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PROCEDURES & METHODOLOGIES OF FINE ART AUTHENTICATION RESEARCH Procedures Modern authentication research can be divided into three research schools: art historical research, technical paint analysis and technical material analysis. The art historian focuses on historical and visual analysis. The painterly aspects are investigated by the painting conservator, and material analysis is based on scientific research carried out in various laboratories under the supervision of a conservation scientist. Yet, collaboration between these three disciplines has not always been a matter of course. In the nineteenth century, it was common practice amongst art historians to settle questions of authenticity on the basis of individual authority alone. For generations, a minority of ‘art experts’ exercised exclusive control over the processes of fine art authentication. It was not until the 1930s that the first collaborations between art historians and experts from different technical disciplines were applied to the fine art authentication process. In the 21st century, the technical possibilities for fine art authentication research have grown substantially, but this has not made the task verifying attribution any easier. While greatly improved research tools allow experts to dissemble artworks in new and insightful ways, the absence of an internationally recognized standard of best practices for the application of research techniques to the authentication process presents a major challenge. Every editor of a catalogue raisonné, member of an authentication committee, and art expert applies his or her own particular method of assessment to individual artworks to this day – the outcome being irreconcilable disagreements regarding attribution outcomes.
Fig. 3 Edgar Degas Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat, circa 1865, graphite and black chalk on wove paper, Rogers Fund, 1918 (19.51.7)
In assembling this publication, we have taken great care to outline a comprehensive description of the procedures and methodologies applied. Why the painting should be attributed to Manet, and why it has escaped attention so far, is unraveled step by step in this study. We hope that this unique study of Jobarde can serve as a model for future research.
