Retouching prints by GM photographic dept.

[grandifc]

Does anyone have any knowledge about these items? My father was an avid hoarder of many things Cadillac his entire life. He died a few years back and these were found in his possession. Are these these are common item? When examined closely, they are definitely watercolors. The backing of the frame on the green one was just paper and had a pretty big tear in it so I removed the paper backing from the frame and discovered these clues underneath. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've tried to research this out online, and I have not had much success, so I thought I would come straight to the experts.

[Art Director]

I have some of these illustrations (not original) in black and white that the late Roy Schneider was going to include in his still-unpublished book Sixteen Cylinder Motorcars Revisited. They look to have been created using pen and ink by GM artists. Sorry I can't help more.

[Tom Hall 7485]

Thank you for showing the comments on the reverse. They give us a few clues.

First, no, these color renderings aren't common. They were used to illustrate body styles during a period when a lot of people could live without a new Cadillac.

The mention about availability in cold, hot and rough tells us that the body styles could be rendered on different kinds of paper, and that suggests the possibility of custom-made renderings by an artist at Cadillac, possibly in various colors, to show a serious customer how a body style might look in a particular color.

This is about the different papers: https://gwartzmans.com/blogs/up-on-the-easel/hot-pressed-vs-cold-pressed-watercolour-paper#:~:text=It%20just%20depends%20if%20you,use%20hot%20pressed%20watercolour%20paper.

You might want to take one of the prints to an art conservator if you can't determine for yourself what paper(s) were used for the three prints. You might also want to see whether the mats that were used for framing have caused or will cause the paper to yellow.