inspired by Constable
Artnet
While at Goldsmiths’, Keating did weekend jobs for art restorers, including Hahn Brothers in Mayfair. Utilising the skills he learned in these jobs, he began to restore paintings for a living. He exhibited his own paintings, but failed to break into the art market. And after 2 years, he left Goldsmiths' College ungraduated.
His forgery career started in art restorer Fred Roberts’ workshop, a man apparently not over-burdened by ethics. Amongst the many canvases passing through Roberts' shop was a winter scene by Frank Moss Bennett, an early C20th British artist whose works were widely reproduced cheaply. When Keating criticised a Bennett work, Roberts challenged him to “create a Bennett painting” himself. When he created his own Bennett-like piece, he was so proud of it that he signed it with his own name. Roberts saw it, unilaterally changed the signature to FM Bennett and consigned it to a West End gallery.
Only twice did Keating say he was seduced by the spirit of a dead artist. In 1962, Edgar Degas “instructed” him to fake the Frenchman’s self-portrait. Later in life Keating found that Francisco de Goya “ordered” him to create a self-portrait, by firmly guiding the young man’s hand. That Goya and Degas had chosen him did not surprise Keating; past masters must have recognised themselves in him!
Keating produced 20 fake watercolours based on Samuel Palmer originals. Keating and Kelly selected the best 3 forgeries and Kelly took them to gallery specialists for auction. Keating perceived the gallery system to be dominated by American avant-garde fashion, with nasty critics and dealers often conspiring to line their own pockets at the expense both of naïve collectors and of impoverished artists. So Keating retaliated by creating forgeries to fool the experts, hoping to destabilise the art world.
He planted time-bombs in his art. He left clues of the paintings' true nature for fellow art restorers or conservators to find. He deliberately added flaws, or used C20th materials.
Sunflowers by Tom Keating
In his early 20s he enlisted as a boiler-stoker in WW2. The sole benefit of his military service was eligibility for a 2-year rehabilitation art course, enabling Keating to enter Goldsmiths' College, University of London. But in the programme, he discovered the cultural chasm separating him from his upper-class peers. And although he achieved high marks for painterly technique, his originality was called poor. It was humiliating.
While at Goldsmiths’, Keating did weekend jobs for art restorers, including Hahn Brothers in Mayfair. Utilising the skills he learned in these jobs, he began to restore paintings for a living. He exhibited his own paintings, but failed to break into the art market. And after 2 years, he left Goldsmiths' College ungraduated.
His forgery career started in art restorer Fred Roberts’ workshop, a man apparently not over-burdened by ethics. Amongst the many canvases passing through Roberts' shop was a winter scene by Frank Moss Bennett, an early C20th British artist whose works were widely reproduced cheaply. When Keating criticised a Bennett work, Roberts challenged him to “create a Bennett painting” himself. When he created his own Bennett-like piece, he was so proud of it that he signed it with his own name. Roberts saw it, unilaterally changed the signature to FM Bennett and consigned it to a West End gallery.
Only twice did Keating say he was seduced by the spirit of a dead artist. In 1962, Edgar Degas “instructed” him to fake the Frenchman’s self-portrait. Later in life Keating found that Francisco de Goya “ordered” him to create a self-portrait, by firmly guiding the young man’s hand. That Goya and Degas had chosen him did not surprise Keating; past masters must have recognised themselves in him!
Keating, French Countryside
inspired by Monet's Poppy Fields
the editorial magazine
In 1963, he started his own art school. This is where middle-aged Keating met 16 year old Jane Kelly, a student! Kelly really enjoyed Keating's teaching and asked her parents to pay for fulltime art classes. They became close friends, then lovers and then business partners. Four years later, the two started an art restoration business together in Cornwall.
Keating produced 20 fake watercolours based on Samuel Palmer originals. Keating and Kelly selected the best 3 forgeries and Kelly took them to gallery specialists for auction. Keating perceived the gallery system to be dominated by American avant-garde fashion, with nasty critics and dealers often conspiring to line their own pockets at the expense both of naïve collectors and of impoverished artists. So Keating retaliated by creating forgeries to fool the experts, hoping to destabilise the art world.
inspired by Sunflowers (1850) by Vincent van Gogh.
Photo from London's National Gallery.
The art market became Keating’s focus, giving him a rationale for adopting other painters' styles and earning money in their name. Keating's preferred approach in oils was a Venetian technique inspired by Titian's practice. His paintings took time to complete, but they had a richness of colour, special optical effects and a variety of texture that Rembrandt would have loved.
In 1970 auctioneers noticed that there were 13 Samuel Palmer watercolour works for sale, all depicting the village of Shoreham in Kent. The Times of London arts journalist, Geraldine Norman, looked into the 13 Palmers, sending them to be scientifically tested by a specialist. They were fakes. But it was not until Jane Kelly's brother met Norman that she heard about Keating’s story. Then she met Keating who explained his life as a restorer and artist.
Keating also estimated that 2,000+ of his forgeries were in circulation. He had created them as a working-class socialist protest against art traders who got rich at the artists’ expense. But note that he refused to list his forgeries. Keating connected even more deeply with her Geraldine’s husband Frank Norman, a petty-thief-turned-playwright. The two old rogues started swapping stories. Within a few hours, Frank had agreed to ghost Tom's autobiography.
