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Valuing art with no signature: The claim case of Maxfield Parrish

Determining the value of a painting requires consideration of a number of factors.

By Erin Hollenbank | Updated on July 08, 2014
Maxfield Parrish, Morning, 1922

In determining the value of a painting, a number of factors must be considered, including the artist, provenance, the quality of work, period (date), and condition. In many instances we value paintings whose style and date of creation matches those of well-known artists though they lack signatures. High quality works produced in a specific period that cannot be directly connected to an individual artist by a signature or significant provenance, though created in the same style of an artist, are considered school or genre paintings. For example, many drawings in the market which cannot be attributed to Rembrandt yet have all the physical attributes of a Rembrandt are sold as “school of Rembrandt.” While an unsigned painting by a particular artist would have less value than a signed example by that very same artist, unsigned genre paintings do not command the highest prices in the marketplace.

We exercised this rule of thumb when asked to value a painting described to be by Maxfield Parrish (American, 1870 – 1966) titled Angel with a claimed value of $200,000.  Because the painting was burned in a fire and there were no existing photographs, we spoke to the insured in great detail about this painting. It was described to us as depicting an angel with extravagant, delicately painted gossamer wings on a rock on her knees, topless with a diaphanous cloth draped over her. The entire painting measured approximately 20” x 30”.  The painting was not signed and, according to the insureds, they were never able to attribute the piece to Maxfield Parrish. It was bequeathed to them 20 years earlier from a family friend who received it from his sister who was said to have received it directly from Maxfield Parrish when they studied together at the Art Institute of Chicago. Knowing Maxfield Parrish’s work, this was a perfect depiction of his style and subject matter.

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