| Facts/Data
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Birth
1877
Death
1939 (New York City)
Lived/Active
New York
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Often Known For
forgery, trompe still life-currency
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Categories of Interest
Trompe l'Oeil Painting
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  The following is from an anonymous source:
Ferdinand Danton was born in 1877 and died in 1939. Like many in his field, he died in poverty. He spent two years in prison and used at least four names. An article just recently mentioned him as a known forger of Peale paintings.
I am finding him, shall we say, quite colorful.
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The following is from Washington College Magazine, Spring 2002:
IN CASE YOU missed the media furor last fall, the truth is out about the authenticity of the College's portrait of George Washington attributed to Rembrandt Peale. Alternately known as "George Washington as Master Mason" and "Brother General George Washington," the portrait, which was donated to the College in 1944, has lost its appeal, so to speak.
Long believed to be a work of the famous American painter, the portrait has been unPealed by Philadelphia-based art historian and Peale scholar Carol Eaton Soltis, Ph.D., who was hired by the College to determine the authenticity of the painting. If authentic, the painting would be worth millions, but Soltis has dismissed that possibility. The painting is just too crude in execution, and documents and letters that accompanied the painting testifying to Peale's authorship also show obvious signs of fakery. With this Antiques Road Show mystery solved, the College decided to let the world know.
From the Associated Press' national wire to Baltimore television station WJZ Channel 13, the news circulated around the country. On October 27, 2001, The Baltimore Sun carried it as a front-page story in their Maryland section, and the AP report hit papers from The Washington Post and USA Today to San Francisco Chronicle.
Only the identity of the painting's true author remains a mystery. Although we can be sure it is no Peale, some have suggested it shows the hand of an obscure artist and known Peale forger, Ferdinand Danton, or perhaps it is the work of a Freemason. Whoever created it, the painting remains a tribute to Washington and now hangs in the Custom House as part of the collection of the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. As the AP reported:
"Despite concluding that the painting isn't a Peale, Soltis also believes there's still a place for it at Washington College. 'They haven't lost their Washington,' she said. 'They just have another story about it.'" |
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