in response to Against the Byline
The Unsigned Painting
0 points · November 2026
a note from the writer
A story in answer to the argument above: the painting in my grandmother's hall.
The painting had hung in the hall for sixty years and had no signature, and the family had a story about this, which was that the painter had been a friend of great-grandmother's and had refused, on principle, to sign anything.
The principle was never explained. The painting was of a hill.
When the house was sold the painting went to a dealer, and the dealer looked at it for a long time and said do you know who this is? and the family said no, that was the point, and the dealer said a name, and the name was a large one, and the painting was suddenly worth a great deal more and was exactly the same painting.
The family argued about this. One side said the painting had always been that good and now the world knew. The other side said the painting had always been that good and now the world was paying for the name, not the hill.
It sold. The money was divided. The hill is in a museum with a small card beside it saying who, and people stand in front of it and read the card first, and then look at the hill, and see, I suppose, what the card told them to.
Great-grandmother's friend, whoever they were, had the hall for sixty years. That was the gap. It was long enough.