The Art Guide: Identify, Authenticate, Value and Care for Paintings

Identify a painting

Who made it, when, and in what medium.

1. 🖼️ How to Identify a Painting: Artist, Style, and Worth Found a painting and want to know what it is? Learn to read signatures, styles, and materials to identify an artwork and its artist — and scan any painting for an instant ID. 8 min read
2. 🔍 Original Painting or Print? How to Tell the Difference A print can look just like an original until you know what to look for. Learn the texture, dot-pattern, edge, and back checks that reveal whether art is one-of-a-kind or a copy. 7 min read
3. 🖌️ Oil, Acrylic, or Watercolor? How to Tell Paintings Apart The medium is one of the biggest clues to how a painting was made, dated, and valued. Learn the visual tells of oil, acrylic, and watercolor — and how to identify any work. 6 min read
4. ✍️ How to Read an Artist’s Signature on a Painting A signature is the fastest clue to who painted a work — if you can find and decode it. Learn where artists sign, how to read monograms, and how to scan for an instant ID. 7 min read
5. 🕰️ How to Date a Painting: Clues That Reveal Its Real Age Canvas, nails, pigments, and cracks all quietly reveal when a painting was made. Learn the tells experts use to date a work — and how to scan any painting for a fast first read. 7 min read
6. 🔢 Limited Edition Prints Explained: What 12/150 Really Means The pencil numbers under a print decide most of its value. Learn what edition numbers, A/P and H/C marks, and giclée vs lithograph mean before you pay for “limited.” 7 min read

Styles, movements and genres

The context that places a picture in time.

1. 🎨 Famous Art Movements, Explained: How to Tell Them Apart Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Baroque and more — learn the quick visual tells that let you name an art movement at a glance, and scan any painting for an instant read. 8 min read
2. 🎨 Modern vs Contemporary Art: What’s the Difference? People use “modern” and “contemporary” as if they mean the same thing — they don’t. Learn the real timeline, the key movements in each, and how to tell the two apart. 6 min read
3. 🖼️ Painting Genres Explained: Portrait, Landscape, Still Life & More Portrait, landscape, still life, genre scene, history painting — every work fits a genre, and it shapes how art is read and valued. A plain-English guide with instant scan ID. 7 min read

Authenticity and value

The evidence that turns a picture into a price.

1. 🎨 How to Spot a Fake Painting: An Authentication Field Guide Forgers fool experts, but most fakes leave clues. Learn the anachronisms, signature tells, and material checks that expose a fake painting — with an interactive era checker. 9 min read
2. 📜 Art Provenance: Why a Painting’s History Drives Its Value Provenance is a painting’s documented chain of ownership — and it can make or break authenticity and price. Learn what counts, the red flags, and how to trace a work’s past. 7 min read
3. 🏷️ “Attributed To”, “Studio Of”, “After”: Auction Wording Decoded One word in a catalogue can move a painting’s price by a factor of a hundred. Learn what attributed to, studio of, circle of, manner of, and after really mean. 9 min read
4. 🔬 Reading a Painting’s Condition: Craquelure, Overpaint & UV Condition decides what a painting is worth as much as the artist does. Learn to read craquelure, cupping, overpaint, relining and restoration under UV light. 10 min read
5. 🖼️ How Much Is My Painting Worth? An Art Valuation Guide Five factors decide what a painting sells for — artist, authenticity, condition, provenance, and demand. Learn how appraisers think, and estimate your art’s value range. 8 min read

Buying, selling and caring for art

Auctions, dealers, costs, and keeping a work safe on the wall.

1. 🔨 How Art Auctions Work: Estimates, Reserves & the Buyer’s Premium The hammer price is never what you actually pay. Learn how art auction estimates, reserves, bid increments, and the buyer’s premium work before you raise a paddle. 7 min read
2. 🔖 How to Sell a Painting: Channels, Fees and What You Keep The hammer price is not your money. Learn what each selling channel costs, why the buyer’s premium is your problem too, and how to work out your net before you sign anything. 10 min read
3. 🧭 How to Start Collecting Art on a Real Budget You don’t need an auction paddle or a spare $50,000 to collect art. A practical guide to buying your first pieces, where to look, and what actually holds its value. 7 min read
4. 🧼 How to Clean and Care for an Oil Painting Safely Dust, smoke, and sunlight age a painting fast — and the wrong cleaning can ruin it. Learn safe home care, what you should never do, and when to call a professional conservator. 6 min read
5. 🖼️ How to Hang, Light and Protect a Painting at Home Most damage to art at home happens on the wall, slowly, in good light. Learn the hanging height that galleries use, how much light a painting can safely take, and where never to hang one. 10 min read

Famous works

Masterpieces, and what each one teaches.

