Previous Posts: articles 2018
Fakes, fakes everywhere? (ctd.)
January 29 2017
Picture: Sotheby's
There was interesting follow up piece in The Times on the latest fake news (following Sotheby's declaration that a St Jerome - above - attributed to Parmigianino by numerous scholars is a modern forgery). The previous owner of a number of the pictures, Giulano Ruffini, denied to The Times that the St Jerome could possibly not be a 16th Century work, and cast doubt of the technical analysis carried out so far (though no details were given).
Mr Ruffini, 71, who lives on an estate in northern Italy, is a mysterious figure who has been reluctant to talk to the press. This week, however, he spoke out to dispute technical analysis of the works and noted that it was not he but renowned scholars who had attributed the work to Renaissance artists.
“There is no way [Saint Jerome] could be a modern copy,” he told The Art Newspaper. “It might be another artist of that time but experts and curators from the Metropolitan Museum [in New York] did consider it as a possible Parmigianino.”
The Times also reported that two other minor works connected to Ruffini were being investigated:
A Sotheby’s spokesman told The Times that it had not finished its review of works linked to Mr Ruffini. “There are two other works that Sotheby’s sold, with a combined value of less than £40,000, that we are investigating in relation to the Ruffini matter,” he said.
And yours truly was quoted in the piece:
Bendor Grosvenor, an art historian, said that whoever created the works was a remarkably gifted painter. He said that allegations of fakery had shaken up the Old Master market. “What this affair does is plonk a rather awkward bomb under the whole system of how we in the Old Master world determine who painted what,” he said. “We need more scientific analysis and more rigorous connoisseurship.”
Bad lighting
January 29 2017
Picture: BG
Perhaps it's because I was spoiled by my recent visits to US museums, but when I visited Tate Britain on Friday I was struck by how bad the lighting is. There's not much daylight, despite the traditional, top-lit galleries, and instead you get a combination of spot lights and neon strip lights. These give off a dark and deadening light (except in the places where the spotlights strobe, which is unsettling) and make the whole experience rather gloomy. I gather that it's almost impossible to film in there too. Something must be done.
Leiden Collection goes online
January 29 2017
Picture: Leiden Collection
The Leiden Colleciton, the private collection of Dutch pictures assembled by the financier Thomas Kaplan and his wife Daphne Recanati Kaplan, has developed an excellent new website. It includes detailed and lengthy essays by leading scholars of Dutch art, including Arthur Wheelock and the late Walter Liedtke, excellent high-resolution photos, and videos too. The collection includes works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Lievens and Dou. Next time someone says there's a 'lack of supply' in the Old Master market, and that you can't buy top works by the big names anymore, just remember that Kaplan has proved them wrong.
In the image above you can see three of Rembrandt's early 'five senses' paintings, which Kaplan has assembled over the years (thereby demonstrating - along with his site and newly commissioned research - the value of collectors to art history). One of these - Smell - was completely unknown until it surfaced at auctiona as a work by an unknown 19th Century artist in a minor US sale back in 2015. One - Taste - is still missing. In an essay on the new website, Kaplan describes the moment he first found out about the picture, and decided that he had to have it:
Though amorphously classified by the auction house as being “Continental School” and estimated at $1,000-$1,500, it was nonetheless identified correctly as a Rembrandt by two parties who bid the painting to nearly a million dollars. At the time, nobody knew who had made this very clever purchase. Through a quirk of circumstances, an exceptionally talented alumna of The Leiden Collection, Ilona van Tuinen, now at the Morgan Library and Museum, came to learn the identity of the buyers. With the permission of her then employer, the Frits Lugt Collection in Paris, she relayed our interest to the new owners and we fortuitously were given the first look.
