A tiny painting ...

 .

When my dear mother died, a number of years ago, a few days before her 90th birthday, I was on my way from New Zealand to Europe. 'You must go back', folk said. Why? She was no longer there, so why? Wonderful friends looked after the formalities, and cousin Nerole headed the team which had the foul job of emptying the little house in which 'Auntie Nancy' had spent her widowed years. Mother had been getting rid of 'stuff' for years ('so you won't have to do it, darling'), sometimes to the despair of brother John and myself. John 'rescued' some favourite bits, full of childhood memories ...  So the little house didn't, seemingly, hold an awful lot of 'stuff' when the day came. Seemingly.

When Nerole had organised the rehoming of the largest pieces -- notably a huge, daily-polished, dining table -- the movers came in, and everything that was left headed for .. you've guessed it! .. Gerolstein, Sefton. Wendy coped heroically. When I got back, months later, from the other side of the world, much of mother's nachlasse had been absorbed into the texture of our houses and the attached sleepout ...

And I got on with life.

But, in the years since, bits of my family's 'past', which I didn't know were here, have occasionally surfaced. Bits, especially, from the Austrian side of the family, which had probably been in a cupboard for years. Today, one of those came (back) into my life. I don't remember it in our 1950s house, so I guess it belonged to Rudolfine Gänzl née Stojetz, my grandmother ...

A tiny, beautiful painting of ... where?

and by whom?  Well, it's not signed BUT I turned it over, and ...

Clear enough? E Hehn. Can't be too many of those! Pinxit 1931. I wonder what Rab (or is it 'Rats'!) means. Is it a place? Ach! it is!!!! Once Austria, now Croatia ...

On to the Internet. Something by 'Eduard Hehn' for sale for peanuts at the Dorotheum. And much more prolific 'Emil Hehn' ... the style seems similar. And charming. But ... who then is Eduard? A scribal error? No real joy from Google ... so on to the Austrian newspaper site, and bingo!  Only six hits, but 'der Maler' .. Emanuel Hehn ...

Does that say 'Halstatt' there ... that would explain much. One of Rudi's other paintings -- rather less accomplished -- is of Halstatt. But what explains more is the fact of Hehn's living? exhibiting? in Floridsdorf. Floridsdorf was where Rudi's father and mother had their high-street shop ...

And, now I know he was 'Emanuel' I go back to Google ... Emanuel Hehn .. 'of St Wolfgang'. But ... that was Emil ...! Wasn't it? Are they the same painter-person ...?

I can live without knowing. I just love the wee picture. But it would be marvellous to know.