Side By Side Comparison Of Forged Norval Morrisseau Paintings
Many of the questionable paintings have been copied from
publications that feature authentic
Morrisseau paintings. This includes books, prints and the internet. Some are
direct forgeries in that
they copied directly from the original. Some are composites of 2 or more
authentic paintings.
Some of those that say that these copies are real
paintings by Norval Morrisseau have said that
he regularly copied his own paintings. To me this is ridiculous.
Morrisseau was a master painter
and did not have to copy his own paintings for inspiration. I personally
observed him paint hundreds
of paintings and never seen him ever copy one of his older works.
None of the authentic examples shown in this study are
signed, titled or dated on the back with
black dry brush. The vast majority of the copies are signed on the back in this
manner. I worked
with Morrisseau for the last twenty years of his life and received hundreds of
paintings directly from
him. Not one of these paintings was signed on the back in this method. When I
showed Morrisseau
2 paintings that I purchased from a Winnipeg art dealer that were signed in this
way. he told me that
he did not paint them and that he did not sign them in this way.
The main resource for pictures of authentic Morrisseau
works from the 1970's is "The Art Of Norval
Morrisseau" by Jack Pollock and Lister Sinclair that was published in 1979. Not
one of these
questionable pieces is listed in this book but there are many that have been
copied from it. This
book has been exploited by forgers more than any other resource with many of
these authentic
paintings being copied several times over.
Below are side by side examples of these painting. When
you study them it is not hard to see that
the copies do not have the mastery of the originals. The copies do not have the
look or feeling of
the authentic ones.
click on the thumbnails for a larger version
use your back button to come back
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In 1966 The Musee Du Quebec hosted a Morrisseau
exhibition.
A catalog was produced for this show and was used as a resource for more
questionable paintings
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Coghlan Art has not been immune to this situation
Here are just a few that have been taken from our web site.
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