File:American homes and gardens (1911) (17968763178).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar81911newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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The genesis of an "ancient" triptych (three-panel picture)
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Gilding and varnishing furniture in the old style washed, and a suitable subject, worthy of one of the great masters, is then painted over the canvas. The colors are mixed with ashes and soot to give them an appearance of age. Sometimes the same result is obtained by the process known as "marouflage." This consists in pasting over an old canvas treated in the man- ner just described, a recent copy of some ancient painting. With this our artist's work is nearly accomplished. It only remains to "bake" the picture, in order to dry and crack the color. If the scales formed are not suffi- cient in number, this slight de- fect can be remedied by the aid of a needle. If there is some little detail in the picture, which the artist finds it above his pow- ers to satisfactorily counterfeit, he invokes nature's aid. He turns himself into a horticultur- ist of a peculiar kind, and, wiping with a moistened cloth the spot which is to be partially obliterated, prepares the bed for a growth of mold or fungus, which in a few days covers the spot under treatment. Lastly the painting passes into the hands of the "mono- gramist," who duly inserts a suitable signature. The science of this specialist is one not easily learnt. He must have made a detailed study of the brushes used by the great masters; he has on file the initials and complete signatures as well as the dates of famous painters, copied from originals in the museums at Rome, Paris, Berlin, London or Madrid. He knows that such and such artist always signed his paintings on the left, while this or that land- scape paint- e r invaria- b 1 y placed his initials at the bottom. Another, a painter of his t o r ical subjects, would sign his initials with a flour- ish on the right, while still another, the author of portraits would sim- ply put his initials i n " printed " characters at the upper left hand corner. It must be said that the "fake" painters of to-day can boast of most brilliant predecessors. Did not Paul de Vos copy Snyders, and has not David Teniers, the younger, counterfeited Tiziano? In the case of modern paintings the task of the expert becomes excessively difficult, for certain

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