THE CORREGIO (?) MAGDALEN.
THE following reply of Mr. ATHERSTONE, the proprietor of the " Cor. regio Magdalen," to his anonymous assailant, (which was unavoidably excluded last week,) will be found to contain an amusing and scarcely overcharged sketch of the process of " humbugging" in picture- dealing ; as well as a complete defence of his own conduct. Mr. ATHERSTONE appears to think the letter of our correspondent a per- sonal attack : so far from it, the writer stated (and we believe truly) in a private note, that he did not know the name of the owner of the picture : when he shall be acquainted with the person whose conduct he has so utterly misinterpreted, we dare say he will heartily regret his mistake.
As regards the picture itself, the best testimony to its merits and even its authenticity, next to the admiration it has excited from the best judges, would be the objections of cavillers. This letter, how- ever, must terminate the controversy, as far as the Spectator is con- cerned.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
443, Great Marlborough Street, 15th August 1837. SIR—A letter, under the title " THE PUBLIC HU3IIIUGGED IN WORKS OF ART," appeared in your paper of last Saturday ; and, although the few remarks upon it appended by yourself render it almost unnecessary for me to take notice of such a silly attack, yet you will perh. ps permit me to say a few words upon it. The writer appears to possess a singularly clear head and a most amiable disposition. His professed object is to point out how the public is humbugged in works of art ; and he certainly is most felicitous in the example by whick he illustrates his proposition. The physician who, expatiating upon the tendency of early dissipation to shorten human life, should bring as his example the unfortunate Palen., cut off in the bloom of a hundred and sixty, would reason as profoundly as your juvenile " Old Subscriber." Does the good gentleman kouw the meaning of the word " humbug ? " He may have some confused notion; but shows at least no very distinct comprehension of it. Allow me to inform him of the meaning gene. rally attached to this elegant little word. " Humbug" is used to denote a mix- ture of falsehood, low cunning, barefaced impudence, and perhaps a few other fine ingredients,( my analysis has no pretension to perfect exactness,) by which a knave endeavours, and too often successfully, to deceive and impose upon the ignorant, the honest, or the unsuspicious. For the accomplishment of such a purpose, the knave knows that he must lie boldly at first, and then lie continuously and unblushingly to maintain his position ; that lie must keep his intended victim in the dark, and, if possible, alone, lest he should be enlightened by some more luminous or less unsuspicious mind. A knavish picture-dealer, for example, who would desire to " humbug " a luckless amateur of art, and induce him to pur- chase, for perhaps 2,0001., a picture not fairly worth 30s., would, in the first place, like the dealer in another species of black art, strive to bewilder and mys- tify his victim,—to place him in dal kuess, and teach him to await, in a kind of awful expectation for the vision that was ere long to be called up before him. "My Gad, Sir, such a picture nothing in tbecountry to be compared with it. A genuine RAPHAEL; pure as the day it was painted ! Met with it in the most extraordinary manner. (The rascal had bought it at a pawnbroker's in Holborn, for fifteen shillings.) Gave an enormous sum for it. Can't afford to keep it: sure to lose by it in this country, where there are so few real judges. Not shown it yet to a single creature. In about a week I shall finish cleaning it ; and you, my dear Sir, shall have the first sight. You are a judge. It is a pleasure to show a really fine picture to a true judge ; but you must promise not to say a word about it to any one of your friends. I don't wish to offend any one by refusing a eight of it : and therefore you'll give me your word of honour not to speak about it. Never told you how I got it : don't believe such a thing ever happened before. Travelling last autumn in Italy—two thousand in bills upon a bank in Venice—always carried them stitched inside my stock- ings, at the calf—in the neighbourhood of Rome attacked by banditti—only a few crowns in my purse—carried off to the mountains, that they might compel me to find ransom—imprisoned two months in their cavern—left alone—wan. dered about the den—saw loads of spoil, plunder of churches, convents, and palaces: cast my eye on a picture—massy carved oak frame—a Holy Family— could hardly make it out—dirty as the Devil—spat in the Virgin's face—wiped it with my handkerchief: my God, Sir ! it almost put my eye out : saw it was a genuine RAPHAEL—could not leave the spot—banditu returned and thrust me away—could not sleep for thinking of that divine picture: found it had been stolen from the Vatican—remembered to have read of it there : tried to escape —brought back and laid in irons—thought of blowing out my brains—but then recollected the RAPHAEL, and resolved to live and await better luck : robbers attacked by troops—driven to their cave—made prisoners—I got released— offered the soldiers 51. for the picture—told then) it was a daub, but that I had taken a fancy to it: would'nt do—offered ten, no go—offered twenty, wouldn't take it—swore I'd be d----d if l'd give more: next day offered fifty if they'd agree to carry it safe for me as far as Milan—rascals laughed at me—said they knew it was by TITIAN, and that I shouldn't have it for lesa:than 1,5001.— laughed at them—found at last, however, that I must down with the dust, or lose the picture, as they were setting off to return to Rome : forked out the bills—got the picture—no end of trouble to get it safely on board—never let it be out of my sight—slept every night on a mattress stretched over the packing- case—smuggled it on shore to escape the cursed Customhouse : and here it is, Sir, in this very house—not a creature shall see it till you have decided whether you will buy it or not. I wish you may ; for though I am pretty sure that the Duke of S. or Lord E. or W. would jump at it, yet I would rather see it in your collection than in that of any nobleman or king in Europe; 1 would, by God, Sir."
