There is a painting I have inspected and wondered about since I was a child.  It has been in various parts of the home I grew up in and has gone through a few incarnations in various frames.  It is a painting of a gate and a view of a valley with not really anything around it. The focus is the vista.  It is painted on a wooden board that has since warped. Now the slight vertical splits can be viewed from the front as well.   There is a combination of German and French writing illegibly scrawled on the back of it. I have a curious memory of my mother always taking this painting down and checking the back of it and wiping that area. I thought this very strange as she never appeared to do this with any other framed pieces. One day I asked her, what is this all about? And what does it say ... 05/13/2009