Man finds a watercolor at thrift store only to discover it's a rare William Dorsey painting
6Andy Robbins knows art. He's an artist himself and comes from a family of art enthusiasts. He also loves thrifting and hunting for treasure.
So, picture his surprise when he found a painting on the shelf at new Life Thrift in Glenside seemingly from 1864!
"It's kind of a nice watercolor. Had like a mill and a stream and a little guy fishing on a hill," said Andy.
"I was able to discern a signature and a date. Had Dorsey and 1864 on it. And white paint. From there, what I did is I pulled out my phone, took a look at it, looked it up."
So, he bought it for 10 bucks.
"I brought it home, posted on Instagram with some of the information that I had found and almost immediately, Machiko from 1838, Black Metropolis reached out to tell me more about William H. Dorsey."
Dorsey was an African American artist, scrapbooker and cultural historian living in Philadelphia in the late 1800s. He painted the watercolor in 1864 during the Civil War. And it's the only known painting Dorsey completed in existence.
Andy knew this piece of living history was bigger than just himself and deserved to be shown to the world and studied. So, he donated it to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
David Brigham from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania says, "William Dorsey was 25 years old when he made this watercolor. So, he was young. He was aspiring, he went on to accomplish other things, including, playing an important role in the formation of the American Negro Historical Society. So, this painting, embodies those stories."
Framed by his experiences of living through the Civil War, Dorsey's art and life is now taking on new appreciation.
Andy says, "It was something that was always bigger than what needed to be on my wall."
Dorsey’s work now where it belongs…
All thanks to the eye of an art lover fishing it out of a thrift store.
To find more exhibits at the historical society, check out https://www.portal.hsp.org/
To find out more about New Life Thrift, check out https://www.mynlt.org/
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