These days, whenever an alert lands in my mailbox that a work by Clifford Hall has come up at auction, I am as much prepared to see an image of an obvious fake or misattribution as an image of a genuine work when I click on the link.
A few days ago, I encountered something new – a copy (well an almost copy) that is actually being identified as such (in auctioneer’s terminology) here:
AFTER CLIFFORD HALL – TWO BATHERS ON THE BEACH, MODERN BRITISH OIL ON CANVAS
The “Copy”:
The Original:
It’s clearly not an attempt at an exact copy, with the most obvious change being that one of the figures is now wrapped in blue instead of white.
Why? I wonder.
Whatever the reason may be, I feel, it changes the mood of the image. And this seems a bit of a cheek to me. The original is sombre in tone and somewhat disturbing, but the copy has kind of lost these characteristics – though not entirely. The ornate frame strikes me as rather preposterous as well.
Moreover, I am hardly thrilled to see that it is being auctioned at Eastbourne Auctions, as I have a poor opinion of this particular auction house simply because they knowingly sell fakes in a somewhat less than honest manner. The last “Clifford Hall” they sold was this hideous daub:
Manner of Clifford Hall – Harbour scene with buildings
Which is a very poor attempt at forgery, the only thing about it which is in the manner of Clifford Hall being the signature. It does look like his signature, unfortunately. But the rest of it? An artistic disaster, if you ask me. However, someone bought it apparently. I hope that they’re not kidding themselves that it’s genuine Clifford Hall, and can only deplore the fact that, sooner or later, someone will inevitably try to pass it off as the real thing.
Back to the “copy”: it is apparently the work of Essex based artist, Georgie Roy – according to the label on the back. Hopefully, its connection to her will remain intact and it won’t fall into the hands of some rogue who decides to forge Clifford Hall’s signature on it for obviously nefarious purposes.
“Painting is a strange business” J M W Turner