Beautiful though it was, it had been branded a fake for more than a century after being exhibited at the Guildhall in London in 1899. It had the subject matter and style of the great J.M.W. Turner, but alterations that appeared to have been carried out by someone else.
Now, though, years of research and technological assessment have turned those doubts on their head and the il painting of Cilgerran Castle in Wales has been sold as a genuine Turner for £1 million.
It’s a great result all round, but how do experts make such decisions? Before the advent of modern techniques like X-Ray spectometry and other means of non-invasive checking, it was largely a matter of written records, comparisons with other known works by the same artist and the connoisseurial eye. Everything from composition to brushstrokes can count and there is no doubt that these days science plays a bigger role than ever before. Confirming one artist’s painting, for instance, was possible by analysing tiny particles of hair towards the bottom of the canvas. He had become so intensely involved in painting that his stubble had been caught in the oils.
Occasionally, a previously hidden thumb print or perhaps an earlier painting in the artist’s style will emerge by scanning the work. Even these can be faked though, so you need to be careful.
Nonetheless, this sort of detective work can be as captivating as the art itself and simply adds to the fascination that attracts so many people to our world.