I could not wait to see it. I did so only a few short days thereafter, when Ilona accompanied Bernard Gautier of the Parisian gallery Talabardon et Gautier, French dealers with which we had never previously engaged, to meet me in New York. The moment Unconscious Patient was placed in my hands, I recognized it as genuine and one of the two pieces from the series that were missing and presumed lost forever. To my mind at least, it also was the most beautiful of the known suite. We bought it on the spot for a multiple of the purchase price. Talabardon et Gautier had taken a risk, even taking out a loan to pay for their speculation. Like explorationists in my businesses, I begrudged them nothing for deservedly profiting, and profiting handsomely, for their acumen.
We learn also that Smell is signed, and is thus the earliest signed Rembrandt (he painted it when he was about 18).
Some local news...
January 29 2017
Picture: L&T
I've recently joined the board of Lyon & Turnbull, Scotland's leading auction house. I live in Edinburgh and have loved going to their fine saleroom (above), which must be one of the best in the UK. It used to be a church (by coincidence, I was watching Chariots of Fire on the plane home on Thursday, and noticed that some of the scenes were shot there before it became an auction room). It's exciting to now be part of the company, and to learn more about the process of auctioneering (having been a retailer in my former life).
You can read more here in the Antiques Trade Gazette, and more here at Lyon & Turnbull's site. And standby for more Lyon & Turnbull related plugs for me...
Update - my quote in the press release was the Antiques Trade Gazette's 'quote of the week';
“I have spent most of my career being a dealer, but I have always secretly wanted to be an auctioneer.”
'The Art of France'
January 29 2017
Video: BBC
Andrew Graham-Dixon's latest 'Art of...' show is on at the moment, and this time it's the art of France. Monday nights, BBC4 9pm, more here.
New York Old Master sales (ctd.)
January 29 2017
Picture: BG
Thank you for your patience while I was away.
The New York Old Master sales seem to have gone well. With news of another exceptional Old Master fake emerging a week earlier, and the inauguration (followed by mass protests) of a new president, we might have expected a bumpy ride for Old Masters. But they performed as solidly as ever - nothing too exciting and nothing too disastrous. The overall sale total for Sotheby's Master Paintings week was $41.9m. We have no comparison for Christie's, who have moved their paintings sales to April. Christie's do however still have their Old Master drawings sale in January, and this also performed respectably, bringing in $6.1m. Here is The Art Newspaper's take of the week.
Sotheby's Evening Old Master sale totalled $27m, and was led by a newly discovered Rubens equestrian study making $5.1m against an estimate of $1m-$1.5m. The Adam de Coster depiction of a Young Woman holding a Distaff made $4.8m (est. $1.5m-$2m) while a previously unknown Willem Drost of Flora made $4.6m (est. $400k-$600k). 34 pictures were sold out of 55, which is to be expected these days when so few dealers are there to provide a 'floor' for prices. In the Sotheby's press release for the sale's top lots, no work is listed as going to a trade buyer. Even five years ago this would have been a different story. One of the pictures I really wanted to see, an Old Woman being sold as 'attributed to Rembrandt', was withdrawn at the last minute. The St Veronica called 'attributed to El Greco' made just $675k - I thought it would do better. It must be 'right'.
Sotheby's day sale totalled $8.6m. The top lot here was a 15th Century English altarpiece of exceptional quality (the original polychrome still intact) which made $1.3m. A somewhat yellowed but very fine portrait by Raeburn that I admired failed to sell, to my surprise. Again, in recent years this would have been picked up by the trade.
Christie's drawing sale featured a fine drawing by Rubens, based on a work by Giulio Romano. It made $1.56m, having sold in 2008 for about $250,000. A drawing I coveted, a series of characterful heads by Jordaens, fetched $52k against an estimate of $7k-$10k. Sotheby's drawing sale made $4.5m, and was led by a couple of good Turner watercolours. One of my favourites was the below cow by Thomas Gainsborough, which made $40k (est. $15k-$20k).