1. 🖼️ The Mona Lisa: Why the World’s Most Famous Painting Is Famous A small portrait of an unknown woman became the most famous painting on earth. The techniques, the mysterious smile, and the 1911 theft that made the Mona Lisa a legend. 7 min read
2. 🌌 Van Gogh’s Starry Night: The Story Behind the Swirls Painted from a window in an asylum, The Starry Night turned a troubled night sky into the most beloved image in modern art. The meaning, technique, and story behind it. 7 min read
3. 😱 The Scream: Munch’s Icon of Modern Anxiety A figure clutching its face under a blood-red sky became the universal symbol of dread. The inspiration, the four versions, and the daring thefts of Munch’s The Scream. 6 min read
4. 🧐 Girl with a Pearl Earring: Vermeer’s Mysterious Masterpiece Called the “Mona Lisa of the North,” Vermeer’s portrait isn’t of a real person but a “tronie.” The light, the pearl that may not be a pearl, and why it captivates. 6 min read
5. 🛡️ The Night Watch: Rembrandt’s Masterpiece That Isn’t Set at Night Rembrandt turned a stiff group portrait into a burst of light and motion. The famous misnomer, the trimming, and the genius behind The Night Watch. 7 min read
6. 🪞 Las Meninas: The Painting That Watches You Back Velázquez put himself, a princess, and a hidden king and queen into one dizzying scene. The mirror, the gaze, and the genius of Las Meninas in the Prado. 7 min read
7. 🍷 The Last Supper: Leonardo’s Masterpiece That Began to Fade at Once Leonardo da Vinci painted the most studied mural in history — then watched it decay because of his own experiment. The story, the symbolism, and the science of The Last Supper. 7 min read
8. 🖐️ The Creation of Adam: The Two Fingers That Defined an Era Michelangelo’s near-touching fingers on the Sistine Chapel ceiling became one of art’s most iconic images. The meaning, the brain theory, and how it was painted. 6 min read
9. 🐚 The Birth of Venus: Botticelli’s Goddess on a Shell A goddess arriving on a seashell became one of the Renaissance’s most beloved images. The myth, the Medici, and the secrets behind Botticelli’s Birth of Venus in the Uffizi. 6 min read
10. 🍓 The Garden of Earthly Delights: Bosch’s Wild Triptych From paradise to a nightmarish hell, Hieronymus Bosch packed a triptych with bizarre, dreamlike detail centuries ahead of its time. Inside The Garden of Earthly Delights. 7 min read
11. 💛 The Kiss: Klimt’s Golden Icon of Love Wrapped in shimmering gold leaf, two lovers embrace on the edge of a flowery cliff. The story, the gold, and the meaning behind Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss in Vienna. 6 min read
12. 🕊️ Guernica: Picasso’s Black-and-White Cry Against War Picasso’s 25-foot mural turned the bombing of a Spanish town into the most powerful anti-war painting ever made. The symbols, the history, and why it stayed in exile. 7 min read
13. 🕰️ The Persistence of Memory: Dalí’s Melting Clocks Explained Salvador Dalí’s soft, melting watches became the face of Surrealism. The meaning, the cheese that inspired it, and the secrets of The Persistence of Memory. 6 min read
14. 🏡 American Gothic: The Most Parodied Painting in America A stern farmer, a pitchfork, and a little Gothic window made Grant Wood’s American Gothic an icon. The real story and meaning behind the famous pair. 6 min read
15. 🌊 The Great Wave off Kanagawa: The Print That Conquered the World Hokusai’s towering blue wave is one of the most reproduced images in history. The story, the hidden Mount Fuji, and why it’s a print, not a painting. 6 min read
16. 🕵️ Famous Art Heists: The Masterpieces That Vanished From the Mona Lisa’s theft to the unsolved Gardner Museum robbery, the greatest art heists read like thrillers. The stories behind the stolen masterpieces. 7 min read

Tools for this topic

Art Scan: Painting Identifier Identify artworks and paintings with a single snap. Art Identifier Museum Guide Identify artworks and explore museums with an AI guide. 🧰 Collector’s Glossary Plain-English definitions of the terms graders, dealers and auction houses use.

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