Camille Corot, "Les hauteurs de Ville-d'Avray", around 1865-1869... a genuine painting
Robaut reacted furiously against forgers, experts and dealers who were taking part in this lucrative business and his notes found in many auction catalogues showed to what extent he was exasperated.
The words «abomination», «horror», «crap», «thieves !», «damned» were often repeatedly written in his furious notes while many amateurs were taken in by fakes and would remain undeterred when told that they had hanged daubs alongside marvellous Corot paintings.
Robaut also accused the dealers Bernheim, Tripp and Arnold of having glutted the American market with Corot fakes. They were buying copies at auction at Drouot and making huge profits selling them back. He described Georges Petit, Brame or Georges Meunier as ignorant experts saying : «we should put out the eyes of these experts who are nothing but imbeciles and who are stupid enough not to detect the obviousness of an original work».
It is however true that Corot paved the way to copies by lending many of his works to some painters who took the liberty of imitating his style.
Prévost, an obscure painter to whom Corot gave many of his paintings to be relined, was probably among those who produced many copies that were sold on the market. He even went as far as retouching certain works of the master.
Robaut made a list of those copyists :
Charles Desavary, Devé, Demeur, Devillers, Miss de Varenne, Mention, Lavieille, Larocque, Edouard Brandon, Castella, Guillon, Renault père, Damoye père, Lepollard, Charles Charmois, a member of Corot's family, Faure, Mrs Legendre, Oudinot, Lapito, Grandjean, Harpignies, Constant Dutilleux, Prévost, the king of forgers, and even Berthe Morisot, a pupil of the master.
To most copies produced by these artists and likely to deceive buyers it was easy to add Corot's signature, quite simple to reproduce, and then put these on the market. One can also recall that Corot, who did not hesitate to add his signature on the paintings of beginners who used to work with him on the spot, had even borrowed these copies so as to produce his own interpretations. In addition, Corot authenticated himself many fakes that had been shown to him, simply by sheer pity towards those poor amateurs who were visiting him. Thus comforting those who had been deceived with fakes he also helped painters living in misery by adding his signature on their works or retouching them.
Camille Corot (1796-1875) was probably the painter the most copied during the 19th century not only by imitators but also by talented artists..
It is still possible to rediscover lost works by Corot nowadays but most newly discovered works on the market are fakes. In fact, since the death of Alfred Robaut, an artist who produced the catalogue raisonné of Corot's paintings and drawings there have been some 10,000 recorded fakes in the world.
Corot true signatures
Alfred Robaut tracked down fakes as early as 1875 while Corot, years before his death, executed many paintings with the help of aides and did not hesitate to add his signature on copies which were submitted to him by many of his admirers. Therefore Corot made apparently no fuss about the many forgeries that were circulating by 1875 perhaps finding amusing to be so much copied.
Alfred Robaut was however utterly horrified and promptly made a list of those forgeries he saw accompanying his descriptions with nasty comments which however disappeared from his catalogue raisonné when it was published by Moreau-Nelaton in 1905.
Camille Corot, "Fanchette, femme de chambre de Mme Corot mère", (1828)... a genuine painting
When Corot died, the demand for his works was quite extraordinary and speculators rushed on the market while fakes came out in numbers to Robaut's despair.
Attending an auction sale on May 20th 1880, Robaut noted that the auctioneer was offering a view of the Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris as a Corot while it was written in pencil on the chassis « by Philippon ». Mr Brame, a well-known expert bought this painting for 5000 francs, a considerable sum at that time, prompting Robaut to say that he was an "ass".
Fakes multiplied because their production was cheap and demand strong. All the more, Corot's works had become incredibly in vogue. There was therefore a big market for unscrupulous dealers who could sold dozens of forgeries to foreign buyers, notably Americans.
Camille Corot, "Les hauteurs de Ville-d'Avray", around 1865-1869... a genuine painting
Robaut reacted furiously against forgers, experts and dealers who were taking part in this lucrative business and his notes found in many auction catalogues showed to what extent he was exasperated.
The words «abomination», «horror», «crap», «thieves !», «damned» were often repeatedly written in his furious notes while many amateurs were taken in by fakes and would remain undeterred when told that they had hanged daubs alongside marvellous Corot paintings.
Robaut also accused the dealers Bernheim, Tripp and Arnold of having glutted the American market with Corot fakes. They were buying copies at auction at Drouot and making huge profits selling them back. He described Georges Petit, Brame or Georges Meunier as ignorant experts saying : «we should put out the eyes of these experts who are nothing but imbeciles and who are stupid enough not to detect the obviousness of an original work».
