Fake or Fortune?

Fake or Fortune?
Genre Documentary
Presented by
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 4
No. of episodes 15
Production
Producer(s) Simon Shaw
Running time 60 minutes
Release
Original network BBC One
Original release 19 June 2011 (2011-06-19) – present

Fake or Fortune? is a BBC television series which examines the provenance or attribution of notable artworks. It is presented by journalist Fiona Bruce and art dealer and art historian Philip Mould, with specialist research carried out by Dr Bendor Grosvenor.[1] The first series was first broadcast on BBC One in 2011, with a second series first airing on BBC One in 2012 and a third series first airing on SVT in 2013.[2] The BBC aired the third series from January 2014. A fourth series started broadcasting in July 2015.

Synopsis

In each episode, Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould would focus their attention on a picture (or a group of pictures), usually related to one particular artist. Helped on by Dr Bendor Grosvenor, the team would investigate the painting on two fronts: establishing the paintings provenance by working backwards from present day back to the time of the work's creation; and on a forensic level, with investigation and scientific tests on the materials used to help establish specific time frames and the unique painting styles and quirks of the artist. This evidence would then be presented to established authorities in helping to argue the legitimacy of said paintings and possible addition to recognized catalogue raisonnés.

Series overview

Series Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 4 19 June 2011 (2011-06-19) 10 July 2011 (2011-07-10)
2 3 16 September 2012 (2012-09-16) 30 September 2012 (2012-09-30)
3 4 19 January 2014 (2014-01-19) 9 February 2014 (2014-02-09)
4 4 5 July 2015 (2015-07-05) 26 July 2015 (2015-07-26)

Episodes

Series 1 (2011)

There were four episodes in the first series, which started on 19 June 2011:
No.
overall 		 No. in
series 		 Title  Produced and directed by  Original air date 
11"Monet"Nicky Illis19 June 2011 (2011-06-19)
The authenticity of the Monet painting Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil.[3][4] The Wildenstein Institute, presented with considerable evidence of the painting's authenticity, controversially rejected it as a Monet, and was criticised by Philip Mould.[5] (The owner subsequently sued the Institute, but lost.[6])
22"Homer"Nicola Lafferty26 June 2011 (2011-06-26)
The ownership of the painting Children Under a Palm by Winslow Homer.[7]
33"Van Meegeren"Nicky Illis3 July 2011 (2011-07-03)
The authenticity of the painting The Procuress owned by the Courtauld Institute.[8]
44"Rembrandt"Ben Southwell10 July 2011 (2011-07-10)
Man in an Oriental Costume once attributed to Rembrandt as a portrait of the artist's father, which was on sale in a gallery in Cape Town, South Africa. The painting was identified as a work looted by the Nazis and was reattributed to Isaac de Jouderville.[9]

Series 2 (2012)

The first episode of the new series was shown in the UK on 16 September 2012. The series had three episodes:
No.
overall 		 No. in
series 		 Title  Produced and directed by  Original air date 
51"Degas and the Little Dancer"Robert Murphy16 September 2012 (2012-09-16)
Danseuse Bleue et Contrebasses, with an apparent signature by Edgar Degas. It had been bought as a Degas in 1948 with an outline provenance going back to the artist's studio. Scientific analysis of the paint confirmed that it was consistent with the 1890s. Research confirmed the provenance and the painting was accepted as an authentic Degas and added to the catalogue raisonne.[10]
62"Turner: A Miscarriage of Justice?"Nicky Illis[11]23 September 2012 (2012-09-23)
Three paintings attributed to J. M. W. Turner, The Beacon Light, Off Margate and Margate Jetty in the collection of the National Museum of Wales.[12] These had been donated by two sisters: Gwendoline and Margaret Davies. In the 1950s, they had been judged to be fake, but as a result of the programme's research, are now accepted as genuine.
73"Van Dyck: What Lies Beneath"Rachel Jardine30 September 2012 (2012-09-30)
A portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, as St Catherine attributed to Anthony van Dyck, belonging to Mould.[13][14] This was shown to be an incomplete portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria (wife of Charles I) which had later been enlarged and over painted

Series 3 (2014)

The third series features four episodes.

