Art history: artists, movements and museums

Autoportrait de Renoir en 1876, Harvard Art Museums

How to recognize Renoir's signature? Variants, dates and forgeries

Renoir's Signature Guide: spelling, dates, location, forgery and controls necessary for serious authentication. Read more...

La Jeune Fille souriante autrefois attribuée à Vermeer

Why were the fake Vermeers so convincing?

Why did the fake Vermeers deceive museums and experts? Ancient canvas, credible pigments, bakelite, cracks and scholarly expectations explain Van Meegeren's success - then his failure in the face of... Read more...

How do you authenticate a Vermeer? Pigments, canvas, provenance and imagery

Authenticating a Vermeer requires the convergence of pigments, support, imagery, gesture and provenance. Discover what each method proves, its limits and the lessons of Van Meegeren, the Leiden Collection and... Read more...

Han van Meegeren: the forger who deceived Vermeer's experts

Han van Meegeren invented fake Vermeers capable of satisfying the expectations of experts. From The Last Supper to Emmaus to the painting acquired by Göring, this is how his fraud... Read more...

Une dame debout au virginal de Vermeer, œuvre signée sur le côté de l’instrument

How to recognize Vermeer's signature? Shapes, locations and fakes

IVMeer, IVM, related letters or unsigned work: Vermeer inscriptions vary. This guide compares shapes and locations published by museums, then explains why a signature alone can never authenticate a painting. Read more...

Rembrandt gravant à la fenêtre dans son autoportrait de 1648

States, prints and signatures: how to recognize a Rembrandt engraving?

Plate condition, print quality, paper, watermark, signature and provenance: the complete method for examining an engraving attributed to Rembrandt. Read more...

Signature RHL van Rijn et date 1632 sur une œuvre de Rembrandt

Rembrandt's signature: monograms, variants and dating

How to recognize and date Rembrandt's signature? From the RHL monogram to the first name Rembrandt, with the limits of authentication by registration alone. Read more...

Gustav Klimt photographié en 1912, pour une enquête sur la fausse attribution de Golden Tears

Is "Golden Tears" by Klimt? Where does this attribution come from?

Golden Tears not a work by Gustav Klimt: the image is attributed to French artist Anne jaemary Zilberman. Here's how the false attribution came about and how to verify it. Read more...

Détail comparatif pour authentifier une œuvre attribuée à Vincent van Gogh

True or false Van Gogh? Attributions, false and authentication methods

Une signature ne suffit pas à authentifier un Van Gogh. Provenance, lettres, pigments, rayons X, affaire Wacker et cas Montmajour expliqués. Read more...

Photographie authentifiée de Vincent van Gogh à 19 ans, janvier 1873

Does a real photo of Vincent van Gogh exist? Authenticated images, errors and fakes

Is there a real photo of Vincent van Gogh? Guide to the authenticated photo of 1873, the confusion with Theo, fake portraits and self-portraits. Read more...