Artists’ Fingerprints

Any piece of art may bear the fingerprints of the artist who created it. Much of such crucial evidence is often ignored even by connoisseurs, art professionals and conservators. Even now, such evidence could also be precious in verifying some facts, including authorship and dating.

A For thousands of years, people have recognised the unusual characters of ridges on our hands. A study of ancient pottery, for example, reveals the utilisation of fingerprint impression on the clay as a maker’s mark. Handprints have also been discovered in prehistoric cave paintings, although it was not until 1858 that Sir William Herschel established their use for identification. In 1888, Sir Francis Galton was in charge of refining and formulating Herschel’s observations. Identification by fingerprints was first adopted in England in 1905 and received general accep-tance worldwide in 1908.

B Every finger impression composed of a series of characteristics is specific to a particular print. The reason why we rely on fingerprint evidence is based on the assumption (now accepted as a fact) that no two fingers can have fully consistent ridge features. Galton made a mathematical prediction that there might be about 64 billion different fingerprint patterns. The functionality of this technique is that it suggests the possibility of the existence of identical fingerprints from two unrelated individuals is zero, and this possibility has not been found anywhere or anytime.

C The uniqueness of a fingerprint does not hinge on its overall shape or pattern but on the thorough research of its ridge characteristics. Since complete fingerprints are not very likely to be left at a crime scene, comparison of a relatively small number of features in legal practice is also accepted. During the judicial process, fingerprints often need to be compared point by point using expertise. This is also the principle that must be followed when it comes to fingerprints concerning art.

D Artists in the visual art field employ their hands to create. Their tools (such as brushes) usually make the surface of their work being isolated from themselves. Inaccurate deposits of paint are often corrected with fingertips. Some artists use their fingertips to soften the marks left by brushes by gently tapping or stroking the still-wet surface. Under some circumstances, the fin-gertips are actually used to ‘stamp’ the fine network of ridges onto the painting.

E The eventual authentication of a painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner entitled Landscape with a Rainbow in 1993 is a good illustration of the process. It was first noticed in the early 1980s when the Biros brought the painting to the Tate Gallery in London to display it to the leading Turner experts and collection custodians. The verdict was unanimous – the painting was a tattered imitation. Yet fingerprint evidence was observed on the painting by a veteran specialist from the RCMP when he conducted proper recording and re-examination. The finger-prints on Landscape with a Rainbow were considered to match those on another Turner painting, Chichester Canal. When an independent fingerprint inspection by John Manners of the West Yorkshire Police confirmed the conclusion of the same fingerprints of the two paintings, the unbelievers changed their minds. In addition, it is known to all that Turner used to work alone without any assistant, which has significantly reduced the likelihood of unexpected contribution. The painting, originally bought for a few hundred dollars, was finally sold for close to $200,000 at auction at Phillips in London in 1995.

F In 1998, one man got three envelopes containing old correspondence in an antique shop, one of which was postmarked April 2, 1915, and contained a half-folded drawing. The drawing depicted a woman’s head. It was executed in red chalk with an inscription written in reverse with brown ink. The design was faded and worn, and some spots on it show that it has been discoloured by mould. The paper was yellowed and contaminated.

G The newly discovered design was very similar to that of The Head of St. Anne by Leonardo da Vinci in the Windsor Collection since 1629. With the difference in medium, red chalk was used instead of black. The two paintings had different proportions, and at that point, offset printing (copying by contact transference) was not a satisfactory explanation for the new drawing. When the paper was initially checked, several fingerprints were noticed on the verso, one of which was clearly visible and had many ridges suitable for comparison. However, no analysis was performed at that time due to the lack of reference materials. Many of Leonardo’s works were not easily available, and fingerprint data either did not exist or was not released.

H Occasionally, on March 30, 1999, several clear and useable fingerprints were detected on an exceptionally detailed photo in a publication on Leonardo. The photograph of St. Jerome of Leonardo in the Vatican Museum showed that there were no less than 16 partial traces of fin-gertips. The importance of this was that the fingerprints remained in the still-wet paint, and there was no doubt that the fingertips were used to modify the paint. Since the authorship of the painting of St. Jerome was unquestioned by scholarship and had always been ascribed to Leonardo, the conclusion that these fingerprints were his would be hard to argue against.

I After being scanned and enlarged, the fingerprints on the St. Jerome illustration were compared with those on the drawing from the old envelope. One of them proved to match. Later, the analysis result was submitted on March 31, 1999, to fingerprint examiner staff Sergeant André Turcotte for an independent assessment. He agreed with the survey result and confirmed the conclusion. The fingerprints on the St. Jerome painting and the newly discovered drawing were created by the same finger.

J Remember, the authentication approach should rest on strict considerations and rigorous meth-odology. Only patterns that are clearly from the actual creative process are admitted for consid-eration. The reference samples should ideally come from undoubted artworks with good prov-enance. Spurious contributors must be eliminated, such as assistants who may have touched the painting while still wet. Unless corroborated by at least one well-trained and experienced finger-print verifier, a match will never take place.

Questions 27 – 32

Reading Passage 3 has ten paragraphs, A–J.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A–J, in boxes 27–32 on your answer sheet.

27.an estimate indicating that people’s fingerprint patterns are inconsistent
28.a method used to identify the authorship of a newly found painting
29.mention of fingerprint identification in the legal process
30.some suggestions put forward by the writer on authenticating works of art
31.historical examples of the use of fingerprints
32.mention of the different materials used in two pieces of artwork

Questions 33 – 37

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–I, below.

Write the correct letter, A–I, in boxes 33–37 on your answer sheet.

A might use fingers to remove unwanted paint left by brushes.

B uncovered the use of clay.

C was first used in Galton’s mathematical conjecture.

D was left to ascertain the creator.

E was repaired at a high cost.

F eventually got a reasonable bid.

G was widely recognised as a reliable method.

H was preserved in the Windsor Collection.

I could be identified by comparing fingerprints on it with those from other sources.