Art is a journey into the most unknown thing of all - oneself. Nobody knows his own frontiers… I don’t think I’d ever want to take a road if I knew where it led.

Louis Kahan

Spanish Forger

“The Spanish Forger is the name given to an unidentified individual who, in the late 19th to early 20th century, created a large number of forgeries of medieval miniatures.

The Spanish Forger’s works were painted on vellum or parchment leaves of genuine medieval books, using either blank margins or scraping off the original writing. He also “completed” unfinished miniatures or added missing miniatures in medieval choir books. His works fooled many experts and collectors and appear today in the collections of many museums and libraries. Over 200 forgeries have been identified. [1]

Although he was originally thought to be Spanish, it is now believed he may have been French, working in Paris. A number of his forged miniatures have been identified as copied, with modifications, from those published in several French books published in the 1870s -1880s.”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Forger)

More :  http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=30520

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/22/nyregion/westchester-guide-illuminating-an-art-forger.html?sec=health

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/the-fakes-that-are-good-enough-for-va-1514523.html

ROUSE ILLUM. 1THE SPANISH FORGER, MINIATURE. SPAIN, S. XIX “A miniature by the Spanish Forger, an anonymous but active late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artist whose illuminations have become collectors’ items themselves in the years since the Pierpont Morgan Library exhibition and catalog by William Voelkle devoted to this painter in 1978.”(http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/special/rouse/spain1.htm)
Altarpiece, painted in the style of the “Flemish and French primitives”, by ‘Spanish Forger’. “The Spanish Forger was one of the artists, active at the end of the nineteenth century, imitating and forging medieval art, especially miniatures and this kind of small paintings, for a certainly very animated market. Although in the art-historical literature this artist has got a name - the Spanish Forger -, his identity is still a mystery, and it is even unknown, despite the suggestion of his name, where he originates. There is some evidence, however, to locate him in Paris just before and about the turn of the century: the pigments he used are from the nineteenth century, the themes and many of the iconographical elements are based on illustrated books on Medieval art, which were published in great numbers at the end of the 19th century, and many of his works are known to have been seen in Paris in the first decade of the twentieth century. As a result this artist can be considered as one of the most interesting and intriguing artists working in this ‘suspicious field’. The manner and style of his paintings reflect in an astonishing way the reception of Medieval art in the 19th century and show how differently, nineteenth-century collectors and art historians alike, looked at art from that period. It is striking to see how the Spanish Forger tries to be ‘medieval’ and at the same time how individual and characteristic his style and composition is.” http://www.forumrarebooks.com more    http://www.maggs.com/popup.asp?book=CO19306&imageID=779101&width=1152&height=804 http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/06/19/arts/20090619-MEDI_10.html
concept theme
powered by tumblr