Where to Go When Looking for Specific Art Piece

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Learning more about a piece of famous art is like shooting fish in a barrel, but identifying an unknown or obscure painting can be kind of tricky. At that place are and then many paintings in beingness that the odds of finding information about a specific image can feel insurmountable. Luckily, you lot can dramatically narrow downwards your search past assessing the composition, subject matter, and style. Outset by using an image recognition app and opposite epitome search. Museums and art historians are in a perpetual effort to upload and catalogue paintings and artists online, so it may exist easier than you remember to detect the information you're looking for!

1. 1

   Use an image recognition app to place the painting immediately. If you're struggling to remember an artist's proper name or you lot want additional information on a item painting, download an paradigm recognition app designed specifically for art. There are several apps for both Android and iPhone that permit you to snap a photo of a painting to search through museum catalogues, university databases, and fine art history texts. This is the easiest way to observe a specific painting.^[one]

   • The two most popular apps for recognizing artwork are Smartify and Magnus. Both of these apps will pull up information nigh the piece of work'southward creative person, equally well every bit interesting facts and background information virtually the composition.
   • These apps only have access to paintings that accept been well-documented and catalogued by curators, professors, historians, and other artists. If the painting is made by a more obscure artist, these apps may not work.

2. ii

   Run a opposite image search if you lot take a digital copy of the painting. If y'all're looking at a painting on your estimator or phone, run a reverse image search. Re-create and paste the image'south URL into the search engine. Run the search to pull up other websites displaying the painting. This will requite you admission to a variety of websites that volition tell you everything you lot need to know about the painting.^[two]

   • If you lot're using Google Chrome, yous tin correct click an image and select "Search Google for this image" to search the web.
   • Y'all can download an prototype and upload it to the engine instead of copying and pasting the URL if you lot adopt.
   • The most popular reverse image search is TinEye, but in that location are several options available online.

   Tip: You can try taking a photo of a painting and uploading the epitome to the search engine, simply you lot're less probable to find accurate results. These search engines aren't cracking at taking photos and finding digital versions of the image, but it may piece of work!

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   Use the signature or monogram to dig online and detect the paradigm. Look in the corners of the painting to meet if there is a signature or monogram. If the name is like shooting fish in a barrel to read, simply search the creative person's name upwardly online to find the painting. If it's harder to read, await advisedly to run into if you lot tin can break down the letters and read them. This will let y'all narrow down the search and figure out who the artist is, which can make information technology easier to notice your specific painting.^[3]

   • A monogram refers to a 2- to 3-letter design containing the artist's initials. Monograms tend to be more popular amidst painters working after the 1800s.
   • Signatures were almost never used before the Renaissance, which began around 1300. Even if you can't identify a signature, at least you accept a baseline for your search!^[iv]
   • You take to sign upward for a free account to use it, but you can apply https://artistssignatures.com/ to reverse search for an artist's signature. This is useful if you think yous can read the signature but desire to double-check to make sure you aren't misreading it.

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1. i

   Enquire an practiced to place the era, way, or painter of an image. E-mail or visit a museum curator, art history professor, or gallery possessor to enquire if they tin have a await at the image. An practiced in the field of art will be able to offer insights about the catamenia, style, and give you a ameliorate sense for where to wait. They may even know who the artist is as soon as they accept a look at information technology!^[5]

   • If yous're contacting a gallery owner, endeavour to observe a gallery that specializes in the type of fine art you're trying to identify. For example, a gimmicky abstract piece is going to be easier to identify if the gallery owner mainly focuses on newer artists.

2. two

   Use obvious clues in the subject matter to narrow down the date. Contemporary painters may pigment people or objects from the by, simply they can't fourth dimension travel! If in that location's a train, company logo, digital clock, or some other time-specific component of the painting, this is a nifty fashion to set a baseline for your search. Y'all can become a expert overall sense for when a painting may have been made simply by asking yourself when an artist would have painted their bailiwick.

   • For example, at that place aren't many painters alive today painting portraits of Castilian aristocrats from the 1600s, and absolutely nobody was painting images of Elvis Presley before 1954!
   • For instance, if there is a small airplane in the background of the painting, yous know that the painting must accept been fabricated after 1903, since that's when Wilbur and Orville Wright showtime successfully flew a plane.

3. 3

   Place the artistic motility by assessing the manner of the painting. There are diverse artistic movements throughout history that share like qualities. Determining the movement associated with an image is a great way to quickly narrow down your search since historians group artists from the same movement together.^{[half dozen]}

   • There are hundreds of movements; if you tin can't figure out the movement at get-go glance, look through museum catalogues and online collections to find similar paintings.

