Caveat Emptor

or: Four Not Quite Bouguereau's: The previously mentioned Future Post ~ http://taotothetruth.blogspot.com/2011/09/sold-out.html

Or as I like to say, "Fraud!", for what else can it be called. The following four head studies were auctioned by Christie's, not as; attributed to/after/school of/style of/in the manner of, but as Bouguereau's. Lets just say there's a reason Christie's offered them at one of their backwoods auctions, "Tableaux Anciens Et Du Xixeme Siecle", the type which is usually filled with the dregs that couldn't make it in an "Old Master" or "Important 19th Century Art" sale. 

Furthermore ~

from Christie's Lot Text

LOTS 154 à 157: QUATRE ETUDES PAR WILLIAM-ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU (LA ROCHELLE 1825-1905)

"Ces études seront citées dans le catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint de William Adolphe Bouguereau réalisé par Damien Bartoli, catalogue actuellement en voie de publication grâce à l'appui de Frédéric Ross, président du musée virtuel ARC sur Internet.

Nous remercions vivement Monsieur Damien Bartoli pour son aide à la description de ces lots."

Incompetence or collusion? (I don't know, I'm just asking.)

note ~ Based on the vignette state of Lot 155, one can assume they were not executed as forgeries, but rather as copies by either a student or assistant in Bouguereau's atelier. (see below, Lot 155)

Lot 154

Etude de tête de femme brune, de profil

After a canvas for which there is no Bartoli/Ross entry, but is referenced under 1896/01: "There is a portrait of the same model, but seen in right profile, in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada".

Lot 154

I believe the Bouguereau was done as reference for 1893/01 Offrande à l'Amour [Offering to Cupid] a painting begun circa 1891.

Why would Bouguereau bother to paint a copy of a head study? Based on this jpeg it is obvious he didn't. The "closed surface" of the flesh, hard edges, dead darks, the caricatured shape of the upper lip, not to mention the color (jpeg color, I know).

W. Bouguereau
Study of a Girl's Head, c. 1890
Oil on canvas 45.7 x 38.1 cm
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Bequest of J.W.L. Forster, 1938

Lot 155

Etude de tête de femme brune, de trois-quarts

This one is worse than Lot 154. What else can I say?

Lot 155

W. Bouguereau
1896/01Portrait de jeune fille [Portrait of a Girl]
Oil on canvas 46.5 x 38cm (18 1/4 x 15in.)
Painted circa 1887
Signed and dated 1896, top left

Painted as a study for 1887/04 Frère et sœur [Brother and Sister], Bouguereau finished, signed and dated it later as a present to a friend or to offer it to a charity sale. It is clear that the copy depicts Bouguereau's original unfinished study*, which indicates that the copyist had access to it while it was still in the Master's studio.

*Parts of the vignetted background can still be seen as it strikes through Bouguereau's finish.

W. Bouguereau
1887/04 Frère et sœur

Lot 156

Etude de tête de femme blonde, de profil

A study for 1900/02 Regina Angelorum. I have never seen the Bouguereau's original study, but based solely on this jpeg, thats not it. Edges, color, surface, the support (which appears to be the same as the horrendous Lot 155) …second rate.

Lot 156

1900/02 Regina Angelorum

Bartoli/Ross catalogue notes: The idea for this painting came much earlier than 1900. Indeed, the project dates back to at least the early 1880's, as is testified by several studies of the girl who modeled for the angels, dating from 1882-1883. Two head studies related to this work were sold at Christie's Paris (June 2004, lots 155 and 156).

W. Bouguereau
1900/02 Regina Angelorum

Lot 157

Etude de tête de femme blonde, de face

Lot 157

Same faults as Lot 156. Painted after a study for 1897/10 L'admiration [Admiration].

W. Bougereau
1897/10 L'admiration

For sake of comparison, an authentic Bouguereau study done for the same painting ~

W. Bouguereau
Étude de tête d'Elize Brugière
inscribed 'Melle Elize Brugière 81 rue de Picpus' (lower left)
oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 15 in. (46 x 38 cm.

