Professional Art Research

Mission

Fine Art Investigations is dedicated to preserving the artistic and historic legacy embedded in 19th century American portraits through professional art research, to restoring artists’ moral right to correct attribution, and to providing clients with professional services in  an approachable manner.

History

After ten years of experience in locating and identifying re-discovered George Caleb Bingham portraits, Fine Art Investigations expanded to include other 19th century American portrait artists and to develop a comprehensive system to identify American portrait artists through professional art research.

Comprehensive System

Fine Art Investigations merged computer skills, scientific methodology, and  professional art research into a comprehensive system to identify the work of 19th century American portrait artists.  Most did not sign their work.

The foundation of the system is academic knowledge of American art history. Building the system into an efficient method of artist identification evolved from practical experience and a compulsion to organize: a database of hundreds of artists linked to thousands of image files. With one good clue, FAI can answer the questions: When was the artwork painted? Who was the portrait artist? Who was the portrait subject?

Artist Identification

Subject Identification

Other Services

At clients’ requests, FAI can answer the questions: How should the portrait be cared for? What is the best way to sell it?  Click these links to see examples of  and brokered sales, and these for how to get started and pricing. A recent article details the work of FAI’s principal art sleuth.