Discovr:RY 



143 



Paris morning newspaper. The production of forged 

 " masterpieces " bearing the names of Van Ostade. 

 Ruysdael. Hobbema, Raphael, Boucher, W'atteau, 

 Corot, Diaz, Theodore Rousseau. Ziem, and other 

 eminent painters of ancient and modern times was then 

 most intense. Not merely one manufactorv, as the 

 paragrajjhist seemed to think, but quite a number of 

 studios where picture forgers worked existed in the 

 Montmartre and Montparnasse quarters, without count- 

 ing those which were in the suburbs and provinces. 

 Whereas in previous years these copyists, pasticheurs, 

 and painter-restorers — each working at his own 

 speciality— could be counted on the fingers of both 

 hands, they had become a veritable army in the days 

 to which I refer, and, though armed but with brushes 

 and colours, the havoc and confusion the\' wrought 

 was great indeed. Connoisseurs all over the world have 

 still to be on their guard against the clever productions 

 of these picture " fakers " ; and so numerous are 

 spurious canvases signed with great names, due not 

 only to these unscrupulous forgers but to their pre- 

 decessors and successors, that there is probably not a 

 single public or private picture gallery which does not 

 contain their handiwork. 



.\rrested during the period of the Great War, the 

 lucrative trade in spurious pictures has been resumed 

 and is now once more in full swing. Painters, painter- 

 restorers, and others with a talent for this particular 

 branch of fraud are hard at work in secret, employing 

 the same old methods that were in vogue during the 

 nineteenth centurv, but applying them to the production 

 of works bearing the names of artists, both ancient and 

 modern, who have come into their own of recent years. 

 The contest between the picture forger and his pros- 

 pective victim, the connoisseur, being eternal, it will 

 be well, before describing a means by which many 

 forgeries can be unerringly detected, to understand the 

 various tricks resorted to bj' the fraternity of picture 

 " fakers." 



It is useful to know, for instance, that when, some 

 tliirty to forty years ago, pictures by Masters of the 

 1830 school came into favour, all the canvases by pupils 

 of Corot, Diaz, Troyon, Rousseau and others were 

 collected and re-signed. That is the reason, an expert 

 assures me, why there are so few pictures by Villers 

 and Mazon to be found. These excellent painters 

 produced many works, but because of the greater 

 renown of Millet and Corot, it was their fate to be 

 absorbed, as it were ; their paintings are hanging at 

 this very moment in the galleries of great collectors, 

 but baptised with other names than those of the men 

 who painted them ! One wonders if their signatures 

 were entirely removed or mereh' covered up, in which 

 case it is now possible, as will later be shown, to bring 

 them to view. 



About the year 18S0, genuine pictures by Corot, 

 Daubigny, Diaz, and Theodore Rousseau used to be 

 copied by the clever hirelings of certain Parisian art- 

 dealers. In one instance, the copyist, working at a 

 house in the country, alone with a single servant, made 

 twenty-five copies of each picture, slightly varying the 

 subject in each case. He produced one hundred 

 copies in ten months, and all of these, as leaked out 

 later through indiscretions, were sold in the United 

 States as originals from the collections of this or that 

 well-known Parisian. To detect the hand of the forger in 

 such a case as this, presuming that he is really an expert 

 worker, is extremely difficult, if not impossible ; one 

 must look for evidence of the fraud in other quarters. 



Infinite precautions are now taken by reputable 

 art-dealers who represent great modern painters to 

 protect the artists' interests, those of the heirs, and 

 their own pockets against possible fraud. Every work 

 produced is carefully photographed and catalogued. 

 On the death of a celebrated artist, a photographic 

 reproduction is made of every work, study, or sketch 

 in his studio, so that when these are dispersed they will 

 be in possession of a weapon against the picture forger 

 who may be tempted to acquire an unfinished landscape 

 and complete it after the manner of the Master. It is 

 when the copyist, aided by the painter-restorer, comes 

 to work on old canvases that he is liable to he un- 

 masked. The modus operandi in this particular branch 

 of " faking " is as follows : 



A dealer collects together a number of pictures by 

 one or other of the Old Masters whose works are not in 

 vogue — if possible pictures by a painter who worked 

 somewhat in the style of this or that celebrated artist ; 

 and from these, by means of skilful retouching, works 

 are produced which eventually bear the magic names of 

 Rembrandt, Raphael, Teniers, Corregio, and others. 

 In the case of portraits and pictures containing figures, 

 such as those b^^ Largilliere, a similar method is adopted, 

 only care is taken to select canvases the light parts of 

 which are uninjured and as near as possible in the style 

 of the Master whose work is to be imitated. With the 

 assistance of good engravings, the drawing is slightly 

 altered ; half-tones and shadows are added ; and, by 

 means of glazes, the necessary piquancy and effect are 

 produced. Naturally, canvases of the correct period, 

 and genuine old stretchers — or panels, in the case of 

 painters who usually painted on wood — are selected. 

 Such works by Old Masters who are not in vogue and 

 are never likely to be, except as material out of which 

 " masterpieces " are made — such old stretchers and 

 panels are often on sale at the Hotel Drouot, the great 

 sale-rooms in the street of that name in Paris. Many 

 people unacquainted with the work of the picture 

 forger wonder how it is such " rubbish " finds eager 

 purchasers. 



