Authentication of free hand drawings by pattern recognition methods

Proof of authenticity of free hand drawings of artists is one of the major problems in history of arts especially with respect to unsigned works of famous artists. Usually the authentication is performed manually by experts based on a physical analysis of the drawing materials used, and visual inspection. This often leads to ambiguous results as the visual inspection is influenced by subjective criteria, experience, and background information. Here we show how automatic pattern recognition methods can be applied to decide if a drawing belongs to the work of a certain artist. As example we compare drawings by Delacroix (1798-1863) with the work of contemporary artists whose drawings show similar characteristics. Based on higher order features we are able to achieve a correct classification for about 87% of the drawings.