Information on Labels Identifing Art Work in a Gallery

What to look for on the back of a painting — an proficient guide

From its auction and exhibition history and provenance to notes from the artist on which style is 'Upwardly', the details found on the 'verso' can significantly enhance a painting's value

1. Who, what, when... and where

First and foremost, you'll want to know who painted your picture show. Artists started signing their works around the 15th century, and while their signatures are most unremarkably on the front, in more contempo times they have been applied to the opposite.

Christie'south specialists tin check signatures past looking them up in the artist's catalogue raisonné and, sometimes, even narrow downwards the engagement a work was painted based on the evolution of a signature over time.

Nicholson's address in Cornwall has been added lesser left of the back of the picture

The artist will normally also take provided a title or date. And sometimes more besides.

 'Also as signing, naming and dating his works on the reverse, the British artist Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) oft included his address,' says Christie's Modernistic British and Irish Fine art specialist Alice Murray. 'Information technology'southward a lovely add-on that helps you build the story backside the artwork.'

2. Materials can narrow down a painting's origins

Artists began switching from working on wooden panels to canvas in the 15th and 16th centuries considering it enabled larger paintings. Painting on copper sheets besides became fashionable in the 17th century.

Stamps and labels from the suppliers of these materials tin can comprise the names and addresses of their businesses. Reference lists — such equally Alexander Katlan's American Artists' Materials Suppliers Directory — can be used to rail them down, and in turn, narrow down when and where a piece of work was made.

The reverse of a 16th-century oil painting panel showing the make of the city of Antwerp — a pair of easily to a higher place a castle. The mark dates from 1617, when new regulations fatigued upwards past the Antwerp Joiners' Guild stated 'every joiner is from at present on obliged to punch his marking on frames and panels made by him, on hurting of a fine of three guilders'

Comparison the engagement the materials were purchased with the engagement the creative person signed the finished work tin even give y'all an idea of how long information technology took to consummate.

The types of materials used to create a work's board, cradle or stretcher, along with how it was constructed, also vary over time and between places.

Soft wood, such every bit poplar, was used in Italy, while hard forest, for instance oak, was used in United kingdom and the Netherlands. Another clue tin be obtained from how the canvas is fixed to the stretcher — staples replaced nails after the 1940s.

3. Labels indicate provenance and exhibition history

When a gallery or museum displays a work of art it oft attaches a label to its back that indicates the artist'south name, the picture's title, and ordinarily a date, inventory number and address.

'With the advent of the internet it has become much easier to research these labels,' explains Impressionist and Modernistic Art specialist Veronica Scarpati. 'For example, the Museum of Modern Art has digitised all of its exhibition catalogues, press releases and lender lists as far back as 1929.'

The dorsum of Pietro's painting with stencils, stickers and labels, including those of London dealer Thomas Agnew & Sons and New York gallery Wildenstein & Co.

Other key players to wait out for include institutions such equally the Royal Academy or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and dealers like Richard Green, The Fine Art Society or Wildenstein & Co., as seen, top right, on the back of the moving picture shown above.

Other labels that record a painting'due south journey can come from conservators, community and border controls, or even defunct bureaucratic mechanisms such as the Nazis' Sleeping room of Culture, which stamped its double-headed eagle logo on to the back of the art information technology looted.

4. Inscriptions volition also accept a story to tell

Private collectors throughout history take added their ain names to the back of a work. King Charles I of England (1600-1649), for example, branded his initials 'CR' topped with a crown onto the reverse of works in his royal collection.

Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979), Hills and Concealment Heaven: Rain over the Downs. Oil on sheet. 12½ x xviii½ in (31.7 x 47 cm). Sold for £32,500 on 23 January 2020 at Christie'south in London. Artwork: © The Estate of Ivon Hitchens. All rights reserved, DACS 2020

Allen Freer's handwritten provenance is on the bottom of the stretcher for Hills and Concealment Sky

'On the back of this landscape [above] by Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979) you accept the stamp of his married woman, Mollie, likewise as a afterwards, handwritten notation placing it in the collection of Allen and Beryl Freer,' explains Alice Murray.

