That Time I Played Art Detective — One-Shot Story

Sometimes, the world is indeed small.

In 2015, Kate and I moved from a 1,700-square-foot Cape-style house to a 2,700 square-foot retirement condo with exceedingly high cathedral ceilings. (My photo covers only about a third of the room’s full height.) The place had a lot of space for wall art, and we wanted a BIG piece above the fireplace.

We eventually discovered a group antiques shop that is popular with interior designers and Midcentury-Modern collectors. One of its dealers specialized in buying and reselling paintings. And when he visited a collector on Long Island, New York, he returned with the 4×5-foot oil in the above photo and a much smaller piece by a “listed” artist.

And though the store was pricey, the larger painting was very inexpensive for its size. This was because the dealer couldn’t find any information about the artist who signed its stretchers “M Lavitt.” And the collector who sold the painting to the dealer knew nothing. So we snagged the piece for nearly one-tenth the price of the smaller “listed” one.

Not a Schlock Job

We love abstract art and the painting was definitely big enough for our wall. Its colors also matched our decorating scheme. And its background reminded us of a paved terrace or the dry-stack stone walls found throughout New England. It’s also untitled, and I call it “Lifelines” but Kate likes “Dancers.”

We also liked the piece because it seemed beautifully planned and executed. The artist had built, signed and dated a unique stretcher-frame that was both light and strong. Also, we had never before seen a canvas surface like it — soft and slightly “furry.” (As it turned out, the canvas was untreated — an uncommon practice.) The paints were applied thinly– almost like watercolors– and the purple stains in the background appeared to spread and bleed like wine on liquid-chromatography paper. But intriguingly, the artist had cleverly initialed and dated one corner of the canvas to indicate how they preferred it to hang– either vertically OR horizontally (see photo inset). We’d never seen anything like that either. Definitely a creative touch!

It was so big, though, that the store owner offered to truck it to us the next time he was near our home. But we wanted to see if it would fit in our Subaru Forester. So we all trooped out to the car, folded its rear seats down, rolled its front seats forward, lifted the rear hatch, inserted the painting (slanted on a diagonal), and slid it all the way in without an extra sixteenth of an inch to spare in any direction! And when we gently latched the hatch closed, it too left only a sixteenth of an inch to spare. The store owner whistled softly and said:

“I think it really IS supposed to go home with you.”

But Who was “M Lavitt”?

Whenever possible, we like to know something about the art we buy. So I decided to track down the artist myself. And like the store’s art dealer, I found nothing in online artist lists. So I Googled “M Lavitt New York artist” and found an obituary for “Edwin M Lavitt” — a decorated WWII veteran, commercial lawyer in Connecticut, and art lover. The obit added that he was survived by a daughter named “Mara Lavitt.”

Intriguing! Our “M Lavitt” might be either of them. So I searched for the daughter and discovered a Connecticut-based force-of-nature in the world of social photography! Her portfolio site includes great shots of the Dalai Lama, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Anita Hill, Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Vonnegut, Aretha Franklin and actress Jodi Foster (caught gleefully shooting a Yale commencement with a chunky-monkey Nikon Zoom Touch 800)! It’s great fun to search for these and other famous faces throughout Mara’s sites. (TIP: Click photos to view their captions.)

Then an Email Surprise

I emailed her that same evening, attached a few shots of the painting, and asked if she or her father might have done it. She replied in just 38 minutes:

“Wow, great sleuthing! Where is the ‘M Lavitt’ signature’? I see an ‘ML’ on the front. And is it a large canvas? With thin wood slats as the frame? And also, what shop did you buy it in? In Mass. or in NY? Yes, Edwin Lavitt was my father. No, he did not paint or ‘collect’ the painting. I believe I painted it but I need a bit more information from you to be sure. It was over 40 years ago!”

I had indeed found the right person:

“I grew up in northern CT, the daughter of a lawyer and decorated WWII veteran (as you have found out) and an artist mother. For college, I attended the Cleveland Institute of Art. You probably know about the Rhode Island School of Design. CIA and RISD are in the same group of art schools (with Chicago, Philly, San Fran and others). 1975 was my second year of a five-year BFA program, majoring in textile design and minoring in photography. I vaguely remember making that painting and am only now reminded by the photo you kindly sent. In 1975, I really liked Sam Francis and was doing some imitative Sam Francis paintings. Fortunately, this one is less imitative, others I did at that time were more so.”

But she lost track of the painting 40 years before I contacted her. She never knew where it went after 1975:

“Most likely I brought it home at the end of the school year, but did I give it to someone? I simply can’t remember. It may have been hung in my father’s office in CT (likely) or stored in his building. That building was sold and it’s possible the painting was removed at that time by the building’s buyer. (I think the buyer stripped a rather beautiful building of its architectural finery.) But I certainly never sold the painting. To say it was a shock to see it and the signature again is putting it mildly. A nice shock, but still, what a surprise! I’m rather honored you like it so much. Now, 40 years later, it does look pretty good!”

Our Door’s Always Open!

In my final email, I invited her to visit Massachusetts and “reunion” with her lost work. She seemed appreciative:

“It looks BEAUTIFUL!!! You are so right, it’s as if it were meant for that space. I am so honored, truly. Thank you for all the background information and stories, and for the photos and the invitation. I’m sort of speechless. This is about the coolest thing I have seen in years.”

You can see more of Mara Levitt’s photography at her portfolio site and on Instagram. She hasn’t yet rung our doorbell, but I understand that she’s now retired and freelancing. So Mara, if you read this:

The door is always open…

–Dave Powell is a Westford, Mass., writer and avid amateur photographer.

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