Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 2: How to Find a Valuable Painting
• Method 2 of 2: How to determine the authenticity of a painting

Collecting art is a pretty expensive hobby. However, some observant art lovers manage to buy art at bargain prices. Wherever you go in search of masterpieces, to a junk shop or to a contemporary art exhibition, the ability to determine the authenticity of a painting and its value will come in handy. This knowledge will help you navigate the sea of ​​fakes and copies and make a profitable purchase.

Steps

Method 1 of 2: How to Find a Valuable Painting

1. 1 Look for paintings by famous painters. For many people, their passion for art turns into a hunt for an unknown masterpiece of their favorite master. While you may not be able to locate the missing masterpiece by Monet or Vermeer, you may occasionally find the work of one of the lesser-known second-tier masters.
   • Among the artists whose canvases were found in second-hand shops are Ben Nicholson, Ilya Bolotovsky, Giovanni Batista Torrilla, Alexander Calder and even Pablo Picasso!
   • In order not to miss a masterpiece if you come across it, try to learn as much as possible about the different artists. Visit local art galleries and museums, and browse online resources such as the Web Gallery of Art.
2. 2 Use your smartphone to search the internet for the painting. If you think that the picture you come across may be valuable, try searching for it using Google or another search engine. If the painting appears in the search results, you may have found a valuable painting.
   • If you don't know the title of the painting, you can search by keywords.For example, Thomas Gainsborough's painting "The Boy in Blue" can be found by the keywords "painting", "boy", "blue".
   • If you have the opportunity to take a photo of the painting in good resolution, try using image search, for example, search using Google Reverse Image Search (https://reverse.photos). This makes the search process very easy.
3. 3 Buy limited edition prints and autographed reproductions. Although printed graphics in most cases have little material value, there are exceptions to this rule. You may come across a print (engraving, etching, lithography), issued in a limited edition, when the artist made only a few prints, or a reproduction autographed by the artist on the front or back of the sheet.
   • Most of the limited edition prints are numbered: each print contains the print run and the print number in the print run.
4. 4 Do not buy small size paintings and abstract canvases if you intend to resell them. Try not to buy paintings of a very small size or too complex content, close to abstract art, unless they belong to the brush of a renowned master. While these may be excellent works, they are less popular with the general public than large traditional canvases and will be difficult to sell.
   • This is especially important if you plan to sell a purchased painting over the Internet, since small and abstract paintings play a lot in digital form.
5. 5 Choose pictures with quality frames. Even if you come to the conclusion that the painting is of little value, be sure to inspect the frame in which it is inserted. The frame itself can be a piece of art; an antique or elaborate frame is sometimes worth more than a picture inserted into it. A frame can be valuable if:
   • it is hand-carved;
   • a subtle or unique pattern is applied to the frame;
   • the frame has stucco and / or gilding;
   • the frame looks very old.

Method 2 of 2: How to determine the authenticity of a painting

1. 1 Look for the artist's signature on the canvas. Often the easiest way to determine the authenticity of a painting is to find the artist's signature on the front or back of the canvas. In particular, pay attention to whether the signature has been applied by hand and whether paint has been used. If there is no signature on the painting, or the signature looks flat and too flat, chances are good that it is a copy or a fake.
   • If you know the name of the author of a painting, look for his work on the Internet and compare the signature on the works presented there with the signature on the painting you are interested in.
   • It is easy to forge the signature, therefore it is not recommended to judge the authenticity of the canvas only by the signature.
2. 2 Use a magnifying glass to check the painting for print marks. Before buying a painting, examine its surface through a magnifying glass. If you notice a grid of tiny, perfectly round dots, this is a laser-printed reproduction.
   • This method helps to recognize cheaper reproductions. However, it is not good enough to identify a giclee copy.
   • Pictures belonging to the artistic direction "pointillism" also consist of points. However, unlike laser printing, these dots will be of different shapes and sizes because they are applied with a brush.
3. 3 The surface of the real painting must have texture. To distinguish a real painting from an elaborate fake, look at the surface of the canvas. On the painting canvas, strokes and irregularities of paint will be visible. If the surface of the canvas is very uneven, chances are good that it is not a high quality print, but a painting. If the surface is perfectly flat, this is a reproduction.
   • If only 1-2 volumetric strokes are visible in the picture, it may be a fake, which is disguised as an original.
4. 4 Real watercolors should have an uneven surface. To determine if this is a real watercolor or a reproduction, look at the painting from an angle. If the surface of the paper around the large strokes is slightly bulging, you might be in front of the original. If the paper is equally flat everywhere, it is most likely a reproduction.
5. 5 The edge of the canvas on real canvases is uneven. As a rule, artists who use canvas for their works put uneven and sloppy strokes along the edge. This part of the canvas is usually hidden behind the frame, so it is not drawn as carefully. If a painting has an absolutely straight edge, chances are high that it is a reproduction made in a factory.
6. 6 Check how old the stretcher looks like when the canvas is stretched. Often a stretcher will say more about a painting than the painting itself. The dark color, cracked and partially peeled varnish, under which the old wood is visible - all this indicates that you may be in front of the original.
   • If the stretcher is mostly dark in color, but some bright streaks are visible on it, the picture may be an original, which at some point was pulled over.
   • Many old subframes have an “X” or “H” shaped crossbar on the back. Such beams are much less common in modern canvases.
7. 7 Pay attention to how the painting is attached to the stretcher. If it is nailed down with nails or nail holes are visible on the edge, most likely the painting was painted before the 40s of the last century. If the painting is held on staples, it is most likely a reproduction. It is especially suspicious if there are no traces of earlier fasteners on the supposedly old canvas.