I almost resolved to paint in the manner of the old masters and to represent the works not as my own but as the work of the old masters themselves. However, a moral reason and a practical reason prevented me. It would have been a lie to say that my work was by the old masters when it was nothing of the sort and, if people were ingenuous enough to believe me, I would be responsible for distorting their view of the old masters. Second, on comparing my paltry efforts with those of the old masters, I was struck with melancholy; for the old skills have been lost forever and seeking to possess them again is like expecting a rabbit in the field to come when you call it by a fondly invented name.... As the master forger Eric Hebborn had recently published an autobiography detailing his exploits in deceiving the public, I felt that it was legitimate to add to his confessed legacy...
It is true that by presenting my work as a forger’s I would no longer be making the proud claim of being an old master; but I even felt, in my more misanthropic moments, that relative to the options of contemporary art-making, the claim of being a forger was not without prestige. Lacking even a scintilla of the prestige of the old masters, we can only invoke the glamour of their dishonest imitators; we’re too squalid to make art with genuine prestige but at least we can glory in the charisma of a crook.
Extract from `Testimony of a Hoaxer' by Robert Nelson
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| Artemisia Gentileschi’s Self-Portrait as the Archangel Gabriel after a hypothetical fake by Eric Hebborn oil on linen 1996 66 x 56cm | The Virgin Annunciate after hypothetical fake by Eric Hebborn after Cavallino oil on linen 1996 66 x 56cm |
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| Cavalino’s Self-Portrait as the Archangel Gabriel after a hypothetical fake by Eric Hebborn oil on linen 1996 66 x 56cm | The Virgin Annunciate after hypothetical fake by Eric Hebborn after Cavallino oil on linen 1996 66 x 56cm |
Nelson's two copies of the Cavalino held in the National Gallery of Victoria are paired with the complementary figure of Gabrielle, as Eric Hobborn might have shown Artemisia Gentileschi or Cavalino might have painted them. Nelson is hoping to win our indulgence by seeming to forge a forgery. Do two wrongs make a right? (D.P.)
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