The first episode was first shown on 27 December 2013, on Sweden's SVT, with episodes 2 & 3 shown in the following weeks.[15] Philip Mould described the appearance on Swedish television weeks ahead of the British premiere as a "weird BBC World cock-up".[16] SVT on its website described the programme at the time as a "Brittisk dokumentärserie från 2012" (British documentary from 2012).[17]
No.
overall 		 No. in
series 		 Title  Produced and directed by  Original air date 
81"Édouard Vuillard"Nicky Illis [18]19 January 2014 (2014-01-19)
One of a group of paintings reputedly by French post-impressionist Édouard Vuillard, purchased speculatively by a writer, Keith Tutt. The investigation unearths documentation proving the painting is genuine, worth approximately £250,000.[19] The Wildenstein Institute panel unanimously accepted Tutt's painting as Vuillard's work.[20] The programme also shows that the painting is part of a pair, the other having been sold by the previous owner on eBay.[19]
92"John Constable"Robert Murphy [21]26 January 2014 (2014-01-26)
Two different paintings attributed to John Constable,[22] one of Yarmouth Jetty and the other called A Sea Beach Brighton. The former turns out to be "most likely" by Constable, but heavily overpainted by another hand; the latter, formerly in Boston Museum of Fine Arts until sold in the 1990s, is deemed a genuine Constable.[23][24]
103"Marc Chagall"Robert Murphy [25]2 February 2014 (2014-02-02)
Nude, 1909-10 was bought by a Leeds property developer in the belief that it was a genuine but unauthenticated work by Marc Chagall. Forensic tests showed that it was painted with pigments not available at the time it was purported to have been painted. It was submitted to the "Chagall Committee" who ruled that it was a fake and ordered its destruction.[26]
114"Thomas Gainsborough"Ben Southwell[27]9 February 2014 (2014-02-09)
The team investigate two paintings from the Your Paintings web site: Imaginary Landscape and Portrait of Joseph Gape attempting to show they were by Thomas Gainsborough. They successfully convince Hugh Belsey, the world's leading Gainsborough expert, after he deemed Imagined Landscape as a Gainsborough drawing that was reworked in the 19th century, while the portrait was considered as lost Gainsborough painting.[27]

Series 4 (2015)
No.
overall 		 No. in
series 		 Title  Produced and directed by  Original air date 
121"L S Lowry"Rachel Jardine[28]5 July 2015 (2015-07-05)
Experts determined whether three works - Lady with Dogs, Darby and Joan and Crowd Scene were genuine paintings by L. S. Lowry or forgeries. They had been bought in the 1960s by a Cheshire businessman, Gerald Ames. Lowry was described as "probably the most faked British artist, his deceptively simple style of painting making him a soft target for forgers." Experts analysed the paint used in one of the paintings but the white paint did not match the Flake White Lowry claimed to have always used. Lowry claimed to have only used five colours, Flake White (Lead White), Ivory Black, Vermillion Red, Prussian Blue and Yellow Ochre produced by Winsor & Newton. Photographic evidence from the 1950s, however, showed that he had experimented with both Titanium White and Zinc White: Darby and Joan contained traces of Zinc White. The same painting was also plainly visible in a contemporary BBC documentary film.[29]
132"Renoir"Nicky Illis[30]12 July 2015 (2015-07-12)
Two catalogues raisonnés of the works of Renoir disagreed about the authenticity of an unsigned work displayed at Picton Castle. The team unsuccessfully attempted to change the opinion of the Wildenstein Institute.
143"A Mystery Old Master"Francis Welch[31]19 July 2015 (2015-07-19)
The team investigate a painting that hangs in St John the Baptist's Church, Tunstall in Lancashire. The 16th-century painting was discovered to be by Francesco Montemezzano and was probably donated, in the early 19th century, by vicar Frederick Needham, who was a half-brother of the church patron Richard Toulmin North.[32]
154"Munnings and Churchill"Francis Welch[33]26 July 2015 (2015-07-26)

Charles Henty seeks to validate the provenance of two inherited paintings. One by Alfred Munnings and one, putatively by Winston Churchill, discovered in a coal hole of a house in Ebury Street,. Having suffered the death of his uncle, Charles wishes to sell the paintings to fund the continuation of a working farm in France.

Philip visits David Coombs, a leading expert on the art of Churchill, who is unconvinced by the painting on account of the unfamiliarly well painted figures. He is particularly concerned by the colouring which, he feels, is tonally dissimilar to Churchill's accepted oeuvre. Having travelled to France the team discover, thanks to Luc Tombeur, that the painting is not of Èze, as originally thought, but of the Fountain of Saint-Paul in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. They are introduced to Joy Lutenbacher who recalls that her aunt, Joan Smith, witnessed Churchill paint the fountain. Bendor also finds evidence in a 1949 newsreel that Churchill painted the scene. Finally Joy provides a signed photo of Churchill that had been given to Joan Smith, dated October 1945. Despite this evidence, Coombs' initial 'serious misgivings' have not disappeared, and he decides to include the painting in his catalogue raisonné, although only in the 'Mysteries' section.

