144 



Discovivin' 



The patina and cracks of old pictures are what give 

 the most trouble to those who use this ancient trick. 



Some picture forgers use saffron, bister, liquorice, or 

 black coffee, which have now replaced bacon rind, so 

 much used in former years. When this has been 

 applied and is quite dry, the picture is varnished. 

 Sometimes thick oil is added to the varnish, or it is 

 coloured with bitumen, yellow lac and red ochre, 

 which give almost exactly the tone of old varnish. 



Up to recent years the only way of frustrating the 

 dishonest picture-dealer and his accomplice, the copyist 

 or painter-restorer, was to have recourse to expert 

 opinion. Long study of the undoubtedly authentic 

 works of the Great Masters enabled such experts and 

 art-critics as Paillet, Rcgnault, Delalande, Duclos, 

 Thore Burger, Philippe Burty, and Eugene Piot to 



Schneider Sale, in 1876, two Rembrandts were sold as 

 doubtful ; that in 1899 a Nattier, belonging to the 

 collection of Mme Richard, nee Bournet Aubcrtot, was 

 sold for 49,500 francs, despite the fact that many well- 

 known judges present at the sale declared it to be a 

 forgery ; that at the Guasco Sale, in 1900, a Troyon was 

 falsely described as having been in the collection of the 

 painter and bore a forged stamp of the Troyon Sale ; 

 and that at the Rey Sale, in the same year, a so-called 

 Raphael was sold as a genuine work, the description in 

 the catalogue being inaccurate as far as that particular 

 work w'as concerned — it applied to quite another 

 (genuine) work. But this system of keeping track of 

 the innumerable forgeries which are in circulation, 

 satisfactory though it was in a great number of cases, 

 naturally broke down at times. Forgers of exceptional 



Tmv "CRUaFIXION" BY EN'GEI-- 



URUCHTSZ. THE PICTURE BEFORE 



RESTOR.\TION. 



THE "CRCCIFIXIOX" BY EN'GEL- 



BRECHTSZ. IX ITS PRESENT STATE 



AFTER RESTOR.\T10X. 



pronounce accurate judgment, at any rate in a large 

 majority of cases, whenever the authorship of pictures 

 was in dispute. Thus picture buyers were put on their 

 guard, especially when the science of the art-critic was 

 supported by those who made it their business to record 

 the multitudinous instances in which spurious pictures 

 were declared to be forgeries. Connoisseurs were able, 

 thanks to special advice and annotated catalogues, to 

 avoid falling into the traps which were perpetually being 

 laid for them by unscrupulous dealers. They were 

 aware, for instance, that in 1S68, on the occasion of the 

 sale of the collection of His Excellency Khalif-Bey, two 

 Fromentins w^ere declared at the sale to be mere 

 copies ; that in the following year, at the Besborodko 

 Sale, several pictures, including one Albert Cuyp and a 

 Rembrandt, were likewise denounced ; that at the 



skill have succeeded in deceiving the most erudite 

 critics, hence the conflict of opinion which has often 

 arisen, as in the dispute in London some years ago over 

 an alleged Romney, in art circles. Manifestly a more 

 infallible method of examining the factiire of a given 

 painting was required ; and to find it a number of 

 scientists set their wits to work, with most interesting 

 results. 



Professor A. P. Laurie, of lulinburgh. called in the 

 aid of the microscope to distinguish the characteristic 

 brush-work of the Great Masters, and thereby discovered 

 that the methods of applying the paint had changed 

 but little since the days of antiquity. Artists living 

 at the time of the Roman Emperors painted with large 

 and small brushes on canvas, which they prepared 

 with a basis of oil, gum, and glue, afterwards varnished. 



