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In the town of Blackpool, England my partner and I have bought a house which was built around 1952. When we took the old wallpaper off the walls, we discovered amazing things - the lounge, dining room and bedrooms were all covered with full size, hand-painted murals.

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We were told that there was also a full working fountain in the dining room.

Somehow, I think they look like Bavarian scenes. We are told that a German woman lived there in 1950s/1960s. She operated a grand cafe in our town called 'Black Forest Cafe'. Does anyone recognise any of the locations?

I feel these are inspired by real places, not just imagination, as the details are so intricate, such as two random palm trees next to an observatory or folly. Or perhaps the random hillside house near a viaduct/bridge, or the lakeside jetties, and the detail in the lakeside 'lighthouse'. We would love to know where the scenes are from, if anyone knows if it is a real location.

gerrit
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Tony
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3 Answers3

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I'm putting in an answer, as I've got too much for a comment.

This doesn't strike me as a 'Bavarian scene'. The peaks are a bit too pointy, the palm tree (I only see one) is not quite Bavarian, and the square sail on the sailboat feels more eastern Mediterranean to me.

I found the following painting, which includes a slightly tilted bridge, not dissimilar from the one in your painting. The website is slow. It's "Le Pont St Louis Nice" by Jules Pierre van Biesbroeck (Jr.).

A search for that bridge returns modern Nice, but also a few old images, like this one, which seem like a spitting image of the bridge. Notice, also, the two small houses on either side of the bridge itself, which seem to be replicated in your painting.

However, another view of the same bridge shows that the wider area around the bridge is quite different from your painting, which would rule out this particular setting as the real-life version of your painting.

The bridge in the images is in the town of Menton, in southern France. And some sleuthing around Menton results in the discovery of a picture of the bridge, taken from the sea (included below).

This is still not quite the same image as your painting, but, notice the slant of the mountain to the left of the bridge, and compare that with the actual slant in the image. This, and the scene in general, is close enough, for me, to consider that your painting could be an artist's impression of the "Pont St. Louis" in Menton, France.

For one, Menton has palm trees :)

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Edit (after OP added a second image): The second image feels quite generic to me, while the right side of the image is hard to make out. But, the church on the left and the setting have a passing resemblance to The Santuario della Madonna del Sasso, in Locarno.

MastaBaba
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    Also the houses are not typical of Bavaria (nor the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg), but look more Mediterranean, so Italy/France is more likely. – Mark Johnson Jun 20 '23 at 03:30
  • The bridge in the painting is the border between France and Italy, so half the painting is of Italy. – Jack Aidley Jun 20 '23 at 14:02
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    Notwithstanding your excellent answer, the buildings immediately reminded me of those shown on the cover of a Smetana CD representing Bohemia (not Bavaria). The bridge, wedged between living rock rather than with engineered approaches, immediately reminded me of the Mostar bridge that was rebuilt.. or possibly the (old) Teufelsbrücke on the St Gotthard Pass. And the boat (which /surely/ isn't a Thames Barge) looks more like something you'd see on a river or lake than on the Mediterranean. In short, I think we need to be cautious lest it turn out to be a fanciful (albeit fascinating) composite. – Mark Morgan Lloyd Jun 20 '23 at 14:59
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Based on MastaBabas answer. You can clearly see from Google Maps that the location is on the border between France and Italy (in fact the border runs through that bridge), in a place called Menton Saint Louis. See link to the below image here including the mountains, bridge, and style of trees around the costal area.

Google Maps Image of Location

ca. 1920 Menton - Pont Saint Louis (bridge) - Italy enter image description here

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Mark Johnson
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Dean Meehan
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    Can you please edit in the location in words, not just a link? No need to be exact but a country and region will help those that read the answer. – Willeke Jun 20 '23 at 12:05
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    When (not if) Google's map linking formats change, the link will die and "here" will be as useful as the original painting... – FreeMan Jun 20 '23 at 12:20
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    @FreeMan thankfully, Google Maps URLs aren't completely opaque, and the @43.7762962,7.5170085 it contains can actually be helpful even if Google Maps disappears (even if it's not exactly where the link points to). (Just in case it's not obvious, these are latitude and longitude coordinates.) – Bruno Jun 20 '23 at 13:18
  • While true, @Bruno, SE standards call for making sure the answer remains here and not totally dependent on the link destination. – FreeMan Jun 20 '23 at 14:52
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    @Bruno my point, as in my first comment, you should not need to follow a link to understand the answer. – Willeke Jun 20 '23 at 19:47
  • The bridge might be from Menton but the surroundings do not match at all (the continued coastline to the right of the bridge, for instance) – Toivo Säwén Jun 21 '23 at 12:55
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    Thanks for the edits to make the answer better. @ToivoSäwén The question has been edited since I created this answer which is why it looks different. – Dean Meehan Jun 21 '23 at 15:14
  • @ToivoSäwén Another reason to believe this might not be the right location is that there is no land where the picture appears to have been painted from. – Jack Aidley Jun 22 '23 at 10:29
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    @JackAidley The same is true of the B/W photo of the other answer and yet... No idea if the ship lanes between Genoa and Marseille went that close to the coastline. An artist may also combine individuelle scenes from different places into one painting. – Mark Johnson Jun 22 '23 at 10:41
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People from southern Germany just love northern Italy, especially in Bavaria. It is easy to reach, cheap (used to be...), and folks speak German ("Südtirol"). From the mountains, the style of houses, and the vegetation I think this could be southern Tirol region, very likely around Lago di Garda.

R. C.
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