I think the overall lesson of the week is that the Old Master market still performs strongly enough overall, but that taste is continuing to shift towards works that are immediate; primarily non-religious; visually appealing; and in some way 'modern'. These factors are of course hard to pin down, and you may well point to the sale of a semi-naked and wrinkly St Jerome by Abraham Janssens at $492k as disproving my theory - but in fact this picture is rather 'modern', not least because of its Caravaggesque lighting. An example of a picture which has suffered from such the shift in taste (an incidentally, taste is always shifting) is a portrait of a mother and child by Romney, which bought in at $40k-$60k, despite being what was once thought to be an appealing image and in good condition. It was previously sold by both Colnaghi and Philip Mould, for whom such a picture would once have been a best seller. Perhaps there was something too sentimental about the image for today's taste. These days, image is everything.
Update - Colin Gleadell in The Telegraph reports that the three top lots in Sotheby's Evening Sale (the Rubens, the de Coster and the Drost) were all bought by the same collector. Whoever you are - bravo!
Apologies...
January 23 2017
Picture: BG
Good morning from New York. Here's a photo of a cat asleep in a deli.
I'm afraid blogging will be light to non-existent for the next few days. Too many meetings and trips to squeeze into a short period of time. This morning (Monday) I'm on my way to Minneapolis. Then I'm back to New York on Tuesday, before heading up to New England on Wednesday. I'll be posting various bits of news and pictures I've seen over on Twitter in case you're interested.
Yesterday I was at Sotheby's seeing the Old Master sales. There are no mega lots this year, as with the $30m Gentileschi last year. But still plenty of nice things (a selection of which I've put up on Twitter). I've also posted below some videos from Sotheby's. Christie's has a drawing sale, and the star of the show there is a wonderful drawing by Rubens after (or rather, on top of) a drawing by Giulio Romano.
Yesterday Sotheby's put on the most spectacular breakfast buffet I have ever seen. At first I thought it was a still life.
Willem Drost's 'Flora'
January 23 2017
Video: Sotheby's
Here's a previously unknown picture by Rembrandt's pupil Willem Drost. It's a homage to Titian, and is a remarkable fusion of northern and southern styles. The estimate is $400k-$600k, but I expect it will do better than that.
Spanish pictures at Sotheby's
January 23 2017
Video: Sotheby's
I particularly like the El Greco, which, though called 'attributed to' looks like the real deal to me. A potential bargain for someone for $400k-$600k?
Gentileschi's 'Head of a Woman'
January 23 2017
Video: Sotheby's
This Orazio Gentileschi is on offer at Sotheby's at $2m-$3m. It used to be in Charles I's collection. More here.
National Gallery embraces the '4th plinth'
January 20 2017
Picture: TAN
The National Gallery (reports The Art Newspaper) has embraced the concept of the '4th plinth' programme in Trafalgar Square. This is the scheme whereby the vacant plinth beside Nelson's Column is temporarily filled by a contemporary work of art. For the last few years, the National Gallery has slightly distanced itself from the idea, not least because it has been (rightly in my view) concerned about the unruly playground Trafalgar Square has become.
Auctionata insolvent
January 20 2017
Picture: Auctionata
The online auction house, Auctionata, has filed for insolvency. It describes itself as 'the leading online auction house for art'. And the fact that it is no longer - and to be honest rarely offered any really good pictures - tells us all we need to know about how difficult online auctioneering is. While traditional auction houses have rightly rushed to embrace the opportunities presented by the digital world, it seems that both consignors and buyers still want the security, convenience and reassurance of an actual place, and the ability to actually see and handle the works of art themselves. Even for experienced buyers like me, it's still difficult to assess the true quality and condition of a painting if you only see it through photos.
Still, none of this seems to stop investors hosing money at online auction platforms, in a way that they would never do if an somebody wanted to found a more traditional auction house. Auctionata, who recently merged with another online auction house, Paddle8, got through tens of millions of dollars in financing.
Velasquez or not?
January 20 2017
Picture: TAN
A much debated portrait of Philip IV of Spain in the Ringling Museum in Florida might have come one step closer to being accepted as a genuine Velasquez, after Infra-red scans revealed a number of alterations to the original. It turns out that the clothing, which has put off some experts in the past, was actually a later addition, and that Philip was originally wearing armour. Hence, I presume, his rather portly stomach. More here.
