ARTIST Joseph Maxwell Stuart is setting up in business to copy
paintings to order.
The copies would replace original, valuable works of art in stately
homes. The originals can go into safe storage to avoid owners having to
satisfy stringent security demands from insurance companies.
Mr Maxwell Stuart, who comes from an aristocratic family, is already
working on requests from families to reproduce heirloom paintings which
they have been forced to sell, or have lost in a fire.
His studio is at one end of a converted farmworker's cottage near
Dunsyre in Lanarkshire, where he lives with his wife Deirdre, 33, a
former air stewardess, and their children.
The idea of copying paintings came to him when he was in Birmingham
recently at an exhibition to promote Modigliani, the art-purchasing
board game he invented.
To make his exhibit eye-catching, he hung his own versions of famous
oil paintings on the stand.
Mr Maxwell Stuart said: ''I was astounded that as I was hanging one of
my Van Gogh's another exhibitor tapped me on the shoulder and asked if
he could buy it for #500. I declined his offer.
''There were more offers during the day. I could have sold all my
copies of various artists several times over. But I didn't. The idea
followed on from there. If people want a copy, why not let them have one
for a decent price.''
Now Mr Maxwell Stuart is reproducing a number of Monet, Modigliani and
Van Gogh copies using specially prepared oils and ageing the canvases
both before and after painting.
The former Oxford School of Drawing and Edinburgh Art College student
hopes he will obtain a grant to assist him to launch his new business.
He added: ''Just because I'm listed in Burke's Peerage and have a
whacking great family tree that includes Bonnie Prince Charlie, I don't
want people to think I don't have to work for a living. It's the exact
opposite.''
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