Thus Keating published his autobiography, The Fake's Progress, with Geraldine and Frank Norman in 1977. In it he wrote it seemed disgraceful to him how many artists died in poverty, having been exploited by unscrupulous dealers. The time had come for the art establishment to learn that this old socialist was avenging his brothers in art; his goal was to make the Old Masters widely available and affordable, even for working families.
After Keating & Jane Kelly were finally arrested in 1977, accused of conspiracy to defraud and obtaining payments through deception amounting to £22,000. Kelly pleaded guilty, promising to testify against Keating. But Keating pleaded innocent, on the basis that he'd never intended to defraud, rather he was simply working under the Old Masters' guidance. The charges were eventually dropped due to his poor health after he was very injured in a motorcycle accident, worsened by heart disease. Since Kelly had already pleaded guilty, she had to serve her time in prison. However Keating served no time, and his health soon improved.
Starting in 1982, weekday tv episodes of Tom Keating on Painters showed the working methods of Rembrandt and the Old Masters. In each very popular programme, the elderly Londoner demonstrated how to paint, for example, Turner's ships or van Gogh's sunflowers.
Keating died in 1984, and was buried in Dedham churchyard. After his death, many art collectors and celebrities began to collect his work which became increasingly valuable. Even Keating’s known forgeries, described in catalogues as after-Gainsborough or after-Cézanne, now attain high prices.
The art market became Keating’s focus, giving him a rationale for adopting other painters' styles and earning money in their name. Keating's preferred approach in oils was a Venetian technique inspired by Titian's practice. His paintings took time to complete, but they had a richness of colour, special optical effects and a variety of texture that Rembrandt would have loved.
In 1970 auctioneers noticed that there were 13 Samuel Palmer watercolour works for sale, all depicting the village of Shoreham in Kent. The Times of London arts journalist, Geraldine Norman, looked into the 13 Palmers, sending them to be scientifically tested by a specialist. They were fakes. But it was not until Jane Kelly's brother met Norman that she heard about Keating’s story. Then she met Keating who explained his life as a restorer and artist.
Keating also estimated that 2,000+ of his forgeries were in circulation. He had created them as a working-class socialist protest against art traders who got rich at the artists’ expense. But note that he refused to list his forgeries. Keating connected even more deeply with her Geraldine’s husband Frank Norman, a petty-thief-turned-playwright. The two old rogues started swapping stories. Within a few hours, Frank had agreed to ghost Tom's autobiography.
Thus Keating published his autobiography, The Fake's Progress, with Geraldine and Frank Norman in 1977. In it he wrote it seemed disgraceful to him how many artists died in poverty, having been exploited by unscrupulous dealers. The time had come for the art establishment to learn that this old socialist was avenging his brothers in art; his goal was to make the Old Masters widely available and affordable, even for working families.
After Keating & Jane Kelly were finally arrested in 1977, accused of conspiracy to defraud and obtaining payments through deception amounting to £22,000. Kelly pleaded guilty, promising to testify against Keating. But Keating pleaded innocent, on the basis that he'd never intended to defraud, rather he was simply working under the Old Masters' guidance. The charges were eventually dropped due to his poor health after he was very injured in a motorcycle accident, worsened by heart disease. Since Kelly had already pleaded guilty, she had to serve her time in prison. However Keating served no time, and his health soon improved.
Starting in 1982, weekday tv episodes of Tom Keating on Painters showed the working methods of Rembrandt and the Old Masters. In each very popular programme, the elderly Londoner demonstrated how to paint, for example, Turner's ships or van Gogh's sunflowers.
Keating died in 1984, and was buried in Dedham churchyard. After his death, many art collectors and celebrities began to collect his work which became increasingly valuable. Even Keating’s known forgeries, described in catalogues as after-Gainsborough or after-Cézanne, now attain high prices.
.jpg)
4 comments:
I assume that because art buyers could not tell if a painting was by Monet, van Gogh or any other famous artist Vs by the non famous Keating, Keating must have been a very talented artist in his own right.
I saw a programme about him - it was most interesting. He was talented.
I quite like this Robin Hood of the art world. I'm always impressed by the talents of art world assessors. It seems that they can usually out a fake, but the work has to be brought to their attention. (I defer to your wisdom on this, Hels)
I loved the sentence "a man apparently not over-burdened by ethics". I am going to file that away, to use one day when conducting forensic auditing.
I'm trying to ease my way back into the blogging world - hopefully I'll be back to writing soon
Hello Hels, I am having a hard time buying Keating as some kind of populist hero. By faking expensive artists, he devalued the work of all artists, and complicated the lives of all dealers and collectors, the honest ones as well as the ones he professed to dislike. Expert fakers are often touted as brilliant artists in their own right, but this is questionable. A lot of people can make accurate copies of old paintings. In fact, many famous artists got their start this way, and in every museum you can see people with easels set up copying paintings in order to learn technique. It's just that these ordinary copyists don't bother with real or faked old canvas and frames, or sell their work as originals. Most of the celebrity fakers who become collectible are not known for works in their own style, and the appreciation for their "art" seems to stem from the publicity resulting from their exposure.
.
Keating as an art teacher, showing different artists' techniques, is another story, and I just looked him up and it seems that at least some of his painting programs are on Youtube so I am going to check them out. I am sure these will be educational and entertaining.
--Jim
p.s. By the way, I have the book The Fake's Progress in Cleveland, but I am not sure if I read it or not. I like reading about forgers, but often the stories are similar, especially the noble sentiments expressed after they are caught.
Post a Comment