[2] The son of a farmer, Myatt attended art school and discovered a talent for mimicking other artists' styles but at first only painted for amusement and for friends.
[3][4] When his wife left him in 1985, Myatt gave up teaching to spend more time with his children, and attempted to make a living by painting original works in the style of well-known artists.
When he later told Myatt that Christie's had accepted his "Albert Gleizes" painting as genuine and paid £25,000, Myatt became a willing accomplice to Drewe's fraud, and began to paint more pictures in the style of masters like Roger Bissière, Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, Jean Dubuffet, Alberto Giacometti, Matisse, Ben Nicholson, Nicolas de Staël and Graham Sutherland.
Drewe sold them to the auction houses of Christie's, Phillips and Sotheby's and to dealers in London, Paris and New York.
[9] On 16 April 1996 police raided Drewe's gallery in Reigate, Surrey, south of London, and found materials he had used to forge certificates of authenticity.
[2] Some of his most copied artworks include Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.
Myatt now hosts his own series – Virgin Virtuosos on Sky Arts, where he takes celebrities and recreates a famous painting.
Myatt has said of his works, When I paint in the style of one of the greats… Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh… I am not simply creating a copy or pale imitation of the original.