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Sizes
La Loge, by Auguste Renoir, 31cm X 21cm
A quick way to determine if a painting
is American or from somewhere else is simply to measure
it.
Standard painting sizes are not the same everywhere. The
French, in particular, have a special paintings size
system based on the golden rule. They have three basic
format sets for portraits, landscapes and seascapes.
Seascape sizes are based directly on the golden rule.
Portrait sizes are based on the golden rule x 2.
Landscape sizes are based on the ratio of the square
diagonal 1.414214.
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Naturally, American painters worked in
France and painters from everywhere worked in Italy, and
so on. The fact that a painting has a European format
does not mean the artist was necessarily French or
German, but like everything else when it comes to
researching paintings, it provides a hint.
A Renoir painting on an American-size canvas would be
immediately suspicious.
The life of most significant painters is well documented
and it is easy to check if they ever worked in America,
in England, in France, or somewhere else. With this
information it is easy to determine if a painting size
is compatible with the art supplies which would have
been available to an artist.
In addition to the question of standard painting sizes
being different in various countries, many artists had
preferences and would tend to work on canvasses or
boards in a limited range of sizes.
Again, this does not provide absolute evidence for or
against authenticity, but it creates yet another
presumption, if a painting matches the artist's habits,
or to the contrary is outside his usual size
preferences.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte, by Georges Seurat,
6 ft 9 inches X 8ft 10 inches
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