Renoir Print, Once Dismissed As Forgery, Reattributed By German Art Historian

(MENAFN- USA Art News) A print once believed to be a forgery by Pierre-Auguste Renoir has been reattributed by German art historian Henry Keazor. The work on paper was previously classified as a fake.

Keazor, a professor of modern and contemporary art history at the University of Heidelberg, founded the Heidelberg Forgery Study Collection (HeFäStuS). This initiative collaborates with the state criminal investigation offices of Berlin, Bavaria, and Baden-Württemberg, which loan forgeries from their evidence rooms for research and teaching, according to the HeFäStuS website. Students at the university have direct access to its collection of 140 forgeries by artists including Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dalí, and Alberto Giacometti, allowing them to“become aware of the phenomenon of art forgery and learn how to recognize it.”

In 2023, a private collector offered the drawing to Keazor and the HeFäStuS as part of a“household clearance.” The owner had inherited the piece in the 1970s from a friend who operated a New York gallery that had“classed [the work] as a fake,” a release stated. The gallery had also identified the medium as a pencil drawing.“While unpacking it I noticed immediately that it was a print, not an original pencil drawing,” Keazor said in a statement. This observation prompted him and his students to research Renoir's works on paper and conduct paper and microscopic analyses. These tests revealed the“structure of the autotype paper” and confirmed that the“signature is written by hand with black grease chalk,” according to Keazor.

Researchers now believe the work is a hand-signed lithograph, created around 1899, depicting actor and singer Amelie Diéterle. It aligns with a piece Renoir produced for“Germinal,” an artist portfolio that also featured works by Degas, van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Keazor now posits that the HeFäStuS print served as a test for the portfolio works, which were produced in an edition of 100 and featured printed rather than handwritten signatures. Keazor explained,“The solution to the riddle is that the picture is a test print made with only one of the two print stones. Since the signature evidently lay on another stone, Renoir added it by hand, thereby making the proof a fully valid work,” adding that such test prints are rare in art history. The print will be exhibited at the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg from November 26 to March 21 as part of an exhibition titled“Riddle around Renoir.” Following the exhibition, the HeFäStuS and the previous owner will decide“where to keep the print in future,” according to a release.

Source: ARTnews

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