What do you think?
Rate this book
Master Faker: The Forging of an Artist
Paperback
Published October 9, 1992
11 people want to read
About the author
Eric Hebborn
9 books4 followersEric Hebborn was an English painter and art forger and later an author.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 14, 2013
The book is brilliant. Eric Hebborn is brilliant. I see the issue of art fogeries in a new light. Hebborn is a rascal and he makes a good point. There is no such thing as a fake work of art. There might be a faulty (or fake) attribution, but every work of art is valid in its own right, albeit they are not all of equal quality.
All artists would copy the work of others who they considered masters. This has always been the way artists learn their trade. A large part of Hebborn's carrer derived from drawing in the style of one or another great master. He never copied an existing work, but rather he drew in the manner and style of a school or a person. And as to being the work of a follower or so-and-so, he would tell you that HE is a follower of the work of so-and-so. He never claimed the work was by any of the old masters. Rather, he always left it to the "experts" to discover or decide to whom the work should be attributed.
I think he wrote the book to explain his own life and career, but mainly he wrote it to condemn the so-called experts who don't really know much about art. He says that people who can't themselves draw, have no business to call themselves experts. Identifying styles and artists is only 5% of the knowledge of art. Ninety-five percentage is knowing, from experience, how it is made.
This is a well-written, highly informative, and very entertaining book. And if ever there was an author with whom I would like to sit and share a meal and a bottle of wine, it is Hebborn.
All artists would copy the work of others who they considered masters. This has always been the way artists learn their trade. A large part of Hebborn's carrer derived from drawing in the style of one or another great master. He never copied an existing work, but rather he drew in the manner and style of a school or a person. And as to being the work of a follower or so-and-so, he would tell you that HE is a follower of the work of so-and-so. He never claimed the work was by any of the old masters. Rather, he always left it to the "experts" to discover or decide to whom the work should be attributed.
I think he wrote the book to explain his own life and career, but mainly he wrote it to condemn the so-called experts who don't really know much about art. He says that people who can't themselves draw, have no business to call themselves experts. Identifying styles and artists is only 5% of the knowledge of art. Ninety-five percentage is knowing, from experience, how it is made.
This is a well-written, highly informative, and very entertaining book. And if ever there was an author with whom I would like to sit and share a meal and a bottle of wine, it is Hebborn.
October 20, 2016
all is fake fake fake fake
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews