Paint Masks Hidden Treasure Restoration Work Reveals 90-Year-Old Scenes Of Cda

Bea Almgren was refurbishing a stairwell in her 93-year-old home when she stumbled upon a surprise.

As the carpenter removed wood trim from the stairwell’s cream-colored walls, an oil painting appeared beneath. It was a continuation of a whimsical 90-year-old mural that circled the ceiling of an upstairs sitting room.

“I saw the top of the leaves through the trim,” said Gene Keevy, who was working in the Almgrens’ home at 1301 E. Lakeshore Drive. The portion of the artwork in the stairwell had been painted over years before.

The oil painting was done on canvas by Feodor von Luerzer, an Austrian artist who moved to the United States in 1885. He lived much of his life in Duluth, Minn., but spent his latter years in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

After discovering the painting two years ago, Almgren asked Keevy if he could remove the paint. He spent three to four months painstakingly lifting the thick paint with a water-based paint thinner, a scalpel and a toothbrush.

Once the painting had been uncovered, Almgren asked Keevy’s daughter, Kelly Marinovich, to restore the artwork.

“I was hesitant about taking it on, but Bea had so much trust in me,” Marinovich said. “I am not a trained professional. I am strictly self-taught.”

Marinovich built makeshift scaffolding and slowly began restoring color to the painting.

“I was very nervous to start,” she said as she darkened an ivy leaf on Wednesday, “but once I got going, it was just more exciting every time I came here.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing … to find that hidden treasure under there was really quite amazing.”

Von Luerzer was a prolific painter, who created murals on Duluth tavern walls and once served as “special artist” to James J. Hill, builder of the Great Northern Railroad.

He had at least one show in Coeur d’Alene, in August of 1911, wrote his daughter, Feodora Montgomery, in a history of her father’s life. Von Luerzer also was active in the Spokane branch of the Society of Washington Artists and had a gallery in the Auditorium Building, a five-story 1890 landmark that was torn down in 1934.

Two von Luerzer paintings were presented as gifts to the Coeur d’Alene public library in 1948. His paintings have adorned the office of a U.S. congressman from Idaho and the homes of many art collectors.

Marshall and Edith Taylor, the original owners of the Almgrens’ home, commissioned von Luerzer to create the painting now adorning the Almgrens’ sitting room. The Taylors befriended the artist in the early 1900s.

The painting depicts small scenes of Coeur d’Alene, including a gentleman and lady camping on the St. Joe River, he in shirt and tie and she in a dress. There’s also a sunset scene of Toad Rock at Mica Bay, a scene of two women canoeing on the lake, and a vista of Sanders Beach, with only three homes and a mill where the 11th Street marina is now.

Bea Almgren has been researching the history of her home and said the Taylors owned the mill and that it supplied the wood for the floors of the home. The house still has its original hardwood floors.

The Almgrens have been restoring the Taylor house to its original state for several years, paying meticulous attention to detail. The living and dining rooms mirror old photographs of the same rooms in the early 1900s.

“We’re making it as authentic as possible,” Bea Almgren said.

Edith Taylor’s niece, Harriet Hubbard, who lives in Palm Springs, Calif., heard through family members that the Almgrens were restoring the house and flew up to Coeur d’Alene to see it. Bea Almgren said Hubbard was so pleased she gave the Almgrens one place setting of the Taylors’ 1885 Limoges wedding china. The setting resides under glass in the living room.

The Almgrens had the von Luerzer painting appraised, but chose not to disclose its worth.

“He (the appraiser) was absolutely enthralled with it. He said it was really valuable,” Bea Almgren said.

The Cheney Cowles Museum has some von Luerzer pieces, said Glenn Mason, museum director. Among Von Luerzer’s works, Mason said, were paintings of North Idaho pines, formal portraits and wildlife scenes.

Said Mason: “Some of his work was good, some was OK.”