source material: The Art Forger's Handbook
Mary K. Kuhner
readers: _The Art Forger's Handbook_ by Eric Hebborn. Hebborn
was a fairly well-known British artist in his own right, but
also forged paintings and drawings by historical masters. Many
of his works ended up in museums and collections under someone
else's name.
The book is very readable and entertaining, and interesting to
a writer in at least three ways:
(1) If you wanted to know either how Old Master paintings and
drawings were produced, or how they can be faked, there is a lot
of information here--preparing canvas or panel or paper,
making paints and inks, aging the results, finding genuinely
old paper, etc.
(2) Hebborn also writes about the legalities and psychology
of working with dealers, collectors, and auction houses to find
homes for your fakes. There are some great thumbnail sketches
of archetypal collectors, illustrated with quotes from Roman
sources: apparently the personalities involved haven't changed
much....
(3) Hebborn never really addresses the question "Why did you
do this?" directly, but the whole book is an oblique answer
to that question, and as a personality study it's terrific.
Very lighthanded, very subtle. I'd love to be able to depict
a fictional character so well. It's first person, as if
Hebborn was speaking directly to the reader as aspiring
forger, and a great study in how to use first person to show
what the narrator is like.
Got to be material for a story in here somewhere.
Mary Kuhner mkku...@eskimo.com
Paul Andinach
wrote in news:cs1g34$lof$1...@gnus01.u.washington.edu:
> I randomly bought a book which may be of interest to rasfc
> readers: _The Art Forger's Handbook_ by Eric Hebborn. Hebborn
> was a fairly well-known British artist in his own right, but
> also forged paintings and drawings by historical masters. Many
> of his works ended up in museums and collections under someone
> else's name.
Is he the chap who boasts of having never actually done anything
illegal during his long and well-paid career of art forgery, or am I
thinking of someone else?
Paul
--
The Pink Pedanther
Mary K. Kuhner
Paul Andinach <pand...@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au> wrote:
>On 12 Jan 2005, mkku...@kingman.gs.washington.edu (Mary K. Kuhner)
>wrote in news:cs1g34$lof$1...@gnus01.u.washington.edu:
>> I randomly bought a book which may be of interest to rasfc
>> readers: _The Art Forger's Handbook_ by Eric Hebborn.
>Is he the chap who boasts of having never actually done anything
>illegal during his long and well-paid career of art forgery, or am I
>thinking of someone else?
The book doesn't make that claim, but I can imagine he might:
a significant hunk of it is about the hair-splitting that may
cause your forgeries not to be illegal.
A favorite technique is to take your forgery to an art dealer
and make no claims about it whatsoever. "I don't know what
this is worth; could you have it evaluated?" (He has some
snide stories about dealers too obtuse to recognize his
forged paintings for what they were supposed to be!) If
the dealer decides it's a Rembrandt, well, you never *said*
it was a Rembrandt, and he argues that, paintings not being
documents, a forged signature on a painting is not fraud.
(I don't know if this is true, or in which countries it might
or might not be true.)
Mary Kuhner mkku...@eskimo.com
Jonathan L Cunningham
mkku...@kingman.gs.washington.edu (Mary K. Kuhner) wrote:
>I randomly bought a book which may be of interest to rasfc
>readers: _The Art Forger's Handbook_ by Eric Hebborn. Hebborn
Sounds interesting.
>(1) If you wanted to know either how Old Master paintings and
>drawings were produced, or how they can be faked, there is a lot
>of information here--preparing canvas or panel or paper,
>making paints and inks, aging the results, finding genuinely
>old paper, etc.
A few years ago, there was a very interesting series on CH4
television (I think - it might have been BBC2) where an art
forger demonstrated the techniques. I think this guy had served
a prison sentence for it (I've seen other programs demonstrating
techniques - but not by a guy who did it for real!)
He was very good: I'm sure he could have made a very successful
career as a "real" artist rather than a forger. Or maybe not,
but he *was* good. I guess he'd have to be.
>(2) Hebborn also writes about the legalities and psychology
>of working with dealers, collectors, and auction houses to find
(snip)
>(3) Hebborn never really addresses the question "Why did you
>do this?" directly, but the whole book is an oblique answer
>to that question, and as a personality study it's terrific.
(snip)
>Got to be material for a story in here somewhere.
I wish the TV series I mentioned would get repeated. They
repeat enough rubbish, so *surely* there's room for something
interesting?
P.S. The guys name just popped into my head (slow storage):
it's Tom Keating, and a google came up with some interesting
pages, e.g. http://www.brandler-galleries.com/Paintings/Keating.htm
where you can buy one of his fakes. But you need to be rich:
it's more expensive than a lot of "genuine" paintings.
Jonathan
--
Mail to spam auto-deleted, use jlc1 instead.
Mark Atwood
>
> A few years ago, there was a very interesting series on CH4
> television (I think - it might have been BBC2) where an art
> forger demonstrated the techniques. I think this guy had served
> a prison sentence for it (I've seen other programs demonstrating
> techniques - but not by a guy who did it for real!)
>
> He was very good: I'm sure he could have made a very successful
> career as a "real" artist rather than a forger. Or maybe not,
> but he *was* good. I guess he'd have to be.
There are some people who prove to be very very good at the "craft" of
painting (brushwork, etc etc) but have no or poor sense of
composition, framing, or finding their own voice.
Becoming an art forger instead of an original artist sounds like one
possible, ahem, "career path" for them.
--
Mark Atwood | When you do things right, people won't be sure
ma...@atwood.name | you've done anything at all.
http://mark.atwood.name/ http://www.livejournal.com/users/fallenpegasus
Gesso
news:cs1s82$va7$1...@gnus01.u.washington.edu...
I remember an episode of the British show "Minder" in which Arthur, having
obtained several newly-forged paintings "in the style of {famous artist}",
proceeded to do just that.
Jess
Jim Campbell
sp...@softluck.plus.com wrote on 12/1/05 12:51 am:
> P.S. The guys name just popped into my head (slow storage):
> it's Tom Keating, and a google came up with some interesting
> pages
Priceless 'Antiques Roadshow' moment from many years ago:
Paintings
Expert: What have we here?
Old Biddy: It's a Constable. I was wondering how much it's worth?
Expert: Madam, _that_ is _not_ a Constable.
Biddy: (spluttering with indignation) How can you be _sure_?
I though you had to x-ray it or something!
Expert: Madam, a student can sit in the National Gallery and
reproduce every brush stroke of a Constable in perfect detail
and I will still be able to tell you that it isn't a genuine
Constable without recourse to an x-ray.
Biddy: But ... but ... I have a letter of authentication from _Tom
Keating_ !
Expert: Madam, Tom Keating was a delightful man and a personal friend of
mine, but a reliable source on the authenticity of paintings, he
was _not_.
[Exit Old Biddy in a huff of gargantuan proportions]
Cheers!
Jim