I often have to call my wife over to ask her if a piece of art is real or printed. Most of the time she takes the piece out of the frame and looks at it. Then she's able to tell. It's obvious, you feel the piece or turn it to the light and the realness shines. I bought the two Lupas drawings as originals. They probably are. One is inscribed to the family. The Brahms I didn't win is all over the internet for sale. That was sold as an original. I didn't see it when I went to pick up my two pieces. But, that one is heavily reproduced. Is there a way to look through the glass and tell if a drawing is real or not? These have probably been framed since 1933. I hate to take them apart to find out.
When you say “real” that’s a very broad word to cover mediums. There are various types of paint used, ink, pencil, block prints, stone lithographs prints or others, and more. If you are trying to determine an authentic art compared to a modern printing massed produce. I use a mini hand help microscope, but a strong magnifier would work. A modern print is composed of a dot matrix pattern very distinctive from all the other mediums. I hope this clarifies what you were looking for.
Sorry, I mean "original". The piece you're holding is the piece the artist created the art on. I put the pieces next to the light, and used a magnifying glass to check out the pieces, and they are the originals. There's no dots. I can see the charcoal lines, and he used a bit of white on one of them. They are stunning. I have another that I picked up at auction, I have to post it. I have to remember the artist's name. THANK YOU for the answer. The dots are something I'll look for in the future.
Even when removing from the frame, my almost 60 year old eyes need a loop to see matrix pattern or an earlier print. I wish I could wing it! Sometimes a blacklight will help with gouache wash or 'enhanced' prints.
Lupas was an illustrator, not an artist. There's very little information about him on the internet but much of his work was commissioned for projects such as the Artists in Music of Today book, in which case the original artwork would be owned by someone other than Lupas. I suspect most, if not all, of his work that's floating around the internet is a multiple i.e. not the "original" but a print. Debora
You can't count on a dot matrix pattern. Various types of reproductions don't show it. Modern ink jet prints (giclees) would not. Modern reproduction techniques can make the differentiation between original and reproduction very difficult.
Just to be clear….here is a print by Van Gogh.(excuse the glass reflection) here it is with a magnifier. (Notice you see brush marks) Here is with a hand held microscope. I personally do not know what process of a print this is, but it is obviously not a painting, silkscreen or block print. Perhaps someone out here knows what type this is. I may have over generalized by the use of The phrase “dot matrix”. …and as a last note, modern prints can be embellished, so you would have to check several areas.
