Q: How can I tell if a signed painting is a fake?
A: My wife and I are enthusiastic collectors of ‘Modern British’ art, which is more or less the term used by the auction houses to describe British works of art – paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture – made in the 20th century. We tend to buy at auction, and many of our best finds have come from small auction houses in the country.
Recently, we bought a John Ward watercolour of the Grand Canal in Venice – a delightful, rather architectural painting, which, back in the 1980s, might have cost a small fortune from a smart West End gallery, but only set us back £150 or so. John Stanton Ward (1917-2007) was a member of the Royal Academy, the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
Our painting had a decent provenance, which is key when distinguishing authenticity – it came from the collection of a well-known individual and had an aged gallery label on the back. At the same time, as Ward continues to fall out of fashion and values decline, the chances of running into a fake Ward are slim.
You still need to be careful. Years ago, when I was younger and greener, I bought an oil painting of the Royal Albert Bridge from a small London auction house, with ‘Walter Greaves’ painted in large capital letters in the bottom right-hand corner. It was about as much a ‘Greaves’ as I am Picasso.
And more recently, as prices continue to rise, deliberate fakes of Laura Knight (1877-1970) are appearing on the market. The same thing’s happening with the prolific Paul Maze (1887-1979), especially since the 2018 sale of a genuine Maze pastel in the Rockefeller auction at Christie’s New York, which fetched an unheard-of $100,000.
LS Lowry, too, is one of the most faked artists in the market, because of his easily replicated ‘matchstick men’ style. Unless you’re unimaginably lucky, that ‘Lowry’ you’ve just discovered on eBay, on the Bayswater Road railings, or at your local car boot sale is almost definitely not a genuine Lowry.
Ultimately, at the higher end of the market, established provenance and expert authentication are crucial. Without it, your ‘Lowry’ is not a Lowry, and your ‘Henry Moore’ bronze ain’t a Moore.
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