SPANISH FORGER, a courtly shoreside scene, OIL ON PANEL. [France, c.1900] 350 x 630mm. A lady followed by an entourage including her page, two ladies-in-waiting and two pairs of lovers stroll from a turreted castle to the shore of the sea, the lady gestures in greeting to a young man whose barque is poled towards her, the meeting takes place in an extensive ladscape with craggy mountains, an island fortress, several sailing ships and groups of work-people fishing (some discolouration of varnish, probably deliberate, and occasional blisters of paint surface). Cradled and in a carved, wooden frame. This is as splendid and ambitious a composition as any painted by the Spanish Forger, the artist described by William Voelkle as 'one of the most skillful, successful and prolific forgers of all time', The Spanish Forger , New York 1978, p.9. It was a panel with a similar shoreside meeting, which had been attributed to Jorge Inglis, that Belle da Costa Greene exposed, and from which the Spanish Forger gained his name. His real identity remains unknown, although he is now thought likely to have worked in Paris at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The subject matter and treatment of the scene - incorporating castles perched on promontories, sweet-faced, gesturing protagonists engaged in a courtly encounter, ships on sworling seas - perfectly exemplify his best work and the romanticised interpretation of medieval life at the turn of the century.
SPANISH FORGER, a courtly shoreside scene, OIL ON PANEL. [France, c.1900] 350 x 630mm. A lady followed by an entourage including her page, two ladies-in-waiting and two pairs of lovers stroll from a turreted castle to the shore of the sea, the lady gestures in greeting to a young man whose barque is poled towards her, the meeting takes place in an extensive ladscape with craggy mountains, an island fortress, several sailing ships and groups of work-people fishing (some discolouration of varnish, probably deliberate, and occasional blisters of paint surface). Cradled and in a carved, wooden frame. This is as splendid and ambitious a composition as any painted by the Spanish Forger, the artist described by William Voelkle as 'one of the most skillful, successful and prolific forgers of all time', The Spanish Forger , New York 1978, p.9. It was a panel with a similar shoreside meeting, which had been attributed to Jorge Inglis, that Belle da Costa Greene exposed, and from which the Spanish Forger gained his name. His real identity remains unknown, although he is now thought likely to have worked in Paris at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The subject matter and treatment of the scene - incorporating castles perched on promontories, sweet-faced, gesturing protagonists engaged in a courtly encounter, ships on sworling seas - perfectly exemplify his best work and the romanticised interpretation of medieval life at the turn of the century.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
