"Morrisseau Signature Identification Article 101" (Part I)

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~ Revisited
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by Michael Moniz
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* Edited/Additional info: by Spirit Walker
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~ Signature Sample I
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"Loon Totemic Spirit and Grebes with Human", Original serigraph on Arches paper, 29 3/4''x35'', © 1976 Norval Morrisseau
Edition: 60 (Publisher: Triple K Cooperative Inc.)
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Signature of Norval Morrisseau from the serigraph print ''Loon Totemic Spirit and Grebes with Human" (1976) also presented on page 168 in the book THE ART OF NORVAL MORRISSEAU /Lister Sinclair, Jack Pollock, and Norval Morrisseau/; ISBN: 0-458-93820-3 /Toronto, Ontario: Methuen, 1979./
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- Signature Sample II
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Copyright 2003 Norval Morrisseau/Morrisseau Art Publishing
/Click on image to enlage/
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Copyright 2003 Norval Morrisseau/Morrisseau Art Publishing
/Click on image to enlage/
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- Presented in this post are original Norval Morrisseau Silkscreen Prints from Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Toronto, Ontario.
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These three limited edition hand-pulled silkscreen prints were published exclusively for IKEA Canada, Courtesy Kinsman Robinson Galleries. Each print is individually numbered in the edition of 4500 and signed with the artist's authorized signature stamp. Printed on acid free 100% rag150g Stonehenge paper using oil based Inktech Satin Poster Ink.
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Each Print measures 11x 14.5 inches.
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>>> In this article you will learn valuable information and insight to identifying written and painted signatures done by the Master Artist Norval Morrisseau. Several known and published examples of Norval Morrisseau's signatures will be used as our base reference points in comparison analysis to asertain commonly repeated similarities found in Norval Morrisseau's written and painted signatures. Norval Morrisseau's painted signature can be found on the reverse of many canvas works of art that he created throughout his artistic carreer as a Woodland artist.
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Let us start by showing examples of his signature as found in well known documentation. These pictures were provided to me with permission from Maslak McLeod Gallery - Exibition catalogue 2007.
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Letter to Sussanna McLeod Dated 1968 (letter 1.)
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*Special note: Pay close attention to the fact that Norval Morrisseau does what is called ''print-writes'' as I coin this phrase. He prints written letters and does not attach them in a normal written script manner. This is a highly distinctive form of caligraphy. Also note the blending of upper and lower case letters throughout his correspondence in his letter to Sussanna McLeod (letter 1.). This mannerism and style is reflected in the painted signatures and titles of created artworks by Norval Morrisseau.
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Close-up view of Norval Morrisseau's signature in Sussanna Mcleod's letter
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- letter 2.
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'N'-orval
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1. The letter N in Norval can be seen here written in the above three signatures on paper are normal N letters, but appears as two sevens 77 connected to each other when Morrisseau painted them on the back of a finished canvas as can be seen in our below examples of this letter N characteristic which runs consistently many times with his works. The N is always separated from the rest of the letters in his first name.
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/Click in image to Enlarge/
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The first letter N in Norval can also be seen painted onto his canvases in a normal N style. The example below clarifies this fact in relation to Morrisseau's written words onto paper as well as the signatures in our four examples.
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/Click in image to Enlarge/
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The painting of the letter N has the distinction of being painted with three separate strokes of the brush. This ''three stroke letter N'' can be noticed many times in the -print writing- of titles that Morrisseau placed onto special pieces. Sometimes he just painted the letter N normally without removing the brush off the canvas. In the many examples provided in this article of the full views of the reverse canvas one can see the N painted in the manner described above with 3 strokes of the brush.

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The two letter N's above were taken from samples of Morrisseau titled works /Click in image to Enlarge/
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The letters 'O-R-V' in Norval
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2. The letters O-R and V in his first name NORVAL are always found seperated and Norval Morrisseau capitalizes his letter R. The capitilization of his letter R can be found three times in his entire signature painted on the reverse of his canvases and this correspondence can be found as well in his written signatures in our 4 examples. In letter 1. above it is clearly seen that Morrisseau wrote with a caligraphy that blended upper and lower case written printed letters. This characteristic is found many times in his paintings he chose to title and on the reverse side along with his signature and date of creation for the piece. Look carefully at the letter V and how the left stroke length of this letter is always shorter in length than the right stroke of the letter. This is typical of Norval Morrisseau's caligraphic style for writing this letter in his name.
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*special note: -the letter -O- which is found two times in NOrval MOrrisseau's name were drawn on canvas and written on paper in a counter-clockwise fashion. Try to follow the brush stroke in our samples below to see how Morrisseau first touched the canvas with his brush and follow the swing of the letter in a counter-clockwise direction to it's completion to make the letter.
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/Click in image to Enlarge/
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Note the separation of letters O-R and V in his written signature in letters 1. & 2. and the print signature provided in these examples below. All are showing a clear separation of the letters O-R and V in his first name n-O-R-V-al. The R's are always capitilized-upper case.
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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The letters 'AL' in Norval
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3. The last two letters of Morrisseau's first name are -al- and these two letters are always written together and painted together in script form as can be seen in these examples below and in letters 1. & 2. and in our print signature example.
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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'M'-orrisseau
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4. The letter 'M' in Norval Morrisseau's last name is written and painted rather flamboyantly. This letter is always painted and written separately and with one brush stroke as you trace and follow it's path to completion you see how Norval Morrisseau did this.
