Portrait of Eric Hebborn, c.1959

Peter Greenham RA (1909 - 1992)

RA Collection: Art

Eric Hebborn (1934-1996) first got to know Peter Greenham as a 'visitor' (i.e. teacher) at the Royal Academy Schools when he was a student there between 1954 and 1959. Hebborn greatly respected Greenham as a teacher, describing him later as 'retiring, courteous and amiable'. A star pupil, Hebborn turned the traditional skills he learnt in the Academy Schools to rather unusual ends. Having establishing a dealer's gallery in Rome, he flooded the art market with thousands of paintings, drawings and sculptures executed in the style of various Old Masters, many of which were subsequently sold as originals at major auction houses. When these forgeries first came to light in 1984, Hebborn was unapologetic and went on to capitalise on his notoriety by publishing an autobiography cheekily entitled The Art Forger's Handbook (1991). This sensitive portrait was probably painted in Hebborn's final year at the Royal Academy Schools, and was exhibited at the RA in 1959. Greenham presented the portrait as his Diploma Work upon election as an Academician in 1960.