It is however true that Corot paved the way to copies by lending many of his works to some painters who took the liberty of imitating his style.
Prévost, an obscure painter to whom Corot gave many of his paintings to be relined, was probably among those who produced many copies that were sold on the market. He even went as far as retouching certain works of the master.
Robaut made a list of those copyists :
Charles Desavary, Devé, Demeur, Devillers, Miss de Varenne, Mention, Lavieille, Larocque, Edouard Brandon, Castella, Guillon, Renault père, Damoye père, Lepollard, Charles Charmois, a member of Corot's family, Faure, Mrs Legendre, Oudinot, Lapito, Grandjean, Harpignies, Constant Dutilleux, Prévost, the king of forgers, and even Berthe Morisot, a pupil of the master.
To most copies produced by these artists and likely to deceive buyers it was easy to add Corot's signature, quite simple to reproduce, and then put these on the market. One can also recall that Corot, who did not hesitate to add his signature on the paintings of beginners who used to work with him on the spot, had even borrowed these copies so as to produce his own interpretations. In addition, Corot authenticated himself many fakes that had been shown to him, simply by sheer pity towards those poor amateurs who were visiting him. Thus comforting those who had been deceived with fakes he also helped painters living in misery by adding his signature on their works or retouching them.
Robaut did not hesitate to blame Corot for having been too lenient in this respect and for having unduly entrusted Prevost with so many of his original works that were eventually sold in June 1897.
He also accused the artist François-Louis Français of having produced several fakes in 1895 and Charles Desavary who was in charge of publishing the photographs of some 600 Corot's works in the Northern French town of Arras.
Robot went on to evoke the «half fakes», those unfinished paintings that some unscrupulous dealers did not hesitate to transform as finished works with the help of forgers.
There was also the trial in 1883 of Paul-Desiré Trouillebert, a talented painter who was known as an imitator of Corot. His works were so much like those of Corot that his signature was rubbed off many times in order to add that of Corot.
During his trial, Trouillebert proved that one of his painting, a landscape of the Poitou region sold eventually as a signed work by Corot, had come out of his studio bearing his signature. However, Robaut accused him of being simply an imitator of Corot as his works, so much deceitful, were being sold at auction as by Corot.
At the end of the 19th century a factory producing forged Corot settled in Ixelles, Belgium, and kept active until World War One. It notably sent 230 forged landscapes to France during the year 1888 alone.
A forger employed in this den admitted that he was receiving 300 francs for each forgery and that Corot's signature and the mark of his usual canvas supplier were added afterwards by the buyer.
Such industry resumed during the First World war at the expense of occupying German troops while fakes enabled to satisfy more than one mystical art collector feeling that kind of ecstasy of believing to be the owner of a Corot or a Rembrandt painting bought for nothing, like the French scientist Michel Chasles who bought in 1860 from the forger Vrain Lucas some 27, 000 faked autographs, notably letters on paper (!) by Ciceron to Atticus, by a doctor called Castor to Jesus or by Caesar to Vercingetorix.
A certain Dr Jousseaume claimed to have acquired between 2,000 and 3,000 paintings and drawings by Corot without paying more than 100 francs for each of these. His collection was exhibited in London in 1928 and sold a few months later in that city and in New York. The catalogue bore a beguiling title : «The paintings and drawings of J.B.C Corot from the artist's own collection». The trick was exposed in the magazine «L'Amateur d'Estampes» in 1929 but the article came unnoticed while many collectors and museums had already bought part of the so-called collection which had been produced by one forger alone.
This collection was also accompanied by a series of autograph letters allegedly written by Corot which contained rather stupid remarks and made believe that the master was a sexual maniac.
It should finally be noted that Corot was partly responsible for the multiplication of fakes due to his carelessness regarding copies to which he added his signature and to his tendency to use assistants to meet a flurry of orders at the end of his life though he was not the only one in the history of painting to do so. However, he went on as far as copying engravings of his works, obtaining reverse replicas, or to paint works over copies produced by imitators.
He also notably retouched works by Dutilleux or by his disciple Georges Rodrigue-Henriquez.
His success came in the 1860's and resulted in the production of some 10,000 fakes after his death making him the most copied painter of all times. It is true that Corot only lived for the love of painting while forgers made a living out of his works and the most interesting conclusion regarding this master and other artists is to note that true art lovers, those who can discern original works from daubs, are not much in numbers when one considers that so many fakes are circulating around the world. Adrian Darmon
If you wish to submit paintings attributed to Corot, please send e-mail to artcult@wanadoo.fr
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