to see it!

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

You can't show the .jpg to anyone because why again?

K. [thinks you've lost your mind, but willing to play along and see what happens]

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Maybe I have. I just was unsure about rights displaying it on the Internet, but I'll check with my Dad and hopefully will get permission to post the .jpg.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I still think it's sad that you'd even think to ask the question in the first place. It would never occur to me not to just post the picture.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I think that admonishment at the bottom of the page you linked to gave you a bit of panic, personally.

This thread does read like B and I are being hard on you, and the tag-team thing is never fun. I don't mean to gang up on you, and I know he doesn't either. He's in Finland, for pete's sake.

K. [ I guess it proves he and I are well-suited to each other, eh?]

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"I wish I could show it to you all, but of course I can't, not having the rights to do so."

The fact that you wouldn't just show the picture, but instead write something like, is an example of how screwed up we've all gotten. I think it's sad.

B

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Well, I will check with my dad. He's the painting's owner now (I think) and I'll see what he says.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Who is hurt by just showing an image of the picture?

B

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Well, no one, probably. Maybe I'm just being dumb. (I am so frequently!) I just reflexively thought (as the holder of copyrights myself) I needed to respect copyright by not displaying a work of art on the Internet without the owner and/or artist's permission. Like I said, I'll check.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I really do understand your reasoning. That's why I think it's a sad reflection -- not on you personally -- but on how screwed up we've all gotten about this issue.

B

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I think you're right, actually, you may not have permission to post the photo on the internet.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I really do understand your reasoning. That's why I think it's a sad reflection -- not on you personally -- but on how screwed up we've all gotten about this issue.

The worst thing is, people like Gates really do own the image rights to famous paintings--and you can't show them without permission. I remember photos of paintings shown in some of my art classes that were ancient black & white because the current owners would not allow the paintings to be photographed. Mostly because their insurnce companies wouldn't allow it--as in, if people know you have a 10 million dollar painting in your living room, protecting that painting just got that much harder.

That is an awesome idea, Peg--hope they were thrilled. And I see this as part of the family's "traveling" collection, moving from sibling to sibling someday... 8^)

[kokopoko.livejournal.com]

That sounds like an incredible pic.

I followed that link and my god he's good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!