Brexit and the Art Market (ctd.)
January 20 2017
Picture: BBC
The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has managed to acquire the above painting, Message of the Forest, by Czech surrealist Toyen - despite a last-minute price hike after the Brexit vote. The picture was being bought from overseas, at an agreed price of £420,000. But after the pound's devaluation last year, the price went up to £486,448. Happily the Art Fund was able to ensure this particular parrot lived to fight another day, and provided the extra cash. More here.
New Giambologna discovery
January 20 2017
Picture: La Tribune de L'art
Didier Rykner of La Tribune de L'art has news of a re-discovered 1597 bronze Venus by Giambologna in France. More here.
Hubris
January 20 2017
Picture (below): Newsweek
Last year, Russian forces re-took the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria from Isis. They immediately sought to capitalise on their victory with an internationally broadcast concert from the spectacular 2nd Century AD Roman amphitheater (above), in which Vladimir Putin gave a televised address. The message was clear; Russia has defeated Isis, not the US.
But now Isis has recaptured Palmyra. And inevitably they have destroyed the site from which President Putin used to herald his victory (satellite image below). By their hubristic actions, Russia made this act of vandalism more likely.
Fakes, fakes everywhere? (ctd.)
January 17 2017
Picture: Sotheby's
Some breaking news: the St Jerome being investigated by Sotheby's in connection with the Old Master forgery scandal has been deemed to be a fake. Here is Sotheby's statement:
When we learned last year that the painting may have originated from Giuliano Ruffini, we informed the purchaser from our January 2012 auction and initiated a process including technical analysis that established that the work was undoubtedly a forgery. Ruffini is an individual at the center of a broad-ranging and well-publicized criminal investigation for allegedly selling a considerable number of Old Master paintings that are modern forgeries.
As was true in the recent case of the fake Frans Hals painting [sold by Sotheby's for $10m in 2010], Sotheby's is honoring its guarantee and fully reimbursing our purchaser. We have also exercised our contractual right to cancel the sale, which requires our consignor to reimburse us. While we would have preferred to settle this matter out of court, our consignor has refused to abide by his obligations and we have been left no other option than to pursue legal action.
As mentioned earlier on AHN, the painting was sold by Sotheby's in January 2012 in New York for $842,500. It had been discovered in 1999, and before Sotheby's sale had been exhibited (at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna no less) and widely published as a work by Parmigianino himself. The 'Circle of Parmigianino' attribution given to the painting by Sotheby's was therefore one of some caution, and followed Prof. David Ekserdjian, the leading Parmigianino scholar, saying he did not believe it was by the artist. That said, there was little doubt then that the picture was from the period, and when after the sale it was loaned to the Metropolitan Museum in New York the attribution was upgraded again to 'Attributed to Parmigianino'.
Sotheby's lawsuit names the consignor as Lionel de Saint Donat-Pourrieres of Luxemburg. He is described here as an art historian, sometime art dealer, and lawyer. According to Vincent Noce's article on the St Jerome in The Art Newspaper in October 2016, the St Jerome was once owned by Giulano Ruffini, who had owned the Frans Hals portrait which has also been declared a fake by Sotheby's after extensive scientific testing. For the first time, therefore, we can now say for certain that we're dealing with multiple forgeries. Two other paintings still under suspicion, a Cranach of Venus belonging to the Prince of Liechtenstein and a David with the Head of Goliath by Orazio Gentileschi, have yet be proven to be fakes (though, as I have said elsewhere, in my opinion it is likely that they are). Both of these paintings previously belonged to Ruffini, according to Ruffini's own testimony in The Art Newspaper. What we can begin to deduce from this pattern, if indeed it is one, is the fakes are all: small-ish; of no certain provenance or publication history before the 1990s; on either panel or stone supports; by major but not first-rank artists.
