Another original Morrisseau signature. Just note the difference in the third letter in the three signatures. Norval's are stretched vertically, and compressed horizontally. The other letter is starkly different, being vertically compressed and dramatically pointing out - ooops - stretched to the left. In letter 2, after the down stroke, Norval goes down and hooks up at the end; the other one goes up and slides off at the end. In letter 4, Norval's leans forward or has an advance stance and is sharply pointed, whereas the other leans back and is round topped. Norval's backwards 6 leans forward, the other backward. Norval's letter 5 have a strongly horizontal starting line; the other is decidedly sloped down. Norval's question mark hooks to a sharp bend down, the other a rounded bend down. When so many letters are different we must assume a different hand, than Norval's, made them.

This work was bought by a fan of Morrisseau who told us he owned another one as well. Did he get a deal at $400? He suggested in five years it'll grow humongously in value... He also allowed that he met the consignor at the auction!!! Who had told him he had bought the "Morrisseau" for $2,000 and was taking a real bath letting a genuine work by Morrisseau go for $400. Especially, we might add, after all the additional art work he had to put out... So why, you may ask, was he letting it go, and at a remote auction at that, if he wanted to recoup his investment?

But besides showing up at a remote auction, and the cheap price - few people even at the country auction thought the painting was a bargain - there are other problems with this piece.

It's on a thick chunk of masonite, not a medium that one encounters with Morrisseau, with no writing on the back explaining this oddity or its origin. Nor titling, nor Norval's signature.

The signature on the front is another, very big, problem. Those are the syllabics of Norval's name but Norval would not - and neither would you with your signature - sign his like that or in that place - weirdly placed and unartistically presented. Right a genuine uncramped original Morrisseau signature.

Note how someone - clearly an unartistic klutz - who obviously is unaccustomed to signing that name, starts boldly in a place, and with a size of letter, he thinks will fit, then starts to panic when he sees he's running out space, and cramps his letters closer together and makes them smaller. Then bangs the last letter up against the image.

Study Norval's name on genuine works. His signature is always well distributed however he displays it and does not ram up, clumsily, against his images.

Let's not get into the image. Compare its elements, their distribution, and grace with genuine Morrisseaus.

After the auction, the babble among a couple of dealers was that they had seen this "Morrisseau" before, but without the signature...

Morrisseau and Maud Lewis are among the most popular artists currently being faked on the Canadian fine art scene.

To the uninitiated they fall into the "primitive" category of art, so amateur repro artists home in on them because unsophisticated buyers can't tell their fakes apart from the real primitives...

Small Maud Lewis panels routinely sell for $5-6,000. A Maud Lewis looks like it can be painted in a few minutes by a skilled artist, so bogus forgers are at it, hoping to cash in on her popularity.

But the one left failed to get even a minimum bid at a 2008 Toronto fine art auction.

Wonder why?

Will it show up at a "straw hat" auctioneer, out west, next?