Ernest Durig

Ernest Durig (1894 in Zurich, Switzerland – 1962 in Washington, D.C., United States)[1] was a sculptor and art forger, known for his faking of drawings by Auguste Rodin.[2]

Ernest Durig
Ruth Bryan Owen poses for Durig, 1920
Born1894
Zurich, Switzerland
Died1962 (aged 67–68)
Washington, D.C., United States
OccupationSculptor
Known forArt forgery

Durig claimed to have been a pupil of Rodin, but the only documentation of their having ever met is a single photograph.[2]

As a sculptor, Durig, no doubt helped by his claimed link to Rodin, modelled busts for a number of notables in the United States establishment.[2] His sitters included Mussolini,[3] US President Harry S. Truman, and the actor Will Rogers.[4] He sculpted a peace memorial for Greenwood, Wisconsin,[5][6] from an artificial stone made using concrete and fine white sand.[7] Unveiled in 1937, it was restored in 1982.[7]

In July 2016 BBC Television screened an episode of Fake or Fortune?, in which a privately-held watercolour of a Cambodian dancer, supposedly by Rodin, was exposed as a Durig fake.[2]

The New York Museum of Modern Art holds a collection of his drawings.[2] Others, previously thought to be by Rodin, are in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.[2] Durig's extensive career of forgery was first exposed in the 4 June 1965 issue of LIFE.[3]

Bibliography
  • Düringer, Ernst (1948). Ernest Durig: sculptures.

References
  1. "Ernest Durig". www.gallery.ca. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  2. "Rodin". Fake or Fortune?. Series 5. Episode 3. 31 July 2016. BBC Television. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  3. "The Great Rodin - His Flagrant Faker". LIFE. 4 June 1965. pp. 64–71. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
  4. "The biography of Ernest Durig". ArtPrice. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  5. "Greenwood, Wisconsin's Peace Memorial". Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  6. 44.767143°N 90.597952°W / 44.767143; -90.597952
  7. Garbush, Florence (4 August 1982). "Peace monument part of Greenwood's history". Eau Claire Leader Telegram. p. 28.


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