Why choose a painting with a certificate of authenticity?

Hi, I'm Théo! My mother signed every one of her canvases at the bottom, with a quick stroke : “R.Gardan”. Since she passed away in 2018, those signatures are what still ties each painting to her hand. A certificate of authenticity is that gesture carried over onto paper.

What the certificate really attests

A certificate of authenticity ties a work to the person who painted it. It states three things : that the canvas came from the artist's own hand, that it exists as a single piece, and where it comes from. Here it accompanies every canvas by Régine Gardan on delivery, and the detail of what it guarantees lives on our page devoted to the certificate of authenticity.

It is a piece of paper you rarely look at. It goes in a drawer and waits. Its moment comes later : the day you pass the canvas on, resell it, or simply when someone asks you who painted it.

A hand-painted work, not a print

This is the first question buyers ask, and rightly so : many websites sell prints presented as paintings. A printed reproduction stays flat. It has no relief, no trace of a tool, none of that texture that shifts with the hour of the day.

My mother's canvases are hand-painted works, in oil on cotton canvas. She worked with a palette knife, and that gesture leaves ridges no print can reproduce. Each piece is one of a kind : a single copy, never a series, and the certificate says so in writing.

“Commencement” (65 × 80 cm) carries her signature in the lower right, laid into the pink while it was still wet. On an abstract canvas, the signature is often the only place where the hand reads as handwriting.

Provenance, the other half of authenticity

Authenticity does not stop at the signature. It includes provenance : the path the work has travelled since the studio. For Régine's canvases that path is short, and that is a stroke of luck. They come straight from the collection she left behind, with no intermediary and no chain of resales to trace.

Her career is documented too : her exhibitions and awards span more than twenty years of salons, from Brittany to the northern Isère. That is what gives the word “provenance” real content, rather than a line on a form. The same reasoning applies when you wonder why invest in a hand-painted work.

Your rights over the canvas you buy

Here is the point that surprises people most. Buying a canvas makes you its full owner : you hang it, you pass it on, you resell it. The sale transfers no reproduction rights, however : those remain with the artist and her estate, under article L.111-3 of the French Intellectual Property Code.

Put simply, the canvas is yours ; the image of the canvas stays protected. For a reproduction or licensing project, write to us : those requests are looked at case by case, and I answer them myself.

“Passion” (65 × 80 cm) shows what the palette knife brings : thick impasto that catches the light, impossible to print. It belongs to the red abstract paintings collection.

What I do before every shipment

I prepare each work before it leaves : the canvas, its packaging, and its certificate travelling with it. That is the moment when I see my mother's signature again, every single time. Then the canvas goes off to live in someone else's home, and the paper stays with it. That is roughly the role I gave myself when I took over her work : making sure nothing gets lost along the way.

Frequently asked questions

How can you tell an original painting from a reproduction?

Look at the surface in raking light : an oil painting made with a palette knife has ridges, uneven thickness, sometimes the weave of the canvas showing through. A print stays smooth and uniform. The hand-painted signature and the certificate that comes with the work confirm what the eye has already seen.

Is the certificate included, or do I have to ask for it?

It is included with every canvas, at no extra cost and with nothing for you to do. It is handed over with the work on delivery, ready to be kept alongside it.

What does the certificate that comes with the canvases contain?

It attests that the canvas is an original work by Régine Gardan, unique and handmade, and it establishes its provenance within the artist's collection.

Choosing a canvas that carries its own story

Every work leaves with its signature, its certificate and its story. Browse the collection : more than two hundred original canvases, from red to blue, each one unique. And if you are still hesitating, the guide to choosing a painting to match your personality will help you see more clearly.