The Indianapolis journal., 1902-08-14
ARTISTIC FORGERIES.
London Dealer Tells of Old Masters
by New Brushes.

London Tit Bits.
What is the good of paying a hundred or
two hundred guineas for a third-rate pic
ture off the academy walls, said q West
End picture dealer, when you can buy an
old master, even a Rubens or a Rem
brandt, for the same money or for much
less? OF course, L cannot guarantee their
genuineness, but 1 can guarantee that not
a dozen men in England will detect that
they are spurious; and you will have all
the pride and prestige of owning some al
most priceless canvases.
OF course, l am not quite serious in
talking this way; but 1 can assure you
that these old masters by new brushes
are largely bought by men who know per-
fectly well what they are buying, and
who spend their money on rubbish simply
that they may impose on their unsuspect-
ing friends and be credited with possess
ing art treasures beyond the reach of
any but millionaire. This kind of thing,
1 know, is contemplate, but it is very
common, and always will be, l fear.
The curious thing is that the demand
for old masters grows every year, and
the trade Is now more houriShing than II
has ever been. There are, l should say,
at least fifty men in London alone who
are kept constantly busy in producing
Rembrandts and Hobbemas, Morlands and
Landseers, and so on, which find market
and on the continent there is small
army of clever artists engaged on -
work
The men who debase their arts in this
way are, you may imagine, very clever
men, many of them capable of doing bril-
liant original work II they would. But
some of them have been so disheartened
at the beginning of their career that they
have been glad to abandon their prospects
with their anXieties in favor of a reliable
source of revenue; and others are men
who have fallen into bad habits and are
incapable of steady work. but are content
to put in a few days when they are in
the mood, and only return to the easel
when their last penny has gone.
One of the cleverest forgers of Morlands
to-day was, not many years ago, the most
brilliant and promising of academy stu
dents. When he was barely twenty he
had a picture on the line at Burlington
House, and his friends predicted that he
would be another Millas or Leighton. But
the poor fellows brain was quite turned
by his early success and by fattery, and
instead of painting salable pictures and
making his way gradually he persisted In
producing ambitious canvases, which cost
him more to paint than he could get for
them.
Within three years he had got into such
low financial waters that when a picture
frame maker. who knew his cleverness
and his straits, offered him a certain &300
year for copying pictures, he closed
with the offer in sheer despair Of ever
making a living by the legitimate pursuit
of his art, and since then he has earned
many thousands of pounds for his en-
plOyer.
His very first piece of work was a
Raphael, which he copied in four weeks,
and which was sold, to my knowledge. for
$50 guineaS to American collector who
knows a great deal about dry goods but
very little about "old masters" But my
friend is especially clever in copying Nor
skflful cOnnciSseur would be puzzled tC
say which is the genuine and which the
he has copied at least fifty times and be-
lieve he could paint ii in his sleep.
These picture forgers are almost always
specialists, and conf1ne themselves to one
artist until they have completely mastered
all his tricks and idiosyncrasies. L know
one man who is so clever that If you left
him in company with a Gainsborough fol
quarter of an hour he would carry away
such an accurate picture of it in his mem
ory that he could reproduce it exactly
without seeing it again. In fact, 1 know
] that in this way he produced very bril-
| liant forgery of a famous picture which
he had only seen for a few minutes during
the owners absence, and by favor of q
| friendly butler
Very many of these forgeries are Skinned
to America and the colonies and find ready
| purchasers there; others are sold on the
continent, and many find their way into
| sales of pictures at country houses, where
| they are snapped up as great bargains by
| unsuspecting provincial collectors who lit.
! tie know that there are scores of exact
! facsimiles in different parts of the world
| of the "old masters" they fondly consider
unique
To such a science is this forgery of ole
| pictures reduced that there are men whC
/ do nothing but initiate signatures I know
| one man who could not paint COW TO save
| his life but who can so accurately initiate
| the signature of any dead-and-gone artis
| of repute that the keenest eye cannot de-
| tect the difference, and since the artist
| signature is often the crucial test of the
/ genuineness of canvas, you may irnagin,
| that his services are in great demand anC
| are well paid for.
| On the whole. my advice to your reader,
! If they wish to buy pictures is to Ieav,
/ the old masters alone, unless their pur
| chases are made under the very best pro
! fessional advice.