Copyist David Henty brings his Vermeers and Van Goghs to Helm Gallery

David Henty, the painter whose copies of old masters once fooled experts, will be at Helm Gallery^1,3 on North Road on Friday evening, 16 October, talking with the crime novelist Rob Starr. The event runs from 6.30pm to 9pm and is free to book on Eventbrite².

Henty has painted in the manner of Picasso, L.S. Lowry, Caravaggio, Van Gogh, Modigliani and Vermeer. These days he works openly as a copyist, and people collect his recreations because they are known to be his. One of his paintings, attributed to Picasso, reached auction with a reported estimate of around $1.4 million before Henty identified himself as the artist and stepped in.

The gallery is showing his hand-painted recreations of work by artists including Rembrandt, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Basquiat and Damien Hirst. Among them is Wild Blackberries, a painting made for this show that ties in with Starr’s book.

That book is The Forger’s Game, the third in Starr’s Kiara Fox series of thrillers, which draws directly on Henty and features him. On Friday the two will talk about forgery, authenticity and Henty’s career, then take questions, and Starr will sign copies. You can also ask Henty about private commissions.

The paintings stay on public display at the gallery for two weeks after the talk, so there is time to stand close to a “Vermeer” and work out what gives it away.