How do I find out who the artist is of a print I have???

[krisgonn]

Hello all,

I was given a print and was told it was worth about $900.00, however, I can't make out the artist to verify this and to possibly sell the print. Any suggustions on how to do this?

I have pictures, still trying to figure out how to attach them!

 

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[capt-zero]

I wish I could give you good news, but I've been collecting engravings and lithographs for years and there may be little you can do to identify it. First, you were told it was worth $900, by who? Do they know the prints history, name of the artist, or provenance? If not, it was a somewhat specious claim for them to have made. Now look at it through a loupe or other similar magnifier, if you see a myriad of geometrically arranged colored dots, it's printed using off-set typography and unless hand signed by the artist, unlikely to have much value. If it is made up of many random dots, it could be what is called a "glicee" print (made with a high resolution digital printer), this is not a good sign, as most reputible artists do not like to have their images copied this way. This method sets no limit to how many prints can be made. Off-set typography only became widely used after the turn of the twentieth century. Glicees are a product of the digital age. Since you say it's a print, that means there are other copies of it and if it's a well known image, sometimes doing a search of similar images can yield hints.

Another thing you can do is to carefully remove it from it's frame. Sometimes previous owners will have put a notation on the back of the print or matting identifying it. Sometimes even the original artist will do this. I have a water color that was signed with a cartouche (almost impossible for me to identify), but when I removed it from the frame, the artist had printed his name, dated it, and put a nice charcoal drawing of two flintlock pistols on the back, greatly increasing it's value.

If there is a fine arts museum near you, they often have extensive librarys open to the public. Usually you can get access to expensive artists signature databases and possibly identify it that way. In the end though, you may not be able to identify it and just have to enjoy a lovely piece of art on your wall. A final note, the $900 the other person mentioned may well be either what they paid for it or a retail price listed somewhere. If you spend some time here, you will find that there is no hard and fast definition of the word "worth". What something is worth is what someone will pay for it.

capt-zero

 

[PYRATE]

if it is a valuable print, there may be other copies shown online

take a couple of good centered photos from different distances and do a reverse image search on Tineye or Google and you may find something

TinEye Reverse Image Search
Search by Image ? Inside Search ? Google

 

[IsabellaSea]

Attaching images was challenging for me. You will have to downsize prior to posting. I sent out an SOS to the moderator and got great help in the form of email step by step.

Ask the person who gave you the print all the details you want to know. if that is a zero, ask the person where it was acquired. All the other responses are what I have done to determine artist, etc. on some unusual prints, including disassembling from the mats and frames after I spent too much $ on them.
One set is from 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty, brownline storyboards. I spent hours researching, ran down what seemed to be the artist only to find years later the artist was Herb Ryman of Disney fame and not Art Beaumont.