Lot 41: Karel la Fargue , Voorburg 1738 - 1793 The Hague winter landscape with children playing on the ice by a ramshackle building Black chalk and grey, blue and ochre wash, within black chalk framing lines

Black chalk and grey, blue and ochre wash, within black chalk framing lines

measurements note 149 by 211 mm

C. Dumas and M.C. Plomp, 'Karel la Fargue (1738-1793) as a forger of seventeenth-century Dutch drawings', in Oud Holland, vol. 112, 1998, no. 1, p. 49, cat. no. 95, reproduced

Sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 16 November 1981, lot 260 (as Pieter Molijn);
sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 1 December 1986, lot 57 (as Claes Molenaer);
Jacobus A. Klaver, Amsterdam (bears his mark, not in Lugt, on the mount);
sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 15 November 1994, lot 152

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE JACOBUS A. KLAVER, AMSTERDAM
La Fargue's authorship of this drawing was first recognised by Charles Dumas, who, together with Michiel Plomp, published the drawing in a fascinating article which revealed the artist to be a forger of seventeenth century Dutch drawings. The article presents 179 sheets which range from imitations to clear forgeries of earlier artists' work. The present sheet is one of four drawings identified by the authors as being drawn in the style of Nicolaes Molenaer. La Fargue apparently began to produce such drawings in the late 1760s, with most dating from the '70s or '80s. The forgeries were primarily based on paintings (as is probable for the present drawing) or prints, and in most cases the composition was repeated verbatim, although sometimes details or settings were altered. Such a prolific output was clearly executed for financial gain: 18υth-century Holland saw an increased demand for the work of the previous century, while that for contemporary masters fell, and La Fargue therefore saw a perfect opportunity for clearing his numerous debts by fulfilling that demand. In 1783, still at the peak of his activity as a forger, La Fargue declared that he did 'his level best to earn an honest living': it took two hundred years for us to realise that this was not quite the case.υ1 1. C. Dumas and M.C. Plomp, op.cit., p. 20