One of 10 oil sketches the Vancouver Art Gallery acquired in 2015 that were thought to be by Group of Seven painter J.E.H. MacDonald. An inquiry lasting nearly a decade determined they were fake. (Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery – image credit)
The Vancouver Art Gallery has turned a nearly nine-year inquiry into the provenance of 10 oil sketches thought to be by famed Group of Seven painter J.E.H. MacDonald into a new exhibit that details the process that ultimately determined they were fake.
MacDonald, who was born in England but lived in Toronto, founded the Group of Seven, a school of influential Canadian landscape painters active in the 1920s and 1930s who were known for their vibrant colours and dynamic forms.
Members in the group often sketched in oil paint in the field before returning to their studios to turn them into larger paintings.
The sketches are prized pieces of art in their own right and are shown in galleries, including the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG).
A painted sketch that was found to be from an unknown artist is pictured during a preview of J.E.H. MacDonald?: A Tangled Garden exhibit in Vancouver, British Columbia on Friday, December 15, 2023.
A sketch on display at the exhibit J.E.H. MacDonald?: A Tangled Garden at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which runs until May 2024. (Ben Nelms/CBC News)
In 2015, the VAG announced an acquisition of 10 new oil sketches, previously unknown to be associated with MacDonald.
But soon after the unveiling of the works, questions arose about whether the oil sketches, some of which depicted vibrant garden scenes, were really by MacDonald.
Globe and Mail reporter Marsha Lederman reported extensively on the issue, chronicling a purported narrative that said the sketches were unearthed from a Ontario backyard.
A Tangled Garden
As art experts and others weighed into the debate, the gallery postponed a planned exhibition in order to investigate the authenticity of the 10 works.
“The gallery turned to leading art historians, handwriting experts and the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) for in-depth scientific and artistic investigation into these sketches,” said VAG CEO and executive director Anthony Kiendl at a news conference on Friday.
A painted sketch with the incorrect spelling of its purported artist’s name wrong is pictured during a preview of J.E.H. MacDonald?: A Tangled Garden exhibit in Vancouver, British Columbia on Friday, December 15, 2023.
Handwriting on the back of the sketches offered further proof that the sketches were not by J.E.H. MacDonald. (Ben Nelms/CBC News)
Ultimately, the CCI — a federal agency meant to help preserve and validate Canadian heritage, such as art — was able to determine that paint from at least eight of the 10 oil sketches would not have been available to MacDonald during his career. He died in 1932.
“The sketches each contained one or more pigments that were not available during MacDonald’s lifetime, showing he couldn’t have painted these works,” said Kate Helwig, senior conservation scientist at the CCI.
The exhibit also shows discrepancies in the writing on the back of the paintings, which was assessed by handwriting experts.
‘Not embarrassed’
Instead of jettisoning the works, however, the gallery chose to create an expansive exhibit around them that chronicles the journey of their acquisition to the eventual realization that they were fakes.
It’s called J.E.H. MacDonald? A Tangled Garden and features the fake works alongside real, authenticated paintings, along with much of the evidence, interviews and Lederman’s reports.
“This exhibition is one that fundamentally tells the story of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s investigation of these sketches in all its forms,” said Richard Hill, the VAG’s Canadian art curator.
Anthony Kiendl, Vancouver Art Gallery CEO & Executive Director is pictured during a preview of J.E.H. MacDonald?: A Tangled Garden exhibit in Vancouver, British Columbia on Friday, December 15, 2023.
Anthony Kiendl, Vancouver Art Gallery CEO and executive director, during a preview of the exhibit J.E.H. MacDonald?: A Tangled Garden on Friday. (Ben Nelms/CBC News)
When asked if the gallery was embarrassed to have been duped over the acquisition of the 10 sketches, its leaders said instances of this type of forgery were rare and they were proud to come up with the exhibit about it.
“The question of embarrassment — it’s a good question, but I think that the important thing is that we’re transparent and … that we move forward in an authentic way, and I’m not embarrassed about that,” said Kiendl.
“I’ve very proud of this exhibit.”
J.E.H. MacDonald? A Tangled Garden runs from Dec. 16 until May 12, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
