Tom Keating
The name Tom Keating may not be as famous as that of Rembrandt or Renoir, but as an artist he has put their name to his works; as a forger in the mid twentieth century, Keating recreated a staggering number of works by the great masters of art. Many of his forgeries were never discovered, despite his own trait of leaving clues behind for conservators and art dealers to pick up on. They remain in collections across the world today. Even his known forgeries still sell, because of the reputation of their forger artist.
Having studied and recreated the techniques and styles of many of the masters of nineteenth and early twentieth century painting, their influence runs throughout the composition of his own works. Despite beginning his life in a poor family in Lewisham, and having to make ends meet by painting houses alongside restoring paintings, Keating’s original works aspire to those of the artists he imitated.