Rejected works
It is extremely hard to attribute not signed paintings to a painter. Even with an autographed painting, caution should be exercised because the signature can be later applied by another with the intention to increase selling opportunities or value. Developments in the oeuvre of Rembrandt illustrate this. During the 20-th century, the number of paintings that was attributed to Rembrandt, halved to about three hundred. With a rough estimate is about 10 percent of them still uncertain. A click on the link below opens a PDF file, which describes paintings, which had previously been assumed that these were painted by Maria van Oosterwijck but on this moment with serious doubts about that attribution or which attribution by experts is rejected. Again, the measure of the surface of the painting was decisive for the order of appearance.