The Irish standard., 1892-02-20
FRAUDULENT PICTURES.
Spurious Canvases Palmed or on
Credulous People.

Spurious Canvaees Palmed or on
Credulous People.
whole Car Loads of Counterfeit Art
Disposed of in the Leading Cities
of This Country-A Huge
Swindle.
Within month there was a picture
sale in New York simply incredible in
It's thievish audacity, says the Collector
ON the subject of fraudulent pictures
II was long line of forgeries of we'll
known and often-famous names. It
was extensively advertised. The
licensed auctioneer Endorsed it. The
er who runs his artistic bunco game in
the respectable neighborhood Of Mad
ison square. Formerly, believe, this
rogue had his forgeries painted in
Paris, where he has an artistic connec-
ton.
am told that he now has them exc
outed here, and SO saves himself the
duty at the custom house. He even
grudges the country the small tax it
porting his forgeries he imports his
compatriots to execute them. They
grind the mill around the corner from
Fifth avenue, instead Of in the garrets
of Montmarte. and the Batignolles.
Nor are bis frauds confined to New
York. They are spread by his agents
over the whole country, and especially
In the west, where whole cargoes
of counterfeit art are Mnloadeds at job
lot prices. The last time was in Chi
cago, heard a big board Of trade man
pricing pictures in a gallery.
-Four thousand dollars for that Diaz?"
he exclaimed, ''why, bought one from
soandoso last week for four hundred
dollars, and it was twice the size"
do not believe in these impeccable
gentlemen who stroll around gallery
fraudulent and false at glance. /
never met one Of them who could salts
fy me that he had any greater proofs
than his own conceit to support him.
To detect forgery in art a man must
be more than casual critic, and he
will not make his decisions off hand
like a criticism of comic song. The
most expert of experts is fallible, any
how, and when pictures are turned out
as, for instance, the French painters of
the 1850 school turned them out, by con-
tract, SO to speak, the bad with the
good, the worthless with the gems, all
given currency by the magic of a famous
name, it becomes a matter of impossi-
bility to render a decision except in
cases of the most fagrantly apparent
fraud.
/ know a great many canvases OF this
Imprint that would not hang on my
wall as gifts, but do not take it upon
myself to say that these latter are coun-
terfeits, even did think SO. 1t is suffi'
cient for me that they are artistically
worthless, and but for the painters
names would not sell for the value of
average native work in Il public sale.
There are pictures by Corot, Diaz> Rous-
seau. ETC., in many collections which
show how we'll these great men could
paint when they chose. But the great
est men have done, and ever will do,
work unworthy OF them-expe,'iments
selves, sketches made as memoranda
and left as such. The artist dies His
are sold.
And the next thing we know they are ;
put upon the market |
There is only one point about great !
deal of this posthumous rubbish that
is really suspicious-this is that so much !
Of it is signed. Artists do not make a
practice of signing their sketches or !
their incomplete works. Who, then,
signs them? The mere fact that they
are signed would go far to show that
their market is intrinsic, and dependent ,
on the name of the artist rather than !
the quality of his art. If a work of art !
sells on it's merits, the question OF ;
authorship is of no consequence, and all
our doubts do not lessen the selling
value of the picture.
Wherever the picture fraud goes he
leaves a dirty trail. One after another
he has used up the eastern cities so that
.ach season finds him further westward.
Not only does he prey upon the public
On his own account, but he spoils the
market for others. A couple of years
back, for example, Pittsburgh was fine
art market. rich and cultured city,
ust going in for art, she afforded honest
lealers an opportunity well worth adj
by The buzzard drummer
scented the feast and swooped down
,pon it, with his job-lot fine arts and his
ut price list. Ask any dealer what sort
+ market Pittsburgh is to-day. The
aost knowing collectors there now
omc to New York to buy. The others
10 not buy any more. The big cities in
he interior of New York state tell the
anne tale, and it is repeated in Wash
ngton and in Chicago. There is one
ase in the latter city in which a batch
f pictures was sold for about thirty
ho,7sand dollars to newly-made col
&.ctor by rule of cash. If these pictures
lad been genuine, in the size and of the
,uality claimed for them, they could not
AVE been bought at even q Seney auc-
ion for less than double the money,
md would have sold at private sale
ight here in New York for three times
% much. Yet the buyer congratu-