What is 前源? If not the 'spring ahead'? Here are some random sentences

海上画派的前源是以董其昌为代表的松江画派。
他在师从鲁风老师的同时，亦在不停的上溯花鸟画艺术的前源，寻找滋养，丰盈自我素养，这就使其花鸟画作品逐步凸显出章法的大开大合，用笔则更加强化了 ...
... 也就是说，商代后期的殷墟文化应当另有其本土前源。

I'm thinking it is some art term that I'm not familiar with.
It certainly is not the same as the 前源 that appears in《望梅止渴》, which just means the spring ahead...
so what is it?
In this sentence:

前源 = original source/source ahead

so it translates to ...originated from...

前源 in 望梅止渴 doesn't necessarily mean spring ahead, because 源 in 望梅止渴 is 水源(water source). So 前源 in 望梅止渴 means 前面的水源(water source ahead), where source is the definition of 源.

It could be anything, for example Japanese Kanji的前源是Chinese Hanzi.