Sotheby's court papers set out why the St Jerome has been declared a fake, after analysis by their in house Director of Scientific Research James Martin:
Mr. Martin took pigment samples from 21 different areas of the painting. Each and every one of those samples (none of which were taken from areas of restoration) contained the modern synthetic pigment phthalocyanine green, which was first used in paints nearly four centuries after Parmigianino died.
What is frankly extraordinary about the latest news is how different the painting is to the Hals portrait. This faker, if indeed the same person painted both, has demonstrated amazing versatility in artistic styles to go from 16thC Italian Mannerism to 17thC Dutch Golden Age painting. There has surely never been a better mimic of such differing artists. If I could meet them, the first thing I would do is congratulate them.
Anyway, that's for another day (I hope). The interesting legal aspect here is that Sotheby's have gone to court against Lionel de Saint Donat-Pourrieres before they have done so against the London art dealer Mark Weiss, who consigned the Hals portrait to Sotheby's in 2010. In both cases, Sotheby's say they are determined to secure repayment of monies they have paid to the consignors, as the terms of their sale contract would have stated. Sotheby's are still in discussions with Mr Weiss.
Brexit and the Art Market (ctd.)
January 17 2017
Picture: Guardian
The UK Prime Minister will today make her much-trailed speech on the UK's approach to the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. You'll find more cogent analysis of her position elsewhere. But I just want to focus briefly on the possible impact on the UK's art market.
The main points that have been pre-briefed so far tell us: the UK will leave the Single Market; we will also leave the customs union; freedom of movement with the EU will end; but May nonetheless says she wants to find a solution whereby "lorries will be able to pass through Dover and other ports unhindered", according to The Guardian.
Leaving the Single Market will bring cheer to those dealers whose main concern is the Artist's Resale Right. This is the levy charged on the sale of works by living artists or those artists who have died within 70 years. I've always thought it an anachronism, but I am not so sanguine about the UK government abolishing it, even post-Brexit; the arts lobby in the UK tends to be stronger than that of the art market.
From an art market point of view, the most important aspect of May's speech probably concerns the customs union. This is the basic means by which goods can travel from, say, London to Paris and vice-versa without border checks and customs tarriffs. Needless to say, if you're a UK dealer buying and selling pictures in the EU, then you want to be able to easily transport your wares and not to pay import duties. Similarly, if you're a UK auction house you don't want consignors being put off by the prospect of paying either an additional levy to send their picture to London, or by the bureaucracy of getting it there. And both auction houses and dealers will want to minimise the extent of additional paperwork.
Nobody yet knows how the forthcoming negotiations will pan out, so all of this is speculative. However, Liam Fox, the Secretary of State for Internatonal Trade, has said that the UK will seek to replicate existing EU tarriffs 'as far as possible'. This suggests that anyone wanting to import a painting into the UK will need to pay 5% import duty, which they currently do if they bring in a painting from outside the EU. The fear must be, therefore, that post-Brexit the 5% import tax will in addition apply to pictures also coming in from the EU.
On the other hand, many will be hoping that the UK government will immediately abolish the 5% import tarriff on all cultural goods, so that imports from the US become duty free, which they are not currently. It's hard to see how a cash-strapped Treasury will find money to help art dealers. Equally we tend to assume here in the UK that all of these things are in our gift - but the EU (or rather countries within it that want a slice of the UK art market) could by force majeur oblige us to keep certain tarriffs as part of any future trade negotiations. If the PM's desire for some kind of associate membership of the customs union (ie, keep those lorries and paintings rolling through Dover) then presumably tarriffs relating to the art market will be part of these negotiations.
Which brings me onto how successful the UK art market will be in negotiating the Brexit rapids ahead. We don't yet know if the art market is to be one of David Davis' supposed 57 economic sectors that his department is preparing to negotiate for in their negotiations with the EU. One would hope it is, given the size of the market, which in 2014 was over £9 billion. Some of my colleagues in the art market take the view that advocating their position on Brexit is best done quietly with ministers and officials, and not by creating a more public campaign. I disagree. When push comes to shove, politicians respond to, and protect, those who shout loudest.
