I came into possession of an old family painting by a named artist called Maurice Utrillo. I did some research on the painting and if its real its worth $30,000 minus condition issues. However i discovered that prints of this painting were also sold and done on canvas and covered in varnish to make it look like a real oil painting. My question is this, can a layman somehow tell if its one or the other? With covid, no apprasial places will be open for months yet, so i was wondering if there was any reasonable way i could determine this for myself. i tried to check for broad grain strokes regardless of the picture but dont see any obvious examples that make me go oh thats been varnished to my untrained eye.
If it’s real, you should be able to see the individual brushstrokes, sitting on top of the canvas. Try shining a light across the surface and looking at it from an angle - you should be able to see lots of raised texture where the oil has been applied by brush. A varnished print will just look flat, or at most you’ll just see the texture of the canvas itself.
You can also try stroking you fingers across the surface to see if you can feel uneven bumps/grooves.
Of course this isn’t foolproof, as good reproductions might apply some textured brush strokes to the finished print to imitate the real thing. But it’s a start.
Can you email an auction house for advice?
(BTW, oil paintings are typically varnished anyway, so being able to the see the telltale crackle of an aging varnished surface doesn’t mean the painting isn’t original.)
they told me to get it looked at, but as i said that wont be possible for months and im bubbeling with curiosity and dont want to wait that long. There are many raised bumps but its also very shiney surface which makes me think varnish so im still totally unsure
Patience is a virtue grasshopper… but I would assume it’s a fake until an authority tells you otherwise.
Are there no art galleries or museums open in your town? Or just find an oil painter and ask them to look at it. Forgers are good at making fakes that will fool most people. Could it be a giclee? I’ve seen some that look amazingly like oil paintings. Maurice Utrillo died in 1955 so if it’s real it’s at least 65 years old. Does it look that old to you? If you turn it over and look at the back of the frame is there a lot of dust? When did your family acquire it and from whom?
I thought a lot of old paintings were varnished when complete. hence they look dark and part of the (expensive) restoration of the major masters is removing the varnish layer to let the true colours shine. So varnish itself may or may not mean anything.
But yes, a real painting should show obvious brush strokes, not smooth texture. Plus, print how? Silkscreen? Just wondering f there would be evidence of that? Inks? How would you get variable tones and mixed colours that look like a painting? I presume the canvas is sized (coated) whether real or print and you are not seeing the texture of the canvas weave everywhere?
Didn’t your research turn up whether the original was known to exist in a museum or a private collection? It seems if you learned enough about it to determine the name, you ought to be able to find that out. If the original is not known to still exist in a collection or a museum, then there’s a chance you do have it. The converse is also true.
Is your painting shown in one of these websites? The first one is apparently his best-known works. The second one is apparently all his works:
Utrillo was a very popular painter and prints of his work were very common (we used to own one). He was probably way out of the average person’s budget for art by 1920.
Look on the back. Is it paper or canvas?
This is where either Antiques Roadshow or that art detective show would step in…
Yeah no kidding. Jonpluc, you better not leave us hanging…
Provenance is all… What you need is the auctioneer’s label or a receipt. At least some verifiable record of the purchase showing date and price. Without any evidence, even if the brush strokes etc are good, it will be very hard to establish that it is genuine.
Well, it may be difficult to establish whether it is an original oil painting or a fake oil painting (that is, a deliberate attempt to fake an Utrillo), but it should be fairly easy to determine whether it’s an oil painting or a print.
the work is entitled montmartre, it is on canvas, and its been in the family for a minimum of 55 plus years, probably much longer. So if its real, it was never purchased from an auction, and i suspect if it was real it was purchased as original before the guy was a huge deal?
Label on back simply says Product of Reliable Newark Nj
Almost certainly a reproduction. The Reliable Company seems to have sold some original paintings but I doubt this was one.
Here’s a site with a lot of his paintings:
See if yours is on there. If not, try taking a picture and do a reverse image search. I feel confident you’ll find your Utrillo original.
However, it is possible that it’s still worth something, depending on rarity, quality of print, current condition, whether it was part of a numbered edition, signed by the artist, etc. This is something you can consult an expert about. Ask an auction house that sells prints.
Um, yeah, TSBG, that’s the same link that I already gave.
jonpluc, go to the wikiart link and see if any of the paintings there look like the one you have. The fact that the painting is labeled “Montmartre” doesn’t tell us a lot. A lot of his paintings were of the Montmartre area of Paris. He lived there. Tell us if your painting looks like one of those in the wikiart link.
the painting is not on the list of his works, but the one listed as montmartre is similar. i did however find a new print of my work on esty also entitled Montmartre that was a new bright version of mine. Still doesnt tell me if mine is the original or not.
Sorry Wendell!
There is a painting at the site called simply “Montmartre” and the word is included in the painting. I suspect this may be the image jonpluc has.
ETA: I see jonpluc has taken a look and it is not the same.