Recent from talks
Eric Hebborn
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Eric Hebborn
Eric Hebborn (20 March 1934 – 11 January 1996) was an English painter, draughtsman, art forger, and later an author.
Eric Hebborn was born in South Kensington, London, in 1934. His mother was born in Brighton and his father in Oxford. According to his autobiography, his mother beat him constantly as a child. He stated that at the age of eight, he set fire to his school, and was sent to Longmoor reformatory in Harold Wood; his sister Rosemary disputes this.[citation needed] Teachers encouraged his painting talent, and he became connected to the Maldon Art Club, where he first exhibited at the age of 15.
Hebborn attended Chelmsford Art School and Walthamstow Art School before attending the Royal Academy. He flourished at the academy, winning the Hacker Portrait prize and the Silver Award, and the British Prix de Rome in Engraving, a two-year scholarship to the British School at Rome in 1959. There he became part of the international art scene, establishing acquaintances with many artists and art historians, including Soviet spy Sir Anthony Blunt in 1960, who told Hebborn that a couple of his drawings looked like Poussins. This sowed the seeds of his forgery career.
Hebborn returned to London, where he was hired by art restorer George Aczel. During his employ he was instructed not only to restore paintings, but to alter and improve them. Aczel graduated him from restoring existing paintings to "restoring" paintings on entirely blank canvases so that they could be sold for more money. A falling out over Hebborn's knowledge of painting and restoration destroyed the relationship between him and Aczel.
Hebborn and his lover Graham David Smith also frequented a junk and antique shop near Leicester Square, where Hebborn befriended one of the owners, Marie Gray. In organizing the prints catalogued in the shop, Hebborn began to learn more about paper, and its history and uses in art. It was on some of these blank old pieces of paper that Hebborn made his first forgeries.
His first true forgeries were pencil drawings after Augustus John, based on a drawing of a child by Andrea Schiavone. Smith states that several of these were sold to their landlord Mr. Davis, several to Bond Street galleries, and two or three through Christie's sale rooms.
Eventually Hebborn decided to settle in Italy with Smith. They founded a private gallery there.
When contemporary critics did not seem to appreciate his own paintings, Hebborn began to copy the style of old masters such as: Corot, Castiglione, Mantegna, Van Dyck, Poussin, Ghisi, Tiepolo, Rubens, Jan Breughel and Piranesi. Art historians such as Sir John Pope Hennessy declared his paintings to be both authentic and stylistically brilliant and his paintings were sold for tens of thousands of pounds through art auction houses, including Christie's and Sotheby's. According to Hebborn himself, he had sold thousands of fake paintings, drawings and sculptures. Most of the drawings Hebborn created were his own work, made to resemble the style of historical artists—and not slightly altered or combined copies of older work.
Hub AI
Eric Hebborn AI simulator
(@Eric Hebborn_simulator)
Eric Hebborn
Eric Hebborn (20 March 1934 – 11 January 1996) was an English painter, draughtsman, art forger, and later an author.
Eric Hebborn was born in South Kensington, London, in 1934. His mother was born in Brighton and his father in Oxford. According to his autobiography, his mother beat him constantly as a child. He stated that at the age of eight, he set fire to his school, and was sent to Longmoor reformatory in Harold Wood; his sister Rosemary disputes this.[citation needed] Teachers encouraged his painting talent, and he became connected to the Maldon Art Club, where he first exhibited at the age of 15.
Hebborn attended Chelmsford Art School and Walthamstow Art School before attending the Royal Academy. He flourished at the academy, winning the Hacker Portrait prize and the Silver Award, and the British Prix de Rome in Engraving, a two-year scholarship to the British School at Rome in 1959. There he became part of the international art scene, establishing acquaintances with many artists and art historians, including Soviet spy Sir Anthony Blunt in 1960, who told Hebborn that a couple of his drawings looked like Poussins. This sowed the seeds of his forgery career.
Hebborn returned to London, where he was hired by art restorer George Aczel. During his employ he was instructed not only to restore paintings, but to alter and improve them. Aczel graduated him from restoring existing paintings to "restoring" paintings on entirely blank canvases so that they could be sold for more money. A falling out over Hebborn's knowledge of painting and restoration destroyed the relationship between him and Aczel.
Hebborn and his lover Graham David Smith also frequented a junk and antique shop near Leicester Square, where Hebborn befriended one of the owners, Marie Gray. In organizing the prints catalogued in the shop, Hebborn began to learn more about paper, and its history and uses in art. It was on some of these blank old pieces of paper that Hebborn made his first forgeries.
His first true forgeries were pencil drawings after Augustus John, based on a drawing of a child by Andrea Schiavone. Smith states that several of these were sold to their landlord Mr. Davis, several to Bond Street galleries, and two or three through Christie's sale rooms.
Eventually Hebborn decided to settle in Italy with Smith. They founded a private gallery there.
When contemporary critics did not seem to appreciate his own paintings, Hebborn began to copy the style of old masters such as: Corot, Castiglione, Mantegna, Van Dyck, Poussin, Ghisi, Tiepolo, Rubens, Jan Breughel and Piranesi. Art historians such as Sir John Pope Hennessy declared his paintings to be both authentic and stylistically brilliant and his paintings were sold for tens of thousands of pounds through art auction houses, including Christie's and Sotheby's. According to Hebborn himself, he had sold thousands of fake paintings, drawings and sculptures. Most of the drawings Hebborn created were his own work, made to resemble the style of historical artists—and not slightly altered or combined copies of older work.