This, Mr. '' Old Subscriber," would be humbugging. The knave, you will be pleased to observe, lies valiantly from the beginning to the end—resorts to mystery —insists on concealment—fortifies his original,falsehoods by a thick circumvalla- Con of circumstances as false, and, in short, hesitates at nothing that he thinks likely to further his end—that of duping and plundering his victim. To the closing scene,—the hour when the dupe is to be cheated out of his money as lie has previously been cheated out of his senses,—it is not necessary to go. It would, of course, exhibit but a continuation of the same species of "humbug," adapted to the individual occasion. My object is to show an instance of true " hum. bug ;" the annals of picture-dealing have many alike, though not the same; and, by contrasting with such conduct that which was pursued by myself in the affair of the CORREGIO Magdalen, to call up, if possible, a feeling of shame in the mind of the man who, under the signature of "An Old Subscriber," has made upon me an attack so unjust and so uncourteous. I cannot conjecture who this person may be : I am not aware of having any personal enemy; and am driven therefore to the conclusion, that he is some crabbed piece of humanity, urged by envy of what he thinks my luck in possessing this fine work of art, into a spiteful wish to depreciate it and annoy me. 1 think he will prove as impotent in the former object as he has in the latter. I will now, with as mush brevity as possible, draw a parallel betwixt the conduct of our "humbugging" Picture-dealer and that pursued by myself.
He bought a picture for a few shillings, and I bought one for a few pounds.
He knew his picture to be worthless, yet strove fraudulently to obtain a thou- sand pounds for it. I, on the contrary, with a conviction as strong as that of any own identity, know my picture to be of the very highest class of art. I thought, and still think it unique; and, when asked the prise, replied that it had been estimated by others as well as by myself at 6,000 guineas. He knew his picture to be a bad copy ; but by a tissue of direct and circumstantial falsehoods strove to represent it as a matchless original by RAPHAEL. I firmly believed, and still believe, my picture to be a CORREGIO of the purest and loftiest character : but I avowed at once that I knew nothing of the history of the picture ; and that there was no evidence to prove its being by that master, excepting such as offered itself in the picture itself,—the design, the colouring, the pencilling, the feeling, the expression, the mind of the artist looking out from the work. He bought his picture for a few shillings of a pawnbroker in Holborn ; but, with lie upon lie, asserted that he had bought it from Roman soldiers in Italy, and that it bad once graced ..he Vatican. I bought mine at the Auction Mart. It was totally unnecessary for me to tell this. Without inventing any falsehood, I might have wrapped it in mystery sufficient, by declining to say more than that it was recently brought from Italy, where it had remained unknown, locked up in a private collection, per- haps, from the time that it was painted. Could I have degraded myself by a falsehood, there could have been little difficulty in inventing a plausible fiction ; and, even though the picture should have been afterwards seen by any of those who were present when I bought it, yet, under the very different aspect which it now wears, there would have been slight chance of its being recognized. I, however, avowed publicly that I had bought it from under the hammer of Mr. COLLINS, at the Auction Mart, for the suns of seven guineas and a half; and I made known every particle of information that I had been able to obtain from bun respecting its history. The knavish picture-dealer knew that his sole chance of defrauding his customer depended upon keeping him in a state of mystification, and prevent- ing his eyes from being opened to the grossness of the deception by coming into contact with clearer or more experienced minds ; and he bound him, therefore, by a promise not even to mention the existence of the marvellous picture.
I showed mine to friends and to strangers ; offered to lend it, for their ap-
proaching exhibition, to the Managers of the British Institution; and after those gentlemen hail declined my offer, in conseijuence of their arrangements having been previously completed, hired a room in Pall Mall f m the sole and declared purpose of obtaining the opinion of the public upon the merits of the picture as a preliminary to my offering it to the Trustees of the National Gal-
lery. A striking instance "humbugging," most generous and perspicuous " Old Subscriber ! "
The parallel is completed. The case of the knavish picture-dealer is indeed Eatitious in itself, and a somewhat flagrant case; but it is a true exemplification of the mode of deception too often practised—a genuine specimen of the art of "humbugging : " the other is a simple detail of the facts that occurred in that transaction which, by the amiable and enlightened "Old Subscriber" has been cited as his example of the manner in which "the public is humbugged in works of art." Let every man possessed of common sense am) common honesty, give judgment betwixt us. There is in the letter of this person a good deal of pompous ignorance, which deserves exposure, and some impertinence, which merits chastisement ; but I find, Mr. Editor, that I have already in truded too far upon your space, and shall therefore abruptly conclude. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
EDWIN ATHERSTONK.
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