The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-22
STORIES OF ART F0RGERIES.
Skilled Artists Are Sometimes De-
ceived by Clever limitations.

$50 pictures in the Holburne Art Mu-
scum, Bath, attributed to the greatest
painters the world has known. nearly
200 are forgeries, says Tit-Bits, raises
! a grave doubt as to the genuineness OF
| the treasures of art in our galleries
and museums.
1t is not long since the Corot land
scape presented by the Prince of Wales
to the Dublin Art Gallery was pro-
nounced a fraud by some of our lead
I ing critics; the gold tiara of Saita-
pharnes. in the Louvre Museum, was
discovered to be a forgery; the Nelson
statuette in the museum Of the United
| Service Institution, said to have been
presented by George III to the great
admiral, was similarly condemned: or
since Mr.. MacWhirter, r. A, exposed a
| large number of sham Corots, Turner's
and Constabies.
Mr.. Firth. r. A, told US recently OF
a collection of Landseers and other
modern masters on WI ich private coll
lector had lavished a fortune, and every
one of which was a forgery, while
many of the cherished pictures in con-
tinental galleries are declared to be
| just as fraudulent. There are" says
| Mr.. MacWhirter, mot enough old mas
tiers to go round. There are more of
their reputed works than could possibly
have been painted. Hundreds of imi-
tatiOns are sold as genuine"
So skilfuly. too. are these forgeries
/ produced that even clever artists are
deceived by them. Some years ago Mr..
MacWhirter himself purchased a dis
reputable old canvas from an Italian
sailor. of which the vender gave a
I very plausible history. The painting,
"A Holy Family" had, he said, been
stolen from a church by a Greek sailor;
and as it had all the appearance of a
genuine old master. the r. A. gladly
paid $40 for it. 1T turned out to be a
blend of seven old masters, done a few
years back by hack painter who
knocked them off by the Dozen
Rudolf Lehman tells an amusing
story of similar imposition practiced
on himself Returning to Rome, after
some years absence, he was attracted
by picture which he saw in the shop
of an art dealer. It was an 'old mas
| ter" and the dealer, after mentioning
a tall figure for it, gave a most inn
pressive and detailed history of the
canvas. Fortunately for Mr.. Lehman
he, too, knew something of its history,
for years before he had painted it him
self. and had thought so little of it that
when he shut up his studio In Rome he
| left it behind as lumber,
Corot, not long before his death,
CHANGED to pay q visit to the studio of
a young artist, and was amazed TO find
no fewer than thirty canvases. all
splendid limitations of his own work
and all bearing his signature. Sidney
| Cooper, too, once stated in a court of
law that of $50 "Coopers' that had been
submitted to him only eleven were gen.
uine. And Mr.. Dudley Hardy said, not
long ago, referring TO forgeries of his
| fathers pictures:
"It is quite true that there are liter
ally thousands of spurious T. B. Har-
dys in dealers chops and private col
lections. and it is time that the fraud
| should be exposed. 1 have often been
consulted by intending purchasers of my
fathers work, ard should only be too
| glad to place my advice al the disposal
| Of any one who is in doubt about the
genuineness of supposed T. B. Hardys.
/ think / owe it to my fathers reputa-
| ton to help in suppressing the nefari-
Gus practice which has now been going
on for years"
An interesting story. which shows
with what fidelity the work of even
such difficult artist as Turner can be
initiated, is told in connection with
Ruskin. In 1875 he sent a number of
facsimiles of Turner's pictures to a
London exhibition. with this note: Il
/ have given my best attention during
upward of ten years to train a copyist
to perfect fidelity in rendering the
works Of Turner, and have now sue
| ceeded in enabling him to produce fac
SMILES which I must sign with my
name to prevent their being sold for
| real vignettes."
Some years ago there was great in
dignation in Italy over Raphael which
| had been smuggled to America. That
it was a genuine Raphael the most
skillful experts i'm America had no
doubt whatever. IT bore the great ar
lists unnistakable signature, and not a
single evidence seemed lacking TO show
that it was his handiwork. And yet it
was proved to be an impudent forgery
"a mixture of Rubens, BotticelIi, Titan
and del Sarto.
In another case a we'll known firm
of West End dealers bought for $4,000
g canvas which they were quite salts
fed was a Constable, and sold it to q
peer for $4,000 more than they paid
| for il. Great was their amazement
when the picture was pronounced a
forgery by an expert. Legal proceed
/ ings followed, and IL was ultimately
discovered that the Constable" was
the work of a living artist in the north
of England, who had been glad to dis
pose of it for $500.
More remarkable still is the story told
of Landseer. One day the famous ami
NAL painter was present at an auction
sale at which two "Landseers''-one
genuine, the other admittedly a COPY
were offered. The two canvases were
submitted to Sir Edwin. who, after a
careful examination. pronounced both
of them mis- own work When artists.
critics and dealers are thus imposed on
by forgeries, 1t is little wonder that pri-
vate collectors, or even the experts of
our public galleries, are victimized.