This wonderfully rendered painting by acclaimed Chinese American artist Jake Lee (1915 - 1991) depicts old buildings in California with a couple individuals standing at the front of one of those buildings. There may be other persons painted in less detail in front of other structures further down the block. According to information in books and on the Internet, Jake Lee studied art at San Jose State College and then took a job as a commercial illustrator for a newspaper in San Francisco. Lee became friends with artist Dong Kingman and is described as a pupil of Kingman in certain art texts including Davenports Art Reference and Price Guide. By approximately 1944, Lee had settled in Los Angeles and was exhibiting his paintings with the California Watercolor Society. The artist has been the subject of books and museum shows concerning his work which favored genre involving Chinese individuals on the west coast and dock scenes in San Francisco. The painting in this listing is not dated. It could have been created from perhaps midcentury to nearer Lee's year of death.
The painting is executed in watercolor on good sturdy watercolor paper. The painting is in a matte with the visible portion of the painting being about 5 1/4 inches high by 8 3/8 inches wide. The painting and matte are inserted in a wood frame with outside edges that measure appriximately 11 inches high by 14 inches wide. The painting is protected in front by a piece of cover glass which is 9 inches high by 12 inches wide. There is a crack in the cover glass which begins with the shape of a letter "Y" in the upper right corner and extends as a single line down for a total length of 4 1/4 inches. The crack seems stable and did not damage the painting when it occurred. I have left the glass in place to keep dust off the painting and likely will ship the painting with the cracked but stable glass unless a buyer requests that I send the painting with the frame but without the glass. However, if when packing the painting I sense that the glass is not as stable as I presently think and begin to suspect that it could fall apart in transit, I will send the painting without the glass. I think for a painting of this value, most buyers will replace the glass and maybe even change the frame for something more grand once they receive this item from me.
The condition of the visible portion of the painting is very good. The only possible surface flaw that might exist, and I'm not certain it does, is a small bit of light brown color about 1/4 inch to the right of the black vertical pole (which pole extends up to the top of the painting from the roof of the building with the green second story). The area of that small brown spot is about the size of a pinprick and sits in the blue sky approximately 3/4 inch down from the top of the painting. I don't known if that spot is foxing or just a very tiny bit of brown paint which got onto the surface when this work was made. In either case, it is the only such brown spot in this painting. The wood frame is in good condition with no obvious scratch marks or chips. There is one small dark brown or even black spot on the upper outside top edge of the frame slightly to the left of where the black pole on the roof of the green building would extend if that black pole line went all the way to the outer edge of the top of the frame. Although this basic frame goes well with the painting, I mentioned my opinion that certain buyers might prefer to place a painting of this quality in larger, more impressive frame, but that is a decision left to the personal taste of each potential buyer.
Buyer to pay shipping and handling . The painting will be sent insured. The flat fee quoted for shipping and handling, which includes the cost of insurance and packing materials, applies only to a location in the lower 48 states of the continental United States. Costs to ship the painting to the State of Alaska or Hawaii, or to foreign country, can be considerably higher and will be determined only when the delivery address of the purchaser becomes known. Buyer to be solely responsible for all customs duties, import taxes and similar fees imposed by any foreign country to which the painting is sent.