The back of Conca's painting features a handwritten inscription indicating that is was gift to one D. Domenico Guastaferro

In 2019, Christie'south sold a painting [above] by Sebastiano Conca (1680-1764), which contains an former hand-written note that describes its title, date and the fact it was a bozzetto — or sketch — for painting, too as providing some provenance — that it was gifted to ane D. Domenico Guastaferro in July 1748.

If you decide to add a support to the dorsum of your painting, it might be an idea to utilise Perspex so that the labels remain visible, or ask a paper conservator to carefully transfer them onto the new board.

five. Inventory numbers reveal a work's auction history

Since the early 19th century Christie's has marked the dorsum of pictures with an inventory number. Initially these numbers were stencilled in blackness ink, while other auction houses used chalk. (Today, rather than stencilling numbers on the dorsum of pictures, information technology is more mutual for a sticker with a barcode to be practical.)

'These numbers stand for to records that tell u.s.a. when and where something was sold, and sometimes who sold it and what price was paid,' explains Christie's librarian and archivist Lynda Macleod. 'The Christie's athenaeum in London has details of about of the sales held during the sale firm'southward 254 years in business.'

'When cataloguing paintings these stencils permit u.s. not only to piece together provenance, but too to see if the work has been attributed to different artists in the past,' adds Olivia Ghosh, a specialist in Christie's Quondam Masters department.

The reverse of Rembrandt's Man with a Sword showing its auction stencils, and in the centre, an 1898 Amsterdam exhibition label

In 2013, Christie's sold a portrait by Rembrandt (1606-1669)and his studio which had '272ER' stencilled on the dorsum. 'That pointed us to a 1928 auction at Christie's of a drove belonging to Sir George Lindsay Holford,' Ghosh explains.

'From at that place we traced the painting's provenance back to his father, Robert Stayner Holford, who was the founder of the Burlington Fine Arts Club and owned iii other Rembrandts, all now in museums. Knowing these details tin can add corking value to a painting.'

6. If the painting has been lined, repair piece of work may take been carried out

If the rear of the canvas has traces of gum around the edges, or feels thick and new, the painting may have been lined. This refers to the procedure of attaching an additional layer of canvas to the original surface in order to repair holes and tears and stabilise the painting.

'Lining a canvas was, and even so is, a mutual practice for Old Master paintings,' says Ghosh. 'In the past it was frequently done with a heavy manus, merely now it tin can be completed without damaging the pigment's surface.'

F.C.B. Cadell left clear instructions on the back of his works about how to care for them in the time to come

'The Scottish colourist F.C.B. Cadell (1883-1937) left clear instructions regarding how to maintain the status of his works on their reverse,' says Alice Murray. 'On the back of The Avenue, Auchnacraig  [to a higher place] are the words "Absorptive ground/NEVER varnish", because Cadell felt the chalky quality of his paint surface was of utmost importance.'

7. Warped stretchers tin can exist a giveaway that information technology has been hung in humid weather

Major cracks in the work might indicate that it has been hung in a hot, dry place, such as to a higher place a fireplace, while warped stretchers could propose it lived in a bath. 'Neither are advisable,' states Ghosh.

The reverse of Diebenkorn's painting helpfully explains which mode upwardly information technology should be hung

While not venturing so far as to specify where they should be hung, some artists, such as Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993), helpfully get out notes to point their correct orientation. On the dorsum of the work above Diebenkorn has written in pencil 'Superlative', with an arrow pointing upwards.

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viii. On rare occasions, the back of a painting can fifty-fifty reveal another work of art

Every at present and again the back of a painting can reveal something that rivals the importance of the work of art on the front, such as a handwritten notation by the artist —or even a second movie.

'Materials have historically been expensive, and then impoverished artists were known to effort out unlike compositions on the aforementioned supports,' Ghosh explains.

Set into the back of Pissarro's 1878 scene of farmyard birds is some other work entirely, depicting two women washing laundry

Veronica Scarpati proffers an example. 'In February this twelvemonth Christie's sold a work past Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) which had a second, signed Pissarro on the opposite,' she explains.

'Christie's art handlers mounted it in a custom-made support so that both sides could be seen during the sale preview. If it had been hanging on a wall, no ane would have had an clue of what the back was hiding.'

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Source: https://www.christies.com/features/8-things-you-can-learn-from-the-back-of-a-painting-10293-1.aspx

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