It's gaffes like this that makes one question the value of a Christie's Education. ~ http://www.christieseducation.com

A Vermeer Restored

or: Hey, but leading scientists and experts agree!

Only, you see, that or something like it ain't it.

This is~

Vermeer's glazes have both faded and (even worse) been scrubbed away by tasteless heavy handed hacks, so all that remains is a duotone underpainting* (which they pass off as his subtle use of colour). Now if thats what remains of the master's hand …fine …but the gall to claim it's a restoration of Vermeer's original vision.

Condition before cleaning**~

file under: Further proof of,  "It just doesn't matter anymore …"

*a.k.a. ~ Dead-colouring (as in grey, lifeless)

**which it needed, but this would only prelude an extensive repaint (that no one will do), so why bother?

FB IPO

Pump 'n' Dump

"FB’s stock wanted to drop under the IPO price of $38 many times during its 1st day of trading…only the underwriters held it up so they wouldn’t be publicly humiliated…they won’t always be there to prop this thing up, much like promoters eventually give up on pump and dumps when they’ve sold all their shares and the stocks ALL drop in the same exact manner…" ~ Timothy Sykes

1972 "FATHER AND SON", oil on canvas, 38" by 30" Norman Rockwell

CATALOGUE NOTE

In 1972 the United States Trust Company commissioned Norman Rockwell to paint Father and Son for the cover of their annual report. In a letter dated June 14, 2002, Maureen Hart Hennessey of The Norman Rockwell Museum writes, "the original idea was to show an entire family as 'Dad' tries to explain to his family 'the instruments of wealth'...Rockwell's version is much clearer and easier to understand, simply a father and son discussing these issues in the living room, with the family dog nearby." The setting for the painting was the U.S. Trust offices at 45 Wall Street and the models were an actual father and son from Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In Father and Son, a well-dressed, man is attempting to explain the fundamental principles behind financial instruments. With an investment certificate in his hand and numerous papers strewn about the living room table, the father looks towards his son, whose attentive but anxious and somewhat blank expression suggests his naiveté.

Models posing in the artist's living room in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

"Said pot wasn’t sweetened for the unknowing public, who listened to sweet melodies of Facebook’s web dominance by the propaganda outfit known to you as CNBC. The pot was saccharined for the direct benefit of selling insiders, who put an additional 25% more shares on the market, to be dumped at the ipo price of $38– valuing the company at $104 billion. Just a few weeks prior, the company was allegedly worth just $96 billion, according to lead underwriter Morgan Stanley.

What’s $8 billion between friends, no?"

full article~ http://ibankcoin.com/flyblog/2012/05/21/the-facebook-ipo-a-national-disgrace/

"…FB dropping 15%+ or the fact that it would have dropped even more had the underwriters not supported it yet again in order to avoid the inevitable embarrassment when Facebook does indeed drop 30-40% or even more as the hype fades and their slowing growth reality sets in." ~ Timothy Sykes

99% — 98%

or: What's a lousy 1% between Comrades

1931 Soviet propaganda: Exploiters 2% , Peasants 98%

"in the U.S. in 1922, 1% of the people held 59% of the national wealth"

"In the Soviet Union the exploiting classes account for not more than 2% of the people's income. There remains 98% in the hands of the workmen and peasants,"

"Now if in the U.S.S.R. in 1929-30 only about 2% of the people's income went to the exploiting classes, where does the rest go? Clearly it remains in the hands of the laborers and the working peasants. Herein is the source of the strength and prestige of the Soviet power among the millions of the working class and peasants. Herein the basis for the systematic growth of the material welfare of the workers and peasants in the Soviet Union."

file under: everything old is new again

No More Socialism

NO MORE SOCIALIST PROMISES FOR ME, I'M VOTING CONSERVATIVE THIS TIME

artwork by Harold Speed ,1931

The "progressive" plan~

“Under Socialism, you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you liked it or not. If it were discovered that you had not character and industry enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live, you would have to live well.” – George Bernard Shaw