The University of Montana (UM) recently regained possession of a painting that had been missing for more than 60 years. The artwork, called Portrait of Clifford Breeding, was unexpectedly found by a man from Kentucky while going through his late father’s belongings. The man’s father had expressed a desire for the painting to be returned to UM, so the man contacted the director of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, Rafael Chacón, who quickly identified the piece. According to Chacón, the man’s father had purchased the painting for $25 at a yard sale in Missoula, but it is unclear how it ended up there in the first place. The UM museum is grateful to have the painting back in its collection.
A portrait of a boy smoking a cigarette and wearing a hat vanished from the University of Montana in the 1950s, and despite its notoriety, nobody knew who took it. The artwork was created by Fra Dana, a locally prominent female Impressionist who learned from William Merritt Chase and Mary Cassatt. The piece was listed as one of the “most important lost artworks of all time” in a 1990 journal.
According to Rafael Chacón, the director of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, the portrait is a significant work in Dana’s career, as it demonstrates her skill as an Impressionist painter and highlights her fascination with the Ashcan School’s subject matter.
The painting, a moving portrait of a Native American boy living in two cultures, showcases the Ashcan School’s spirit in Montana. The artwork was eventually discovered in the possessions of a Kentucky man, whose father had acquired it from a Missoula yard sale for $25.
The man promptly returned it to the museum, which will display it in its new building when it reopens later this year. The portrait’s return coincides with the museum’s transition to its first permanent home since its inception in 1895, after having existed in various locations for more than a century.
