Ernest Durig

Ernest Durig

Ruth Bryan Owen poses for Durig, 1920
Born 1894
Zurich, Switzerland
Died 1962 (aged 67–68)
Washington, D.C., United States
Occupation Sculptor
Known for Art forgery

Ernest Durig (born Zurich, Switzerland, 1894; died Washington, D.C., United States, 1962[1]) was a sculptor and art forger, known for his faking of drawings by Auguste Rodin.[2]

Durig claimed to have been a pupil of Rodin, but the only documentation of their having ever met is a single photograph.[2]

As a sculptor, Durig, no doubt helped by his claimed link to Rodin, worked for the United States establishment.[2] His sitters included Mussolini,[3] US President Harry S. Truman, and the actor Will Rogers.[4] He sculpted a peace memorial for Greenwood, Wisconsin,[5][6] from an artificial stone made using concrete and fine white sand.[7] Unveiled in 1937, it was restored in 1982.[7]

In July 2016 BBC Television screened an episode of Fake or Fortune? in which a privately held supposed Rodin watercolour of a Cambodian dancer was exposed as a Durig fake.[2]

The Museum of Modern Art, in New York, holds a collection of his drawings.[2] Others, previously thought to be by Rodin, are in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.[2] A number of his fakes were first exposed in the 4 June 1965 issue of LIFE.[3]

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ "Ernest Durig". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Rodin". Fake or Fortune?. Series 5. Episode 3. 31 July 2016. BBC Television. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  3. 1 2 "The Great Rodin - His Flagrant Faker". LIFE. 4 June 1965. pp. 64–71.
  4. ↑ "The biography of Ernest Durig". ArtPrice. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  5. ↑ "Greenwood, Wisconsin's Peace Memorial". Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  6. ↑ 44°46′02″N 90°35′53″W / 44.767143°N 90.597952°W
  7. 1 2 Garbush, Florence (4 August 1982). "Peace monument part of Greenwood's history". Eau Claire Leader Telegram. p. 28.
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