And so far, there's not much evidence of any shouting at all. According to Anthony Browne of the British Art Market Federation, the trade's leading representative body (members include Sotheby's and Christie's) the EU does not account for much of the market's overall trade anyway:
While the EU is main trading partner for many other sectors of the UK economy, 85 per cent of the £4 billion worth of art imported to the UK last year came from non-EU countries, and only 2 per cent of all art exports went to EU destinations. It is probably for this reason that the British art market has so far taken the Brexit vote in its stride.
I think this view is mistaken, and that the statistic of 85% is misleading. Cultural goods coming into the UK from the EU are not subject to border checks at the moment of course, and so it is difficult to be sure that this figure is really accurate. In theory, any Vat-registered business must state on its Vat return whether it has bought goods in the EU, and it is from this and other information reported to HMRC by businesses that the 85% figure comes from. But in practice, I understand that not all art dealers (or their accountants) fill in all the relevant parts of their Vat return, and nor of course are all dealers or art market actors Vat registered. Since in terms of value, if not by volume, the UK art market is already skewed towards modern and contemporary art, in which the major business is transacted between locations like the US, Switzerland Hong Kong, then it's easy to see how the 85% figure can be misleading.
Certainly, in the Old Master sector, it is absolutely the case that more than 15% of art imports into the UK come from the EU. From conversations I've had with colleagues in the major London auction houses it is clear that consignments from the EU make up significantly more than 15% of total lots. If bringing in those lots from the EU in future entails either import taxes or going through the bureaucratic hurdles of 'temporary import' (thus being exempt from import tax for a brief period) then slowly but surely sales will seep to other cities such as Paris. Those of us in the UK Old Master market may be small fry compared to the modern and contemporary sector. You might rightly point out that we're not likely to get much public sympathy. But we must hope that somehow our voices are still heard, and that the level playing field we've enjoyed for so long can continue.
So at the moment we are left facing continued uncertainty, which looks likely to last for many years. It will be some time before a final trade deal is worked out with the EU, and then even longer with other nations after that. The Prime Minister said today that 'no deal is better than a bad deal', which means that if no agreement with the EU is reached in two years, all trade between Britain and Europe reverts to World Trade Organisation tarriffs. Of course, these will apply to works of art.
Finally, a quick word on freedom of movement. As reported in the Evening Standard yesterday, London's pre-eminence as Europe's art market center relies in part on the ease with which people from the EU can work in the UK, and vice versa. 49% of dealers surveyed at the London Art Fair said that freedom of movement was the most important threat to the UK art market.
Update - a reader writes:
Your piece on the post Brexit art market is very logical, however it is unlikely that logic will rule. It hasn't to date in the entire Brexit drama which is beyond reason.
The reality of Brexit for any sector remains unknown. As you wrote, the non EU imports are Swiss and US and the exports add Hong Kong. The UK market is largely as a middle man between non UK buyers and sellers or beneficial owners (some being EU) just as the Euro clearing and hedging markets in The City mainly serve non UK clients and transactions.
The government will try to keep The City alive and well, while the art dealers, who lobby passively in Westminster, can expect little help from this government. They don't tell their story well. The Guardian hasn't printed a headline saying Treasury gives up £1billion revenue if art market leaves or 10,000 UK jobs depend on art market. May won't cut a deal like Sunderland to help London art dealers and their staff and suppliers.
Ferens art gallery re-opens
January 16 2017
Picture: Guardian
I've been meaning to note the re-opening last week of the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, after a £5.2m refurbishment. The opening was also the first time the museum has displayed its new £1.6m acquisition of a painting by Pietro Lorenzetti (which is being admired above by the National Gallery director Gabriele Finaldi). The National has lent a number of pictures to a new exhibition at the Ferens highlighting the Lorenzetti.
Unfortunately, there is no video or set of photos of the new museum, or any mention of the new exhibition, on the Ferens' website. In fact, the site has yet to be updated from when the museum was closed. For a potential visitor trying to find out more, the Ferens might as well not exist. Could the museum not have spent just a fraction of the £5.2m on a new website?
