If you are simply buying a painting to satisfy your aesthetic sense and to embellish your drawing room, you can buy anything that looks reasonable and fine. However, on the other hand, it is a totally different phenomenon to buy a painting for the purpose of the investment. It is not actually who the painter is or what is the provenance of the painting but there are many other factors that determine the direct connection of the artist with the piece of art.

Is This Original Work?

Do Your Research:
First of all, you need to do a complete research about the artist and his work. Look at his different masterpieces, compare his signatures on the portraits and familiarize yourself with them. In order to determine the authenticity of any work, you need to fetch all the information about the artist and the painting under review.

Visit Museums:
Go to the big museums and ask the staff to show the back of the picture. There, you can get accustomed with feels and looks of old pieces of art in addition with exploring the depth of the painting and the total layers of paints required to create such an intricate work.

Look at the Patina of the Wood:
This is the best method to verify whether the frame is relatively newer or old enough. You can also check the shape and design of the frame and what is the style of nails and hanger used to construct the frame.

Look on Both Sides of the Picture:
As discussed above, thorough examination of the piece will give you a fair idea about authenticity of the piece. Again, you can observe the patina of the wood to check whether the dust of ages in present or not. Similarly, you can check the quality of texture or whether colors are bright or have faded away.

Keep Looking for Bristles:
Another proven method of determining the credibility of a picture is to look for bristles. A cheap paint brush used to make copies will always leave some hair behind on the painting that can be located quite easily.

Smell it:
A good oil paint usually takes ages to get dried down and completely lose the smell. Therefore whenever you come across a painting, smell it and you will get an idea about whether it is real one or fake.

What is Your Feeling:
It is very important because your personal impression about the picture is a great way of finding authenticity. For instance, it is extremely easy to get a photocopy of the piece but the fake article will be devoid of depth in paint layers and will have no balance at all.

Consistency is the Key:
A fake copy usually needs everything similar to produce the piece that looks exactly the same. However, it is extremely difficult to reproduce old fashion frames, patinas and nails and therefore it is almost impossible to reproduce the old fashion paintings in this modern world.

Conclusion:
Finally, you can take help of third party to have their say about the picture. Moreover, you should also beware of dealers selling the paintings at discounted rates because most of those cheap paintings are often fake and utter waste of money.

Anthony Powel works for an online home improvement company offering canvas printing services, home decoration and renovation through photo to canvas print.

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