In 1848 he sent to the Royal Academy exhibition as his own work a small picture of "Shipping a Breeze and Rainy Weather off Hurst Castle" painted by a young artist named J. W. Yarnold, which he had purchased at a broker's shop, and to which he had made some slight alterations. Attention was called to the deception, and a full inquiry made by the academy resulted in his being called upon to resign his diploma as a royal academician. In 1850 he unsuccessfully endeavoured to exculpate himself in two letters published in the "Literary Gazette".