Posted on 04/06/2006 1:39:43 PM PDT by WestVirginiaRebel
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.-One of Norman Rockwell's most famous paintings was found hidden behind a fake wall in its owner's home, proving that the version the owner had long displayed was a forgery, family members and experts said.
They believe that the owner, illustrator Donald Trachte Sr., made the copy of "Breaking Home Ties" himself in the early 1970s, deades after he bought it from Rockwell and made it the centerpiece of his art collection.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
What a buzz...own the original, and make a copy so good your friends think it's Rockwell...all while safekeeping the original!
They better watch out for the former Mrs. Trachte's divorce lawyer!
"Experts and Trachte's family members had puzzled over inconsistencies between the Post cover and the canvas they assumed was an original. Among other things, the coloration and boy's face seemed different, but experts blamed poor preservation and sloppy restoration work.
Then, last month, conservationists determined the painting hadn't been restored.
Trachte's sons became more convinced that the work on their hands was a fake. A few days later, while scouring his father's studio, David Trachte, 54, noticed a gap in the wood paneling. He and his brother pulled it out, revealing the real Rockwell and other paintings his father had apparently copied.
"It's hard for me right now; I haven't uncovered enough to know when or why he did it," said Trachte Jr., 59."
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How stupid .... and what if the sons didn't decide to disassemble the wall ??
This is my favorite Rockwell painting. This picture came out as a Post cover the same year I went off to college. I grew up on a farm and went away to college to a big city. As a result I could really identify with the picture. I thought the picture was a little over the top but I certainly understood the message.
Art Ping
For the highly cultured and literate amongst us
Ya want on or off this here list ya gotta know the right people:
Sam Cree ,Republicanprofessor,or me
What a great painting. Reminds me of a lot of people I know.
Over the top? It is fabulous in every respect.
But Geraldo still didn't find Capone's vault.
It's almost like the plot of a hokey mystery novel.
heh heh...But, I think yours is the forgery.
I really like it. If you have known people like that, as you obviously have, it really resonates.
Nothing the Dadaists or Cubists have produced can compare with Rockwell.
Or something out of a Rockwell painting....
I wouldn't know. I'm a complete philistine.
I don't see anything stupid in hiding the beefroast in the refrigerator where my three hungry hounds can't find it.
A forgery? That makes it sound like he made it to pull a scam. It is a COPY. Big difference.
I brought a Rockwell book into my class of preteens and young teens, and they were fascinated with it.
Some classes are more of a succes than others, and the subjects that catch their attention are always surprising.
I can't decide which Rockwell painting is my favorite, but the one of the boy praying in the restaurant with grandma with red ears has to be in the top ten.
Isn't that Norman Rockwell himself in the painting?
They recently touched up album cover photos of the Beatles by removing the cigarettes form their hands, maybe someone should paint this one out of the original.
***Nothing the Dadaists or Cubists have produced can compare with Rockwell.***
Right! And Rockwell never considered himself an artist. My guess is because the leftist art world didn't approve of his realism in art.
Maybe he considered himself an artist, but not an artiste.
This is one of the very best Rockwell paintings. Maybe Rockwell was an illustrator rather than an artist, but show me the art that is a better reflection of the experience depicted in Rockwell's painting.
An illustrator is an artist who is also a storyteller.
ROCKWELL POSTERS:
http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=1205661015&c=&search=Norman+Rockwell&GCID=s15100x001&KEYWORD=%5BNorman+Rockwell%5D
Slightly different cast of characters (the daddy has already moved with the carpetbag to the door) but the son and the faithful dog are the same. Only the clothes have changed . ..
The artsy crowd looked down on "mere illustrators" - that being a person who earned his living by selling his paintings commercially instead of hanging them in galleries and waiting for museums or foundations or rich people to buy them.
Rockwell's easel art is spectacular and shows that he had perfect command of his craft.
You've seen Rosie the Riveter before. Look here:
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Another much-despised "illustrator" is N.C. Wyeth, who could paint rings around all his descendants and relations by marriage.
Love the dog. He is comforting the young man, yet cannot take his gaze off of the father.
Agree. Illustrators produce the defining images of our culture in a way the fine art community has abandoned. People may recognize the name of Mondrian, but they recognize and resonate to the works of Gibson, Flagg, Disney, Shultz, Rockwell, Held Jr., Maxwell, Max, Nast, Frazetta ...
Exactly. I don't see any "intent to defraud" here at all. This is making something out of nothing. The kids might have gotten a big surprise if they tried to sell the copy as the original, though - the old man might have had a wicked sense of humor. I imagine he did it to prove to himself how good a painter he was, able to pull it off for so long.
I'm glad you did that......our younger people and even some middle aged people have no clue to our American culture.....many people don't know who Grandma Moses was ......
It is common to store the original and display a copy. This is done also with costume jewelry.
Um...which is the original, #4 or #5 ?
Unfortunately you are right.
Bump for later. Fascinating!!
My favorite, bar none. Rockwell is best known for light, sentimental pieces, but he wasn't afraid to turn his keen eye and vast talent to serious subjects, especially late in his career, when the civil rights movement stirred his conscience. His series on the Four Freedoms painted during the war is also some of his most stirring work.
"A forgery? That makes it sound like he made it to pull a scam. It is a COPY. Big difference."
Nah. He was pulling a scam right out of a Donald Westlake story. According to the article;
"Experts said Trachte probably made the copy in about 1973, when he and his wife were going through a bitter divorce. The settlement let him keep the Rockwell."
He did the paint-by-number version with the intent of defrauding an ex. Didn't need to, but could have. Anyone remember the Dortmunder story where the forged object was a statue and Dormunder has to steal it to keep the ex from realizing she had been shuffled the forgery?
Not to mention that the art world has fads and fashions like any other. Representational art was on the outs in the '40s and '50s -- all the cool kids were doing abstract expressionism. Rockwell's paintings tell a story, sometimes a very simple one, and often a warm and sentimantal one -- none of which were in favor at the time.
But as time has gone on, Rockwell, along with other storyteller-painters like Edward Hopper, and N.C. Wyeth, has come into greater favor among collectors and "serious" art scholars alike. Much like Dickens, dismissed in his own time as a writer of popular serials, is now taught as one of the greatest Victorian storytellers.
No matter how much time has gone by, Thomas Kincade will still be a hack.
< backing slowing away, putting on crash helmet >
I absolutely agree. All that nasty commercial "country" kitsch is to Rockwell as Kincade is to the Hudson River School.
Rockwell was a very interesting man and an excellent artist. He called himself an illustrator and was the target of much crap from the art establishment.
Rockwell stuck his finger in their eyes by putting much in his illustrations that came from classical 'fine' art. Rosie the Riveter is the first one that comes to mind. It is an artistic satire on another famous work of art - which I cannot think of right now, of course. His self-portrait was another 'joke' he played on the establishment. It is filled with illusions to earlier 'art' works.
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