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21 February 2009
Ask mecha: Do you know anything about this portrait? Identity of artist or subject? →[More:]
also... I can't ask on askme because mefi is down again. [sad and/or angry face here] It has become almost as bad as the bad bad old days when mefi used to crash every day until the U.S. woke up and somebody would push the reset button or something. [boo and/or hiss]
Can you find a copy in a bookstore or library? I'm sure info about the painting will be on the back or inside....
I seem to recall that there was a search engine that could find other pictures based on a picture you would upload. That might work here.
I didn't bookmark the search engine though. Do you know which one I mean?
I've read of it, jouke, but I never bookmarked it, or even used it.
I know that the art will be identified in the book, but I won't find this French edition here, and I do suspect the artwork is specific for the country edition. I found this amazon.fr page, and if it had the "look inside" feature of the U.S. Amazon, I could probably find the info, but it doesn't.
I just Googled the shit out of it in French and couldn't find it. Why not try asking Gallimard, the publisher? There are also book-cover design blogs out there who might take it on as a challenge. I'll probably keep searching because I can be obsessive that way...
I was just thinking... later today I'm going to be near a bookstore (local version of Barnes & Noble) and I'll look for this edition to see if it's noted inside.
I'm just heading out to work too so I will look for that edition as well as browsing the art section to see if I can find the original portrait. I love his brooding look.
Good luck. I suspect it's a Spanish artist, if only because it has that dark background quality I associate with that school.
also, my boyfriend is very, very, very distantly related to Dumas. I find that interesting.
I checked on tineye.com, an image search engine. It returned links to other sites selling the book, but didn't find the original painting. One of the links was to amazon with the look inside feature, but the copyright page didn't mention the cover painting.