Page 78 - Studio International - July/August 1967

Art prices first thing the apprentice-dealer learns is not to go ever more obvious. It was Maurice Rheims who
out bargain-hunting, and the second is not to drew attention to the impossibility of reproducing
current venture outside his own province, no matter how the clothes of the late nineteenth or early twen-
tieth centuries in such a way that a photograph of
tempting the offer. Better to share the profit with
a specialist colleague than to buy what may prove them taken now would be in the least convincing,
to be a worthless object. and much the same applies to forgeries of works
The question is often asked: 'Why, if the work of done originally about fifty years ago. There are
a forger is good enough to deceive many people, is also fashions in faces set by films and the mass
it worth less than that of the artist whose style he media to which there is a large measure of con-
appropriates?' The short answer is that to accept formity. I remember, on my first visit to the
such a proposition would be equivalent to accepting United States a good many years ago, being
also that if a forged bank-note deceives a bank particularly impressed by the stereotypes which
Forgeries and forgers cashier it ought to be honoured, and a considera- Hollywood products had made familiar in Europe.
by George Savage tion of bank-notes in general is instructive. Forgeries fall into two principal categories. The
In bank-notes, as in paintings, it is a fallacy to first, and by far the most ambitious, is also the
think that a forgery is ever really the same as the least dangerous. It comprises paintings in which
genuine object, although superficially it may be so the forger has, like Van Meegeren's Vermeers,
`Man bites dog' has always been news, and the close to the original that it will pass muster for a attempted to create a new work in the original
existence of forgeries of modern paintings has time. The problem with bank-notes is to provide a artist's style. The second is much more difficult to
recently attracted space in the columns of the means whereby forgeries can be detected swiftly detect. This is the pastiche, which is a product of
Press. Forgeries of works of art have always been and surely, even during the operation of rapid recombining the elements of known and genuine
with us. The first art-forgers known to history were counting, and this is the reason why nearly all of works. I make no apology for turning to the past
the Phoenicians, who specialized in silver. them bear a portrait on the right-hand side. No for an illustration. There have been few better
But the fact that forgeries exist is no excuse for matter how skilled the engraver who sets out to examples of the pastiche than the Van Meegeren
getting our notions on this subject out of propor- copy a note, he cannot reproduce a portrait forgery of a De Hoogh reproduced here, since we
tion—something which usually happens when the exactly, line for line, and very slight variations have his source of inspiration, one of the Queen's
Press seizes on a subject it does not understand. result in a marked change of expression which is pictures, with which to compare it. It will be
Vast numbers of paintings change hands every immediately apparent, especially when notes are noticed, for instance, how the tiles were rearranged
year. Of these, a fair number are either forgeries being counted and a forgery occurs in a bundle of by Van Meegeren in lozenge form instead of
or copies, but it is essential to remember that all genuine notes. squares; how one of the seated figures is standing
but a few of them would deceive no one but a Forged paintings, of course, are more difficult to in the forgery, and a standing figure is seated;
country cousin or a tourist. The dealers on the detect, but the principle is often the same. Diver- how the table has been furnished by a faience jug
fringe of the trade who specialize in handling this gences from the normal style of the artist, however which, incidentally, is at least fifty years later
kind of forgery, usually sold for very low prices, slight, point to the possibility of forgery. than the painting purports to be; and how the arch
trade on the desire of people with small knowledge It is important to realize at the outset that con- which leads into the garden has become a door.
to acquire a bargain. Sometimes the best of these temporary forgeries are always more difficult to Most forgeries belong to the second class. I
things find their way into a sale-room, where they detect than old ones. Towards the end of the remember being puzzled by a painting attributed
are catalogued according to established practice nineteenth century a well-known expert wrote a to Toulouse-Lautrec which made an appearance
as 'in the style of'. This trade is deplorable, but it is book on Italian maiolica in which he made the on the London market some years ago, and which,
not dangerous, and if anyone buys a Cezanne oil- reckless claim that no expert had ever been because of its poor drawing, I suspected might be
painting from an unknown dealer for £500 or so deceived by a forgery. A few pages further on he spurious. I had no especial interest in it, and did
he is strictly to be classified in the same category as illustrated as genuine an undoubted forgery. This, not pursue the matter at the time, but it came
the man who buys Charing Cross Station or however, is obvious to our eyes; it was not to his. forcibly back to my mind later in the year at Albi,
Trajan's Column. If this sounds impossible, both The reason why he overlooked the spurious nature when I realized that the subject had been chopped
have been 'sold' at one time or another. of the object he illustrated was that it had been out of one of the larger canvases exhibited there.
The number of really deceptive forgeries chang- made a few years before he wrote his book, and Later I learned it had been hawked round New
ing hands for high prices, and handled by reput- the nineteenth-century idiom in drawing which York without finding a buyer, which would have
able art-dealers, is negligible. Undoubtedly even accuses it to our eyes surrounded him on every been surprising had it been generally accepted.
the most astute make mistakes sometimes, but the side. He had become so accustomed to it that it Quality of line is an extremely useful touchstone
risk one runs in buying from them is small. Indeed, made no impact. Lothar Malskat enjoyed great in estimating the genuineness of a painting in the
dealers have been foremost in the past in detecting success in the 1950s with his medieval frescoes in case of a good draughtsman like Lautrec. If the
most of the cleverer forgers, and for very good the Marienkirche at Lubeck although in one case line seems to be slow and hesitating it is a bad
reasons. They get a good deal more practice in he took his inspiration from a photograph of a augury which suggests that the remainder of the
sorting these things out than most gallery officials, well known German film-actress of the period, and work needs rigorous examination. The forger is
their reputations are at stake, and they are natur- the features were so familiar at the time that no usually unable to determine the significant
ally more cautious. The man to be trusted is he one thought of comparing them with a genuine characteristics of the line he is imitating, and even
who stands to lose by his mistakes which is why medieval face. The success of Van Meegeren's less is he aware of the significant characteristics
the wary and experienced specialist dealer is Vermeers can be accounted for in the same way. of his own drawing. He is therefore inclined to put
usually the safest guide. At a time when the His faces obviously belong to the twentieth century. emphasis in the wrong places, while the signs of
experts were enthusing over the discovery of Van They were neurotic in a way which Vermeer freedom disappear altogether and his work be-
Meegeren's Christ at Emmdus it was a dealer who simply would not have understood, but they were comes laboured and forced.
cabled Duveen not to touch it at any price. so familiar that the fact that they bore no resem- Signatures are sufficiently individual for large
The least deceptive forgeries are usually offered blance whatever to anything from the hand of the sums to change hands continually on this evidence
at a low price to tempt the cupidity of the buyer. seventeenth master was entirely overlooked. As alone. You testify to this fact every time you sign a
The man who falls victim to this kind of fraud is time passes, and the fashion in faces current when cheque. The style of an artist of stature is indivi-
nearly always the one who is looking for a bargain Van Meegeren and Malskat were producing their dual in the same way. Picasso painting in the
with the intention of selling it later at an exorbitant forgeries fades into the historical background, so style of Lautrec is still Picasso. One recognizes at
profit, and his greed overcomes his caution. The the spurious nature of their work will become once that the resemblance to Lautrec is super-
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