Appraisers often encounter situations where an artwork is unsigned or has an illegible signature that can’t be deciphered. In this article, appraiser Dr. Elizabeth Stewart shares her personal process for judging quality in art by an unknown or unidentified artist. She uses a case study to explain the seven elements for evaluating artwork.

The example painting is actually a work by the highly-respected late California artist Alex Gonzales (American, 1927-2020). However, for the purpose of analysis, we’ll pretend this painting belongs to Dr. Stewart’s fictional client “Jane” and is unsigned or has an illegible signature.

**Photograph by John Flandrick, Flandricka House Photography**

My client “Jane” has an oil on canvas painting in the postmodern style that has no signature. The back reads “Carmel Art Association.” She thinks it may have been in a show, so she is wondering if the painting is good enough for her to do considerable research to find the artist. For this, she needs to know how to look closely at the painting, and I suggest a formal analysis of the work. In this article, I guide her to learn how to do this.

Even if this painting is not the client’s taste, she writes that she could use the money if the work turns out to be quality. How should she determine this? I answer her that she should look for certain elements in this painting that indicate a professional approach that distinguishes an amateur work from an accomplished work. Just like there are certain grammatical and rhyming elements that can be found in a good poem, there are elements that indicate a good work of art. In my career as an appraiser, I have designed a process for evaluating quality in art by analyzing seven elements within the artwork.

This article is a follow-up to my previous contribution “How to Identify an Unsigned or Unidentified Painting.” I’ve received so much email from readers following its publication that I’ve written this piece to teach how someone could distinguish if a painting is worth the hours of research. Of course, if you are an appraiser, you must know these elements and do careful research to try to identify the artist before you make the fatal mistake of saying “not much value!”

There are seven elements I look for in an artwork that indicate skill and form the structure of a painting: Shape, Form, Texture, Space, Value, Color, and Line. I have asked my partner and professional object photographer John to shoot each of these elements within Jane’s painting in order of this article, an exclusive for Worthwhile Magazine™.

The first photo shows you shape. The second photo shows you form; the third shows you texture, and the next three photos show you space in the sky and the background, next is color a close-up of how the accomplished artist (Alex Gonzales-yes I gave it away!) handles color. Finally, you see the whole canvas, which shows you the confident line.

Isolate how an artist has approached these elements, and you can “read” a painting. All works contain at least a few of these elements, and once you can learn to see the components of the work, you can judge for yourself.

Here’s how I see the first element, shape: a shape in a painting is a two-dimensionally enclosed figure that reads as having a certain length. In Jane’s painting, this is the human shape, bound by lines. Now, within that shape we see contours. Those contours lead us to the next element, which is form.

FORM: This is a tricky element to describe because it refers to the illusion of three dimensions (in a two-dimensional work). Form is the suggestion of three dimensions achieved by the artist’s expertise in contouring within a shape, through the use of shadowing, modeling, or texturing. In Jane’s work you can see that the human body figure has “volume,” in other words it looks like the figure has depth in space. Note the waist and the hips of the figure: we see depth there, and this is expertly accomplished. To be ‘read’ properly, a painting will deal with space, the next element.

SPACE: Space is the illusion of distance in a painting, as well as sometimes the illusion of nothingness or negative space, and together they create the feeling of location in a work. For example, in Jane’s piece, the figure stands in a certain scale in relationship to the horizon line rendered in pinks in the background. We may read that the figure “stands” before a vista of landscape with features of rolling hills. The negative space area is the sky which has no indication of “where” about it. However, the negative space is expertly rendered to give the viewer a sense that the figure stands in some kind of atmosphere. And this is achieved expertly through the artist’s use of another element, texture.

TEXTURE: Texture, like form, has implied three dimensions. For example, look at the line of purple on the figures right “leg.” The subtle brushstrokes of purple, set off by white, and then blues and greens, indicate the depth of the leg and also add interest. I like to say that if there is an area in which you, the viewer, “linger” in a painting, check to see if you believe the artist to have intended you look there, or are you looking at a mistake or accident, a common indication of an amateur painter. In Jane’s case, the artist is using the abstract cross-hatching of his brush to create texture, which creates depth. The deep purple of the leg is highlighted by white, bringing me to the next element, which is value.

VALUE: Although the common use of the term "value" is monetary worth, particularly in an appraisal context, value has a different meaning in the analysis of a work of art. Value is a term that has been used in classical composition classes for generations to mean the clarity of color in the application by the artist of that color. Hue is the color, and value is the clarity, depth, tone of that color.

I can use a musical analogy to define the difference between value and hue in judging a work of art: a violinist plays the note "C," and the listener hears it as the note "C." But an accomplished violinist will add to, or subtract from, the note itself to create clarity or depth, perhaps using various techniques, for example, using vibrato, dampening the string, amplifying the sound, etc. Hue is analogous to the note, and value analogous to the skill with which the note is played. A good artist will use the hue blue, for example, but a great artist will handle the blue with a difference. The handling of the hue is VALUE.

Value is the hardest element to capture because it requires an ability to see the tonal range in any given color, and the technical ability to communicate the right range on paper or canvas. Look again at the purple line of the leg. That purple is the darkest purple value used in this painting (there are other purples of lesser value). Some artists are simply better at seeing color variations, as, for example, a blue tone goes from dark blue to light. To master hue well indicates years of experience in both seeing and looking and in technique. For example, see the way that the values of the following colors change for intended reasons in this work: the yellow, purple, pinks, greens, blues; the subtlety of value change indicates skill in the medium, and a talent for seeing as well, which leads me to the next element, color.

COLOR: A trap for many viewers because we all have favorites. Beyond personal preference, I look for certain handling of color that indicates expertise. There are elements within any color that a good artist will see; these are intensity (how strong or weak a color may be), value (the appreciation of clarity or brightness in a color), and hue (the actual color itself). A gifted “eye” is an expression that means an artist will both see color and handle pigment with a special insight. For example, some artists can see 20 different colors in one swipe of the brush. And finally, the most obvious element, and saved for last is line.

LINE: One element that does not exist in nature, but it is a necessity in art. Without line, there is no art, it is said. Does the artist handle line well? Even abstracted, does the artist use the line to her/his advantage? Is it decisive?

Is Jane’s painting is worthy? Yes, I think so.

The colors may not fit everyone’s taste, but I love the expertise of the artist. It’s worth the research to identify the artist, and appraisers, it is worth the research, no matter your own preferences, to find the artist for your client. Memorize the seven elements I’ve outlined here, and you can see for yourself.

How to Judge Quality in a Work of Art by an Unknown or Unidentified Artist

The example painting is actually a work by the highly-respected late California artist Alex Gonzales (American, 1927-2020). However, for the purpose of analysis, we’ll pretend this painting belongs to Dr. Stewart’s fictional client “Jane” and is unsigned or has an illegible signature.

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