ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2686, 6 September 1905, Page 85

ART AND ARTISTS.

THE TRAFFIC IN SPURIOUS PICTURES.

We made coin© reference the other clay j to the spurious pictures which are turned out in such large numbers in Paris. To the cun-eivt Nort'i American Review '"A Paris Authority" contributes an interesting : paper on the subject He quotes tho^ fol- j lowing from a Paiis morning newspaper: — "Do our readers know that there exists m Pajis a manufaitory in which artists, receiving large salaries copy the canvases of the sweat master*? Those pictures arc sept to "the- United States, a high duty is paid upon them, and being thus stamped asS authentic -they are thea sold for their weight in gold to American millionaires. In tho gallery of one of these collectors can be seen quite a number of those pictures, the ongiuals of which are either in Paris or in tVe provinces." But ons alteration, wo are assxired, should be made to these words; the writer should have Mud "a number of manufactories," for they simply swarm in the Montmartre and Monty arnasse quarters, without counting those which are in the suburbs and provinces. — "An Army of Forgers." — No sooner has an artist attained a rcputalion than, immediately an army of forgers set to work to imitate him. The works of Zeim are, it seems, imitated on a larger scale than any othe> artist. On one occasion he refunded* to 'a lady a large sum of money which . she had paid for several spurious works ' bearing his signature. "Fraud," we are told, "is carried on io such an extent that the forger no longer waits for aiT artist's death." Not many months ago a consignment of 29 pictures, aU of them copies of works by three living artists, was seized at one of the French ports just as they were about to be taken over to the United States. —All Sold As Originals.-' Here is an instance of what used to ha clone about the year 1850:— "A certain., dealer in Paris bought one picture by each of the following painters : — Corot, Daubigny, Djaz. and Theodore Rousseau. Engaging a clever copyist at a salary of lOOfr a monfc'i, end providing him' with a house and garden in fchc country, he set him to york to copy each picture 25 times, slightly vaiymg the subject in each case. _ The hundred copies vere produced in 10 rcoivfchs. du'-ing which time, according to agreement, the painter saw no one save bis sc-rvant. All these- copies were sent to the United States and sold as originals from the collection's of this or ihat well-known Parisian." Very much the same thing is done nowadays in the eas& of eighteenth-century pictures, and huge fortunes are being made by dealers who 10 years ago were unknown in the picture trade. — Ihe Painter-Restorer at Work.— Ih forging old pictures, generally portraits, not only the copyist "out the paintcrrebtorei- plays a part. The way' in which the latter proceeds about Lis work will he seen from what follows: —"A' dealer collects together a number of .pictures by one or oilier of lh© numerous old masters whose works are not in vogue — if possible, pictures by a. painter who worked somewhat in the style of this or that famous artist: and frcm these, by means of skilful retouching, the painter- restorer produces works which arc- slaved Rembrandt, Kuysdsel, Hobbema, Raphael, Boucher, or Watteau. Placed in the sho]. s of dealers who are supposed to be hones*-, these canvases find a ready markot among wealthy collectors, who almost invariably trust another person s opinion in preference to their own." In the c-aso of portraits and pictures containing figures, suc>i as thoss by Largiliiere, which, like Natt'ev's works, are just row rising in value, a similar method is adopted. The paper altogether h a very instructivecue, and should open the eyes of American collectors especially. — A Veteran Artist.— Though Mr W. P. Frith, R.A., is 86 years of age, he nevertheless (according to the Grand Magazine) •norks all day long at his easel, and is at present doing renlicas of the famous pictures with which his name will always be associated. Mr Friths pictures have always been received with extraordinary favour. When "Before Dinner at Boswell s Lodgings" was painted Mr (now Sir) William A.<*new asked the price. Mr Frith named.' 1200gs. "I shall hare to keep it," said the art dealer. Mr Frith acquiesced, for ho thought 't might remain with the dealer for a little while before a purchaser was found. Three or four years later it found its way .to the place whither most fine pictures go '^tihe auction rooms of Messrs Uhristie, Manson, and Woods. There- it was put up for auction, and fetched +567g5. — The Father of the Royal.— The late MiEdward Henry Corbold, oi 8 Victoria road, Kensington, the "Father" of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, anu drawing master to the family of the late Queen Victoria, left estate of the grossvalue of £52*9, of winch the net personalty has been sworn at £5158. The testator s will states:— "l have had much to do with tha members of the Royal Family since the year 1851, and have invariably received very great kindness through them. I respectfully desire that her Majesty should deign to accept, after my decease, the best water-colour painting (of recent years) in my possession, entitled 'The Death of Tursitan, the leader of the Norman Band, in Baverley Minster."" The will was made in 1900, before the death of Queen Vic°—"eotlv Days of a. Famous Painter.— "At the time of his father's death, George Dunlop Leslie, the famous painter, was beginning his career" (writes a to the Windsor). '"He had sold the Hope four years before his father's death, and under circumstances that made for the father's confidence m h» sons future. Though the fon was at work at the Acadlmy Schools, where his father taught he painted tile picture secretly and sent it off to tho British Institution, in very much the same spirit perhaps, as that wh.eh made Adelaide Anne Proctor send her verses without a word, and under a penname only, to the magazine edited by Her father's friend, Charles Dickens. That is nor, as Dick-ens said, a sensitiveness very commonly found in the genus contributor. In young Leslie's case it^ was, perhaps, (Winnlem""!* o '* Ist a susDieion tkai I^isiio

pore would" find the work a little too pre. ilaphaelite for hi-s taste. Into the schools one morning strolled Charles Landseer, who offered coivlial congratulations io il'« j student on the tale of the picture. 'What picture? ' asked the astonished father. Explanations followed; class was deserted; and ihe <hrce hurriad round to the British; Institution —the father, ono may suppose, , the most proud and eager of the three.''

—So Versatile—"He's a Aery versatile young man."—"lndeed?" —'"Yes; there isn't any kind of work that he can't shirk."