Update - here's a brief video on Vimeo from KCOM, who provide broadband in Hull.
Optimism? (ctd.)
January 16 2017
Picture: Jerry Brannigan/SWNS.com, via Mail Online
Here's a curious story which has been doing the rounds of the Scottish press: an expert in the work of Robert Burns says he has identified a number of 'secret' marks in a recently discovered portrait of Burns by Alexander Nasmyth. The marks include a tiny depiction of Halley's Comet, said to link to Burns' birth, and a series of letters and numbers on his forehead so small they are just 1mm big. The discoverer, Jerry Brannigan, says he has also discovered similar tiny markings on other works by Nasmyth, and these are all part of a masonic code hidden by the artist, which nobody has known about until now:
He said he had uncovered similar mysterious tiny letters and symbols in the other paintings of Burns by Nasmyth which he had examined at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Kelvingrove Art Gallery. [...]
“This is a bit like the Da Vinci code for paintings - the same kind of mysterious signs and emblems that run through everything."
Ah, the Da Vinci Code - it has a lot to answer for. I'm afraid this appears to me to be another case of people imagining they can see things in paintings, when in fact they're just signs of age, or brush strokes, or random squiggles. I get quite a few enquiries of people thinking they have, say, a Turner, because if you really magnify one tiny area of the painting, then rotate it, turn up the contrast and squint, it says 'JT'. Spend enough time with a magnifying glass and a painting and you can begin to see all sorts of things, if you're not careful.
You can read more about the secret masonic claims here, and here.
The painting of Burns in question was claimed as a discovery back in 2013. I remember then thinking it was more likely to be just another of the many copies after the three acknowledged autograph pictures by Nasmyth (here's one in the NPG, compare the quality). The attribution to Nasmyth came from an art historian who has for a long, long time been compiling a catalogue of the work of Henry Raeburn, Dr David Mackie. As far as I am aware, Mackie is not widely regarded as an expert on Nasmyth. Part of his reasoning was, according to the Antiques Trade Gazette, that:
X-rays taken last year show that the preparatory work beneath the finished paint is typical of Nasmyth.
I don't ever recall seeing a thorough analysis of Nasmyth paintings that have been x-rayed, so I'm not entirely sure how Mackie can draw such a conclusion. Nevertheless, the picture appears to have been taken seriously by Imogen Gibbon, Deputy Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, who said;
“This is a very interesting discovery. I would say often people approach museums and galleries with what they think is a new portrait of Burns, but often they date from the 20th or late 19th century, but this is appears to be an exception.”
The discovery of the painting in 2013 was also heralded by the same Jerry Brannigan, said to be acting on behalf of an anonymous owner. The picture was bought at a regional auction in England. Brannigan was then co-writing a book on Robert Burns' time in Edinburgh, which was eventually published in 2015. This book, which according to the publishers contains walking tours, 100 illustrations and 80 photographs, is now enough for the press to refer to Brannigan, a freelance writer, as an 'expert' on Burns.
When the discovery of the painting was announced in 2013 it was said that the painting was for sale and valued at £2m, and that the 'clock was ticking' for a museum to buy it. This seems evidently not to have happened. It is now on display at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, who apparently do not express to visitors any doubts about the picture's status as an autograph work by Nasmyth. Finally, I see that the latest story about the secret markings has been put out by the SWNS press agency, who run a website called www.sellusyourstory.com. I see in AHN past that SWNS have promoted curious stories about a claimed £1.3m drawing by the young Andy Warhol, and the one about the long-lost Picasso in the suitcase, neither of which turned out to be quite what they seemed.
I'm not suggesting that Mr Brannigan or the painting's owner, whoever they are, have made money out of this particular story. I don't know. But I mention all this because it's a good example of how easy it is to get a story into the press about art discoveries and expertise, whether there's any particular merit to them or not. Of course, many of you will be thinking; pot, kettle...
