How to Identify Vintage Art

One of the things I’ve really grown to love collecting in the past year is vintage art. Today I thought would be a great day to share some of what I’m looking for when I try to identify vintage art.

I love all kinds of vintage art. From paintings to drawings and even vintage needlework, it brings me such joy to search for pieces that I know will be loved in my home and others’ as well.

First of all, let me say that you should always buy art because you like it. While I offer these tips to help you, at the end of the day, purchasing something you love is always the most important.

When I’m looking for art, I’m always on the hunt for a few indicators of age.

Name

One of the first things to see is whether the art is signed. Once you have a signature, you can do a quick Google search to determine the artist’s career span. However, this isn’t always full proof. Reproductions and prints are fairly common, so you’ll need to do a little additional investigating.

Some reproductions do have value. Recently, I came across a collection of midcentury prints at an estate sale. They were clearly prints, labeled with the artist’s name and painting title on the back. But these prints were unique in that they were textured. I grabbed them because I could tell they definitely had age, and they were a great price. As it turns out, even though they were prints, they were produced in the 1950s with, at the time, cutting-edge technology used to give prints realistic painting appeal. Name and painting title definitely helped out, but it was the further investigating that really took this find from neat to “Wow!”

In my experience, prints on cardboard tend to have more age than a print on paper.

Canvas Attachment

If a painting was created on canvas, one of the first things I look for is how the canvas was attached to the stretcher. Prior to the 1940s, most canvases were attached using nails. Finding a painting on canvas stretched with nails is almost always an immediate buy for me.

That’s not to say paintings with staples aren’t old because they can be. Typically, I’ll look to see what shape the staples are in. Rusting is a pretty good indicator of age as the kinds of staples used in modern art production are meant to refrain from rusting.

Of course, if I’m looking at a watercolor or drawing, then there won’t be any canvas to notice. Instead, I’ll be looking at the color of the paper. Vintage framing techniques probably wouldn’t have been able to keep a piece from yellowing or fading with age.

Framing

This one is a little tougher to explain because there are all kinds of nuances to the frame discussion.

For starters, I will always give something another look if it is a bare wood frame. I’ve gotten pretty good at being able to tell whether a frame has age just by its look. Next, I’ll check to see how the art is held in. Nails aren’t commonly used in framing anymore, so that will usually tell me if I’ve got something older.

And it may seem obvious, but don’t overlook information on framing companies. Sometimes a quick Google search of the company will tell you if they are still in business and if/when they closed down. That information can be very helpful in dating a piece. Every now and then, you’ll get extra lucky and discover the framing company actually dated their work.

Color

As silly as this sounds, if I’m looking at a painting, I can usually nail down whether something is old based on the colors. Vintage art is often much more muted. If the colors are bright and vibrant, I’m usually pretty sure I’m dealing with something newer.

This isn’t a hard and fast rule, though. Art produced in the 1950s and 1960s actually tend to showcase brighter, more pastel colors than much of the art before or after it. But because I am usually on the lookout for other markers, I can typically distinguish whether I’m dealing with something older.

Damage

I’m not opposed to scooping up vintage art with a little damage. Most damage to older pieces comes in the form of scuffed paint, warped canvas or boards, or crackling. Much like crazing on a stoneware dish, crackling, in particular, will typically tell me that a piece is fairly old.

Research/Experience

Lastly, and probably hardest tip to really “teach” is research and experience. As I’ve developed more of an eye for what I’m drawn to art-wise, I’ve just really learned to be able to pick up on whether something is old or not pretty quickly. I am also a big fan of researching things and have learned quite a bit about various art eras and what types of art were popular in which decades.

Google is the best source of information about art. If there’s a type of art you feel drawn to, type in a few search terms and see if it doesn’t take you on a bit of a deep dive about that particular style.

My favorite art is landscape art. I have so much to learn, but simply researching that type of art has already taught me so much about what would be indicative of landscape art from various eras.

Any fellow vintage art enthusiasts have anything they would add to this list? Drop them in the comments below!