Great Aunt Betty and Count de Kervily

Well, I may have possibly debunked one Stringer family story about the origin of a bed, but I might have redeemed myself by actually helping prove the veracity of another family legend!  We have a beautiful portrait of Corey's Great Aunt Betty (an awesome lady who unfortunately passed away about six years ago) that was given to us when Betty's brother, Corey's Grandpa Stringer, downsized from a house to an apartment.  

With the portrait came some handwritten notes Betty had made about how her husband, Lewis, had made an acquaintance with a portrait artist.  According to the note, which was written on the back of a series of receipts, the artist painted the portrait of Betty for free in exchange for an unveiling party to publicize his services. The artist died "later the same night" of the party, according to Aunt Betty.  It was also intriguing that Aunt Betty referred to the artist using the title of "count".

I was switching on the lights yesterday evening and got to looking at the artist's signature on the painting.

I decided to do an internet search for "Le Serrec de Kervily" just for fun while I waited for the oven to heat up to bake the frozen pizza.  I may not be a gourmet cook, but I can at least pretend to be an amateur art historian.

I definitely found something!  It looks like this was probably painted by Georges le Serrec de Kervily.  According to one site, the artist was "born in Krakow, Russia on Sept. 27, 1883.  Of noble birth, de Kervily was a count in his native land.  He studied at Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.  By 1933 he had moved to Los Angeles and was active until 1947."  Another site shows an example of his painting that looks a lot like the one we have in both style and subject.

It's hard to see from the photo I took, but the date on the painting is 1952.  Who knows how de Kervily made his way from Los Angeles to San Antonio, Texas (where Betty and Lew lived) or what de Kervily did between 1947 and 1952.  Since none of the references to de Kervily include a date of death, it's probable that Aunt Betty's note is a strong clue to the year of de Kervily's passing.  I doubt de Kervily was accomplished enough to merit much more than a footnote in history, but it sure is a pretty painting with an intriguing story behind it that we are lucky to hang on our wall.  Looks like I might need to do some more research.  Good thing we have both a librarian AND an art teacher in the family to help me!