Canadian Art Forgeries

Canadian Art Forgeries

Until recently, Canadian art has not attained the values that would warrant an extensive network of forgeries of individual paintings, but there have been some notable exceptions, principally involving the works of Tom Thomson and Cornelius Krieghoff. Forgeries and frauds will continue to proliferate as the prices of Canadian art escalate, and not only for the biggest names in Canadian art but also, increasingly, for the lesser known artists where slight modifications are less easily noticed. Many of the Group of Seven artists and Maud Lewis, William Goodridge Roberts, and Norval Morrisseau, among others, have either been copied or had fake signatures added to unsigned works that give them an apparent stamp of authenticity. The market for Inuit prints and soapstone carvings is rampant with forgeries. Even prestigious auction houses have been fooled, and with the increasing presence of eBay and on-line auctions, the opportunities to put dubious or fraudulent art in play have increased dramatically.
Mr. Alan D. Bryce started collecting art in the 1960’s and specializes in the artwork of renowned Canadian artist Doris McCarthy and currently owns the largest private collection of her art in anada. He noted that a number of years ago, he purchased a beautiful charcoal pastel of a young female nude, dated 1915 and signed by Suzor-Cote, from an auction at Joyner Waddington’s. Some time later Laurier Lacroix, the leading expert on Suzor-Cote, raised doubts about the authenticity of the piece. When Mr. Bryce approached Geoffrey Joyner, the president of Joyner’s at the time, about Mr. Lacroix’s doubts, he, without hesitation, refunded the purchase price.
So, fakes and frauds do occur from time to time in the Canadian art market, but for now they are mostly limited to forged signatures added to imitations rather than copies of famous paintings. The world of on-line auctions and eBay puts another layer of distance and accountability between the buyer and the seller, and purchasers should be exceedingly cautious when buying artwork, especially prints, in this marketplace.
Look for more on this subject in future articles in Owen Sound Life.