   Common Movements:
   

   Neoclassical – It may be neoclassical if the low-cal looks artificial and you're looking at a painting of a large group of aristocrats, a general, a raging battle, or a dramatic religious scene. The epitome was likely painted between 1750-1850.
   

   Expressionism and Impressionism – These paintings tend to take expressive brush strokes colors that aren't exactly accurate. The image may be "messy" simply you should still be able to figure out what you're looking at. These styles were popular between 1860-1920.
   

   Realism – If the painting looks kind of like a photo (or exactly similar a photograph) and nobody in the epitome is dressed up or posing for the painting, it was probably made after 1840.
   

   Abstract and Experimental – For these movements, you'll probably have no thought what'south going on in the painting. These paintings rarely describe anything you can immediately place and are only institute after 1930.

4. 4

   Determine if the artist used acrylic pigment to see if information technology was fabricated after 1940. Become every bit close equally you lot possibly tin to the image. If the color looks flat and the darker colors don't reflect light, it's probably oil pigment. If the color is reflective, shiny, and looks kind of plastic, it is likely acrylic pigment. Acrylic paint wasn't used in art until 1940, so y'all have a much smaller catamenia to search through.^[seven]

   • If more than 1 medium was used to produce a piece of work, it is highly-likely that the image was created after 1900. It was fairly rare earlier this menstruation to combine multiple materials to produce a painting.
   • This is a lot harder to do if you're looking at a digital image, simply if the colors are about supernaturally bright or neon, the painting was probably made with acrylic.

5. v

   Assess the quality of the canvass or paper to decide the appointment. If the canvas is stapled into the frame uniformly, it is unlikely to have been fabricated before 1900, which is when canvases were first mass produced. You tin can also assume the painting is relatively newer if it's is on paper and at that place's no tearing, damage, or general wear and tear. Paper is relatively fragile, and information technology'southward unlikely that a fresh piece of paper is specially old.^[8]

   • If the canvas is hanging loosely on the frame, the painting may have been made prior to 1600. Before 1600, near artists weren't especially practiced at stretching the fabric tight against the frame.

6. 6

   Search through websites and catalogues after narrowing the search. If you lot know you're looking for art from a specific time menstruum or movement, go online and search through galleries and websites related to this type of fine art. Await for paintings that are like in style, colour, and limerick. You lot can also get through museum databases and encyclopedias to find your epitome to do this every bit well. With enough luck, you'll find the artist!^[nine]

   • Almost every major museum has an online dataset that yous can search. Search through these catalogues to find similar pieces that may belong to your artist.
   • Once you lot have the artist, finding the specific painting is fairly easy. Museums and universities frequently catalogue and document the entire body of work for well-known painters, so yous should be able to find the specific painting merely past poking around online.

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1. 1

   Inspect the back of the painting to find notes from previous owners. If you actually can't observe anything nearly an image in your possession using traditional search methods, flip the canvass over and look at the dorsum. If the prototype is a print or reproduction, it may be listed on the dorsum. If the painting is a family heirloom or was bought at a thrift store, there may exist a handwritten annotation describing where the painting is from.^[10]

   • Use the other steps in this method first before looking for bottom known details. It's possible that the painting is a reproduction, print, or mass-produced version of a popular painting.
   • If y'all run into 2-3 numbers listed in a corner, the painting was probably purchased at a thrift shop or resale store. The employees of these stores oft write the toll on a back of a piece of work. You're unlikely to be able to identify the artist or image in this case.

2. 2

   Check the frame to come across if you can find a manufacturer. Inspect the frame on the back and wait for an imprint, or label. Frame manufacturers oftentimes print a company name on the dorsum. If there is a name, contact the manufacturer to learn more about the frame itself. This tin can drastically narrow down the region and time menstruation where a painting was produced.^[11]

   • If you simply have the canvas and in that location is no frame, check the forest portion of the canvas on the back. Prior to 1900, nearly artists stretched their ain canvases. If there is a signature on the wood frame, it's probably the artist's.
   • This isn't really a helpful selection if the painting is well known or actually one-time, since it was probable re-framed at some betoken.

3. three

   Take a big drove from an unknown painter to an art dealer. If you stumble on a big number of paintings and you can't find a single thing about the artist online or through close inspection, contact an art dealer. Many lifelong artists paint simply because they enjoy it, and it'south possible that you lot may take stumbled on to a unique collection from a totally unknown artist!^[12]

   Variaton: If the paintings appear particularly old, contact a museum curator or art historian instead. Older paintings tend to be more valuable from a historical perspective.

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• If you want to figure out if a painting in your possession is worth anything, contact an appraisal service. That'due south really the only way to authentically confirm whether your painting is worth anything or non.^[13]

• For many paintings, information technology will impossible to say definitively who painted the work or when it was made. You may be able to make an educated approximate about the era or artist'south background, though!

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