British Art authentication and the authentication of British  oil paintings and water colours

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Authenticating  British  Art
The fine art of  authentication - British Art & Paintings

 

ADMIRAL LORD NELSON

 

 

 

 

 Soft green pastoral landscapes, noble portraits of the great and famous. Fine sporting works depicting horses and hounds, of hunting and hunters. Historically, that is the essence of the art of Britain.

Surely British art is safe from the fakers?

Not so I am afraid, as it's been going on for years!

 
          

 The targets for the fakers these days may well have changed and now includes the British Naïve school works such as those created by Alfred Wallace and Joan Gilchrest and the pretty but primitive animal portraiture of prize bulls, old spot pigs and sheep. After all, they are relatively easy to fake. Unlike a John Constable, a Reynolds or Thomas Gainsborough you may think. But they all have one thing in common.

They make a great deal of money and the fakers do too!.

Blinks original                                                   George Morland fake

 

     

English Naïve school                                 Thomas Sydney Cooper

 

A Reynolds? NO!

 

 

 

 One such example is told through an interesting investigation we conducted into an alleged Thomas Gainsborough landscape where the faker made some basic errors of judgement. He may have been eventually caught out by forensics, comparative study and simple expertise. Most are. In this though, he just made a silly mistake.

 

Thomas Gainsborough (1727- 88) Or not ?

CASE STUDY:

Thomas Gainsborough was principally a great & famous English painter of portraits, landscapes and 'fancy' pictures.
Blue Boy for instance which is known the word over.

Clearly he was one of the most individual geniuses in British art history. Both successful and valuable in real terms.

 Here on the right, is what was truly believed by its owner to be a Gainsborough landscape painting in oil on canvas of figures on a mountain track by a stream.

A typically 'Gainsboroughesque' landscape you might say and one backed up with long term provenance.

The 'Gainsborough' painting had been cleaned but the conservator was reticent to clean the signature area for fear of damaging it. So the discoloured old varnish can still be seen covering it. Obviously it's been there for a very long time.

 

 

 

Below: A comparable but authentic Gainsborough landscape

 

 


 

 

 

 

 Take a much closer look at the signature (above) and you will very clearly see pencil lines underneath the painted letters. T - G and a.

"Now who signs a painting first in pencil and then goes over it with paint?"

 It's patently obvious: Someone trying to make a painting bearing another signature something much more special, important and valuable by adding the name Gainsborough to it.  And all this over 100 years ago!

 Note: The painting probably started life as an unsigned landscape by Gainsborough emulator Thomas Barker of Bath, was picked up cheaply at auction at the turn of the 19th Century and magicked its way into league division 1 with the inclusion of Gainsborough's false & copied signature.

 

 

 

 

Commonly faked British art & artists includes:

Laurence Stephen Lowry

Sir Alfed Munnings

Any pastoral landscape that you can add a better name to!

John Constable

John Crome

George Morland
John Frederick Herring

Portrait Miniatures

Samuel Palmer

Thomas Bush Hardy

John Fernley, Senior and Junior

David Roberts

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Thomas Sidney Cooper

English Naïve school animal paintings

Alfred Wallace and Joan Gilchrist

Even Robert Lenkiewicz is now being faked!

 

 

 

Lesson Learned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

          

L S Lowry Fake                                                Wallace original

                  

Lenkiewicz fake            Gilchrest original           John Crome fake by Tom Keating

John Fernley Junior Fake painting

  

John Constable Fake Landscape

 

Authentic oil painting - John Fernley Junior

 

 

 

 

                                                         John Constable Fake signature

Freemanart:  Expert  in the  Fine  Art of  Authentication.

 The Freemanart Consultancy specialise in art authentication and have art experts who specialise in British works of art.

 We are specifically here to assist you with both valuations of English and Scottish art works and Authentication and Attribution issues from our offices, laboratories and bases in England.

 

For further details on ART Authentication and Attribution Investigations Click Here

 

To Contact Freemanart Click Here:

 

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