HOW SCIENCE DEFEATS THE ART FORGER

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 25

HOW SCIENCE DEFEATS THE ART FORGER

In the second half of his book, "NewLight on Old Masters," Professor A. P. Laurie, M.A., D.Sc, LL.D., Professor of Chemistry to the Koyal Academy of Arts, deals with modern scientific methods of examining pictures. He records many instances of fake pictures reputed to be the work of famous masters. Professor Laurie writes:—

I remember one case of a claim on an insurance company: for a little panel picture, a portrait of an old man, which had been "accidentally" scratched right down the face. The scratch was very broad, and had destroyed the picture, which was, of course, attributed to Hembrandt. I examined the scratch under the microscope and noticed some curious parallel grooves running down the priming. After an interval of quiet meditation, the cause of the grooves occurred to me, and taking an old, worthless panel picture I pressed the edge of a shilling firmly into the paint and then drew it sharply downwards, and reproduced ail exactly similar scratch, with grooves caused by the milled edge of the coin.

A measurement of the grooves under the microscope in the original damaged picture proved that only the milled edge of a shilling could have made them. ■• x

London is the paradise of those who live by ingenious frauds of this kind, as, owing to the" peculiarities of English law, detection is seldom followed by prosecution. It is a gamble with the insurance companies, in which at the worst the maker of the fraudulent claim does not get away with the plunder. Occasionally, as in the recent case of fraudulent Insurance followed by fires, the insurance companies pro-, secute, but have to pay the whole costs

out of their own pockets. One of the most amusing frauds of recent years was a "Frans Hals" that was guaranteed by a famous Dutch expert, and was sold at a goodly price to an American collector. Some question arose, and it was examined by a distinguished Dutch chemist. He found on examination zinc white and cobalt blue and synthetic ultramarine, all modern pigments, which had been used throughout the.picture. He also found that a most ingenious device had been used to deceive any restorer into whose hands the picture might fall.

An old linseed oil film is very insoluble in alcohol, while new linseed oil film is readily dissolved. The restorer tries an edge of the picture, therefore, with alcohol, and if the oil proves very insoluble concludes that the picture is old.

Now size is insoluble in alcohol. The painter of the picture had, therefore, coated it with a thin coat of size, which resisted the alcohol and so gave the behaviour of an old oil picture. Probably the size in drying had also cracked the new oil underneath, and so helped to produce an antique appearance.

But the most delightful revelation was made by the X-rays. The picture was on a nice old panel, which had been strengthened by some battens across the back. The X-rays revealed that these battens had been attached by nails driven from the front of the panel, the heads of which were, therefore, covered by the paint of the picture, and that the nails were modern wire nails.

This was supposed to be not the first "Frans Hals" produced by this ingenious painter.