Crossword Genius

Authentic painting of scoundrel (4,5,2,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

real piece of work

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'painting of scoundrel' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'authentic' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'authentic' could be 'real' (I've seen this before) and 'real' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'pieceofwork' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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