METHOD OF FORGERS

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6543, 13 November 1924, Page 6

METHOD OF FORGERS

* AMAZING DECEPTIONS , Recent complaints by well-known artists that certain of their pictures have been duplicated by forgers have drawn attention to the subject with 'which few people, even in art circles, are acquainted. So skilful is the modern picture faker that experts are often deceived. On the Continent there are several schools of forgers, who reap large sums by faking pictures for export to England and America. Each group has its own style and methods of work. One school, for instance, imitates the paintings of Rembrandt, another Van Dyck, another Rubens.

One man in each group is responsible for copying heads and faces, while another occupies himself solely with draperies and clothing, and so on. The results of their joint efforts is a marvel of ingenuity, the smallest details of the original artists’ work being reproduced with wonderful accuracy. To give the effect of age the forged picture is stained several times with varnish, the last coating being applied at a certain temperature. Powdered coffee and the white of an egg applied completes the deception. Cracks are imitated by covering the canvas with old glue, and drying it in a special room. ' In determining a picture’s genuineness the camera, the microscope, the X-rays, and analytical chemistry play a big part. Magnified photographs of the brushwork of the doubtful picture are compared with others taken from authentic pictures by the artist concerned, tiny fragments of paint being removed for chemical examination. Science, in fact, will ultimately lead to the extinction of this class of forgery.