Munnings' painting Dedham Winter Landscape is found to be of a scene of which the artist was particularly fond, painted more than five times. In a twist of fate, the church depicted in the painting is the final resting place of notorious art forger, Tom Keating, who was known to have forged Munnings' work. But this is a mere coincidence and experts Lorian Peralta-Ramos and Dr Bill Teatheredge agree that the painting should be accepted as a work by Munnings.

Reception

Describing the outcome of the first episode of series one as a "scandal", Sam Wollaston writing for The Guardian found the programme "incredibly interesting" and praised it "for being about just one case in which you can become totally involved, instead of flitting between three, which is what so many documentaries seem to do".[34] In The Telegraph, Ceri Radford was described as being "flabbergasted" at the result of the first episode, but concluded her review by saying: "This may have been a disappointing finale, but it at least confirmed that this aesthetically pleasing, quietly enjoyable new series isn't afraid to thwart expectations."[4] Tom Sutcliffe in The Independent had a mixed view as a result of the presentation of the facts, saying: "It was full of cliffhanger tension and thrilling moments of discovery. But I couldn't entirely shift the suspicion that some of it was just a little too good to be true."[35]

The first programme of the third series, shown in the UK on 19 January 2014, pulled in 4.8 million viewers (a 21.8% audience share)[36] while the first programme of the fourth series attracted 4.85m (24.5%).[37]

United States

The programme has aired on PBS in the United States.[38]

References

  1. ↑ "Fake or Fortune?". BBC Online. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  2. ↑ Art History News
  3. ↑ "Monet". Fake or Fortune?. Series 1. Episode 1. 19 June 2011. BBC. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  4. 1 2 Radford, Ceri (19 June 2011). "Fake or Fortune? BBC One, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  5. ↑ "Reviews". The Arts Desk. 23 March 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  6. ↑ Grosvenor, Bendor. "'Fake or Fortune?' Monet owner loses Paris court case". Art History News. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  7. ↑ "Homer". Fake or Fortune?. Series 1. Episode 2. 26 June 2011. BBC. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  8. ↑ "Van Meegeren". Fake or Fortune?. Series 1. Episode 3. 3 July 2011. BBC. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  9. ↑ "Rembrandt". Fake or Fortune?. Series 1. Episode 4. 10 July 2011. BBC. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  10. ↑ "Degas and the Little Dancer". Fake or Fortune?. Series 2. Episode 1. 16 September 2012. BBC. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  11. ↑ http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/r89jy/fake-or-fortune--series-2---2-turner-a-miscarriage-of-justice
  12. ↑ "Turner: A Miscarriage of Justice?". Fake or Fortune?. Series 2. Episode 2. 23 September 2012. BBC. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  13. ↑ "Van Dyck: What Lies Beneath". Fake or Fortune?. Series 2. Episode 3. 30 September 2012. BBC. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  14. ↑ Wilson, Benji (16 September 2012). "Van Dyck or Van Dupe?". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  15. ↑ http://www.svt.se/konstdeckarna/se-program/del-1-1506
  16. ↑ Mould, Philip (2014-01-04). "A weird BBC world cock up but I'm delighted for Sweden. As we've not finished the 4th prog - stranger still.". Twitter. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  17. ↑ "Nya mysterier för experterna" (May 12, 2012) SVT.se
  18. ↑ Radio Times
  19. 1 2 "Painting Bought For £3,000 On Ebay Actually Worth A Fortune". Huffington Post. 20 January 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  20. ↑ episode - details to follow
  21. ↑ Radio Times
  22. ↑ http://www.c21media.net/screenings/all3mediainternational/fake-or-fortune-series-3
  23. ↑ http://www.svtplay.se/video/1701145/del-2-av-3
  24. ↑ "John Constable". Fake or Fortune. Series 3. Episode 2. 2014-01-26. BBC. Retrieved 2014-01-26.
  25. ↑ Radio Times
  26. ↑ Guardian
  27. 1 2 Radio Times
  28. ↑ RadioTimes
  29. ↑ "BBC iPlayer - Fake or Fortune? - Series 4: 1. Lowry". Bbc.co.uk. 5 July 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  30. ↑ RadioTimes
  31. ↑ BBC web site
  32. ↑ A Mystery Old Master, Fake or Fortune, BBC, 19 July 2015
  33. ↑ BBC web site
  34. ↑ Wollaston, Sam (19 June 2011). "TV review: Fake or Fortune?; The Marriage Ref". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  35. ↑ Sutcliffe, Tom (20 June 2011). "The Weekend's TV: Fake or Fortune? Sun, BBC1 The Marriage Ref, Sat, ITV1". The Independent. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  36. ↑ Sweney, Mark (20 January 2014). "Call the Midwife attracts record audience on BBC1". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  37. ↑ Digital Spy
  38. ↑ "TV Listings" (May 29, 2013) Frederick News Post, Frederick, Maryland

External links

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