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
- Düringer, Ernst (1948). Ernest Durig: sculptures.
References
- ↑ "Ernest Durig". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Rodin". Fake or Fortune?. Series 5. Episode 3. 31 July 2016. BBC Television. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
- 1 2 "The Great Rodin - His Flagrant Faker". LIFE. 4 June 1965. pp. 64–71.
- ↑ "The biography of Ernest Durig". ArtPrice. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
- ↑ "Greenwood, Wisconsin's Peace Memorial". Retrieved 31 July 2016.
- ↑ 44°46′02″N 90°35′53″W / 44.767143°N 90.597952°W
- 1 2 Garbush, Florence (4 August 1982). "Peace monument part of Greenwood's history". Eau Claire Leader Telegram. p. 28.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ernest Durig. |