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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'O-R-R-i' in Morrisseau
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5. The next four letters in Morrisseau's last name are 'O-R-R-i'. These four letters appear always separated as they are written and painted onto the backs of his canvases and on paper. Note the letter ''i'' and how it is dotted up and to the right of the letter bar's top end. The letter ''i'' is also done in a lowercase script manner and found separated. This is a characteristic of his caligraphic style and is seen many times in his written letters on paper and also reflected in his painted signature on the reverse of the canvases he created. You can see this easily in our written signature examples above.
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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The double 'R-R'
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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Four examples of the upper case written and painted letter R and how it is painted onto the reverse of a canvas done by Norval Morrisseau and written as such in letters he wrote.
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middle 'S'
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6. Let us examine the first middle letter S as it appears in Morrisseau's last name. Here we have a most remarkable similarity between the look of this letter and the second Cree syllabic letter that Norval Morrisseau paints onto the fronts of his creations! Did Morrisseau do this consciously or subconsciously? One can only speculate. The syllabics read ''Copper Thunderbird'' on the front of the canvas. The letter S here is always separated in his written signature and Morrisseau painted the letter this way as well. This can be clearly scene below in our image examples. The photograph of Morrisseau's second Cree syllabic was taken from our painting Titled ''Sacred Medicine Bear'' dated 1979.
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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The above Cree sylabics spells out 'Copper ThunderBird'
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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'S-E-A-U' in Morrisseau
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7. The last remaining letters in Morrisseau's name to be adressed are S-E-A-U. These four remaining letters in Morrisseau's last name are always written and painted together in written script form.
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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The S-E-A-U remaining letters are many times never painted completely. You will find an SEA, SAU, SEAU, SUE or an S followed by a scribbled like trailing of the brush to complete the last four letters with little legibility.
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8. *special note - Norval Morrisseau almost always painted and wrote his first name Norval on top of Morrisseau.
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The Date
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9. Norval Morrisseau many times dated his creations. When he did date the pieces he finished,he would only indicate the last two years of the year. Painting it as such '77, '80, '75, '71... etc omitting the century indicator (19th century).
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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The copyright symbol
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10. In addition to the two numbered date scheme Norval Morrisseau applied a copy right symbol ''C'' to his paintings and this was done in a counter-clockwise direction as it was brushed on to the canvas. By carefully following the position of the brush stroke one can easily assertain it's direction on the canvas.
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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Spelling Mistakes
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11. Look for spelling mistakes in the titles that Norval Morrisseau painted onto the reverse of his pieces. The letter attached to this examination will suffice evidence to this fact that Morrisseau was not a great speller at times. Here are a couple of examples of this below.
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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In the above picture example we can see that Norval Morrisseau mispells the word apprentice and paints it as Apprent-A-ce.
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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In this example we can see that the word Animal has been mispelled as the word Anima-i-L.
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Written signature on canvas/ball point pen
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12. In our next example we are demonstrating a signed painting in Ball point pen on the reverse side of a canvas. Although it is not 100% clear one can still see the separation of the letters in Norval's first name up to the letter R and the -al- written as attached just like his written signature in our letter example. The double capitilization of the two letters -RR- are still pretty clear to read. The CREE sylabic S can be seen in the centre of Morri-S-seau's name with the written SEAU in script written form. Date of creation 1971 written as '71 with the copyright symbol in place.
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/Click on image to Enlarge/
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Michael Moniz
'Avalon Treasure'
eBay vendor *avalon*
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~ To be continued... (click HERE to see the "Morrisseau Signature Identification Article 101" in its entirety)
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>>> Reference posts:
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part I),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part II),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part III),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part IV),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part V),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part VI),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part VII),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part VIII),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part IX),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part X),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part XI),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part XII),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part XIII),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part XIV),
- Norval Morrisseau Signature Study (Part XV),
- Norval Morrisseau's Certificate of Authenticity (Part I),
- Norval Morrisseau's Certificate of Authenticity (Part II),
- Norval Morrisseau's Certificate of Authenticity (Part III),
- Norval Morrisseau's Certificate of Authenticity (Part IV),
- Norval Morrisseau's Certificate of Authenticity (Part V),
- Norval Morrisseau's Certificate of Authenticity (Part VI),
- Norval Morrisseau's Certificate of Authenticity (Part VII),
- Norval Morrisseau's Certificate of Authenticity (Part VIII),
- www_NorvalMorrisseauLawsuit_com (Part I),
- www_NorvalMorrisseauLawsuit_com (Part II),
- www_NorvalMorrisseauLawsuit_com (Part III),
- www_NorvalMorrisseauLawsuit_com (Part IV),
- www_NorvalMorrisseauLawsuit_com (Part V),
- www_NorvalMorrisseauLawsuit_com (Part VI),
- www_NorvalMorrisseauLawsuit_com (Part VII),
- www_NorvalMorrisseauLegalDefenceFund_com,
- Norval Morrisseau Genuine Collage,
- Justice for Norval Morrisseau (Part I),
- Justice for Norval Morrisseau Found,
- Michael Moniz vs. CTV Globemedia Publishing Inc.,
- Sacred Medicine Wheel /Forensic Report/,
- Sacred Medicine Bear /Forensic Report/,
- Thunder Bay's Norval Morrisseau vs. Jack Pollock's Norval Morrisseau (Part I),
- Thunder Bay's Norval Morrisseau vs. Jack Pollock's Norval Morrisseau (Part II) &
- Thunder Bay's Norval Morrisseau vs. Jack Pollock's Norval Morrisseau (Part III).
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