Featured Calling all opinions! Signature question

Hello!
I’ve been enjoying reading through the posts on this forum and seeing the great help everyone can be with signatures. I decided to see if you all would be willing to weigh in on a mystery painting I’ve had for several years. I bought it because I liked the poppies and the frame. Once I got it in the mail (from eBay) and looked closer I thought for a hot minute it was by Julian Fałat, the Polish impressionist. On a whim I sent pictures to Sotheby’s and they gave me an auction estimate as if it were a real Fałat and wanted me to send it to NYC for further research. I was all excited and then I realized the l and the t in the signature aren’t quite right. Do you guys think this is someone trying to pass this off as a Fałat and didn’t do their homework? I didn’t pursue the Sotheby’s idea because I didn’t want to sell it and now I’m sure it fake anyway. Long story short, I haven’t thought much about it anymore until reading through these forums and now I just thought I’d see what you guys thought. I included a screenshot of some real Fałat signatures for reference. Also, he mostly did landscapes and portraits but he did do a few flower paintings. Thanks everyone!!

 

Excellent post. I love how you provided all the signatures.

 

Thank you! When I was researching it a couple years ago I did see that his signature varied quite a bit through the years. However, the angle of the line through the l and the t is slanted the wrong way on my painting. Not a good sign

 

I understand your concerns. I’m sure an expert member will be able to help you. @Debora comes to mind as well as @blooey

 

I'm not familiar with his works but from a quick glance at google images it does seem he is a very accomplished painter and while your painting is rather bold, stylistically it doesn't really look like any of the other works I saw.

Is the painting thinly painted or just in the area of the enlargement?

You don't mention the size of your piece but one thing I did notice about his works was that the signature tended to be quite large in proportion to the painted area and that of course differs from yours.

As to the reverse, on my monitor, the canvas or linen support doesn't really ring true for his dates in my mind, even though there is a repair patch, the canvas looks later and the colour not what I would expect to see on a painting of the purported age.

This is not to say that it definitely couldn't be one of his pieces, but I think a tough row to hoe if you want to get the attribution to his hand to stick.

 

You are sensational. I love how you can provide such a level of technical detail in your analysis. I really enjoyed reading this, and it matched the new member’s sincerity and attention to detail. Thank you.

 

I think the chief reason to doubt the signature is the broad stroke underneath it, which none of the other examples show. But there are a million variations to a hand worked siggy.

If it's not going to cost you much, I'd be inclined to let Sotheby's take a look. The thing is, either you have to consign it, or pay them for their opinion... and,of course, shipping both ways, which could be expensive on its own.

 

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful input! I appreciate you taking the time to look it over. It is great to have your educated opinions!

I should have included the size- sorry about that. It’s 28” x 19” with the frame.

It does seem to have the same thickness of paint pretty uniformly over the whole painting. I am including some more pictures with a close-up of the paint. The canvas material that it’s painted on seems thin also. I took a picture from the back side with it held up by a window and it is very see through! It looks to me that it has been backed by a newer fabric along the edges because the original seems to be falling apart a bit. I’m adding pictures of that too. That might explain the newer looking supports? The nails look new also. The nice guy I bought it from said it was from an estate sale in the Chicago area and had a hole that he had repaired (hence the patch). I should have mentioned that earlier. Sorry! Maybe that’s when it got the new supports, etc?

Thanks again for all the input. Much appreciated!! Hope everyone is having a good holiday season.

 

You're right! That stroke under the name isn’t connected to the name, which it seems to be in all his other signatures. I do see a lot of variation with his signature but it doesn’t seem to vary this
much. Thanks for your help!!

 

Well signatures apart, it is never a good sign to be able to see through an oil painting!
What this generally means is that the canvas support was not prepared in the traditional manner, i.e. with a primed gesso foundation. Basically the lack of a foundation would exclude this painting being from the hand of a trained artist.

It may also be relined?

I also believe the piece has been reduced from the original size -sometimes when this happens, the signature gets removed and a later hand will often "add" it again. Not uncommon, but in this case the lack of a foundation tends to put this very much in the camp of an admirer of said artist rather than a work by the artist himself.

 

I wondered why parts of the flowers were cut off.

 

If it has been entirely lined, the treatment may have included impregnating the canvas with wax or a wax-resin mixture under heat and pressure. This process was a common conservation treatment and served to adhere the original canvas to the lining, as well as stabilize a deteriorating ground layer. This might be the cause of the see-through quality.

 

Uh oh! Not good!!

@2manybooks has a very interesting point - I didn’t know anything about that. Thank you!
I’m thinking with all the signs against it being the “real deal” it’s going to remain a pretty little mystery hanging on my wall. I sure have learned a lot about it from you guys and learned more about how to critically look at a painting. So I’d call it a win!

 

Nope. You can't see through a gesso layer, relined or not.

This isn't a wax reline, if it is a reline at all it's an amateur job. Look at the edges. A real reline would bond completely, be rather expensive and wouldn't be mounted with a bunch of copper tintacks. I have lots of experience with relined canvas works both pro and amateur and IMO there is no way the piece would become transparent. What we have here is the home improvement/fixxy-uppy/find-a-frame/reduce size of painting to fit and get it up on eBay methodology.

 

I like your attitude. I aspire to the same position, but when my fantasies are crushed here it's some times a hard pill for me to swallow. I try to read as much as possible here, so incrementally my critical neural pathways are gaining strength. Thanks for posting this painting and being open about the comments. That elicits better responses, so we can all learn.

 

Well @KikoBlueEyes, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve been losing my mind over this set of antique French dinner flatware set- so much so that my sweet husband bought it for me as a gift. It was a big purchase for us and I was so excited for it to get here from France. Until today. I had previously bought a single “dinner” fork and spoon of a different style and those arrived today. They are so huge I thought they were actually serving utensils- just over 8”! I looked up what “dinner” flatware and and apparently Continental Dinner Flatware is the largest size of flatware and the size we are used to nowadays is called “lunch” flatware. Maybe I should have done my homework. So....I’m currently in the crushed fantasy camp, with a side of feeling like a dummy.

 

How disappointing! Especially since your husband bought you something you wanted at some expense, only to find you misjudged the size. Perhaps you can put them into a display case, as you found them visually attractive; they are antique, and they are from France. Just because they are not useful, doesn't make them less wonderful to see. I have been known to buy perfectly useless stuff just because it is old or unique or pretty. I have paid a lot of money too. I bought a Chinese cameo glass vase that I mistook the size of because it was in centimeters and not inches. I expected this monumental piece to display on a table when you come in my door, and I got something much smaller. Taught me a lesson, it did.

 

Yes!! I learned my lesson here too. The size was listed in the description but could I peel my eyes away from the soup ladle I was swooning over long enough to register that 8” is huge for a spoon or fork?! Nope!