The two most popular apps for recognizing artwork are Smartify and Magnus. Both of these apps will pull up information about the work’s artist, as well as interesting facts and background information about the composition. These apps only have access to paintings that have been well-documented and catalogued by curators, professors, historians, and other artists. If the painting is made by a more obscure artist, these apps may not work.
If you’re using Google Chrome, you can right click an image and select “Search Google for this image” to search the web. You can download an image and upload it to the engine instead of copying and pasting the URL if you prefer. The most popular reverse image search is TinEye, but there are several options available online.
A monogram refers to a 2- to 3-letter design containing the artist’s initials. Monograms tend to be more popular among painters working after the 1800s. Signatures were almost never used before the Renaissance, which began around 1300. Even if you can’t identify a signature, at least you have a baseline for your search![4] X Research source You have to sign up for a free account to use it, but you can use https://artistssignatures. com/ to reverse search for an artist’s signature. This is useful if you think you can read the signature but want to double-check to make sure you aren’t misreading it.
If you’re contacting a gallery owner, try to find a gallery that specializes in the type of art you’re trying to identify. For example, a contemporary abstract piece is going to be easier to identify if the gallery owner mainly focuses on newer artists.
For example, there aren’t many painters alive today painting portraits of Spanish aristocrats from the 1600s, and absolutely nobody was painting images of Elvis Presley before 1954! For example, if there is a small airplane in the background of the painting, you know that the painting must have been made after 1903, since that’s when Wilbur and Orville Wright first successfully flew a plane.
There are hundreds of movements; if you can’t figure out the movement at first glance, look through museum catalogues and online collections to find similar paintings.
If more than one medium was used to produce a work, it is highly-likely that the image was created after 1900. It was fairly rare before this period to combine multiple materials to produce a painting. This is a lot harder to do if you’re looking at a digital image, but if the colors are almost supernaturally bright or neon, the painting was probably made with acrylic.
If the canvas is hanging loosely on the frame, the painting may have been made prior to 1600. Before 1600, most artists weren’t particularly good at stretching the fabric tight against the frame.
Almost every major museum has an online dataset that you can search. Search through these catalogues to find similar pieces that may belong to your artist. Once you have the artist, finding the specific painting is fairly easy. Museums and universities often catalogue and document the entire body of work for well-known painters, so you should be able to find the specific painting just by poking around online.
Use the other steps in this method first before looking for lesser known details. It’s possible that the painting is a reproduction, print, or mass-produced version of a popular painting. If you see 2-3 numbers listed in a corner, the painting was probably purchased at a thrift shop or resale store. The employees of these stores often write the price on a back of a work. You’re unlikely to be able to identify the artist or image in this case.
If you only have the canvas and there is no frame, check the wood portion of the canvas on the back. Prior to 1900, most artists stretched their own canvases. If there is a signature on the wood frame, it’s probably the artist’s. This isn’t really a helpful option if the painting is well known or really old, since it was likely re-framed at some point.
