{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Life in the Netherlands}}
Han van Meegeren (10 October 1889 in
DeventerDeventer is a municipality and city in the Salland region of the Dutch province of Overijssel. Deventer is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, but also has a small part of its territory on the west bank. In 2005 the municipality of Bathmen Deventer is a municipality and city in...
,
OverijsselOverijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central eastern part of the country. The region has a NUTS classification of NL21. The province's name means "Lands across river IJssel". The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede...
– 30 December 1947 in
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
), born
Henricus Antonius van Meegeren, was a Dutch
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
and
portraitA portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a...
ist, and is considered to be one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century.
As a child, van Meegeren developed an enthusiasm for the marvelous colours used by painters of the
Dutch Golden AgeThe Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, and art were among the most acclaimed in the world.- Causes of the Golden Age :...
, and later set out to become an artist himself. When art critics decried his work as tired and derivative, van Meegeren felt that they had destroyed his career. Thereupon, he decided to prove his talent to the critics by forging paintings of some of the world's most famous artists, including
Frans HalsFrans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter especially famous for portraiture. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in...
,
Pieter de HoochPieter de Hooch was a genre painter during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a contemporary of Dutch Master Jan Vermeer, with whom his work shared themes and style.-Biography:...
,
Gerard ter BorchGerard ter Borch was a Dutch genre painter, who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic....
and
Johannes VermeerJohannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque painter who specialized in exquisite, domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime...
. He so well replicated the styles and colours of the artists that the best art critics and experts of the time regarded his paintings as genuine and sometimes exquisite. His most successful forgery was
Supper at EmmausThe Supper at Emmaus is a post-Resurrection appearance of Jesus described in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 24 verses 13-35. Jesus appeared to Cleopas and one other disciple as they walked to Emmaus. At first "their eyes were holden" so that they could not recognize him - this is the Meeting at Emmaus...
, created in 1937 while living in the south of France. This painting was hailed by some of the world’s foremost art experts as the finest Vermeer they had ever seen.
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, wealthy Dutchmen, wanting to prevent a sellout of
Dutch artDutch art describes the history of visual arts in the Netherlands, after the United Provinces separated from Flanders. Earlier painting in the area is covered in Early Netherlandish painting and Renaissance art.-Golden Age:...
to
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
and the Nazi Party, avidly bought Van Meegeren's forgeries. Nevertheless, a falsified "Vermeer" ended up in the possession of
ReichsmarschallReichsmarschall was the highest rank in the armed forces of Nazi Germany during World War II after the position of Supreme Commander held by Adolf Hitler....
Hermann GöringHermann Wilhelm Göring was a German politician, military leader and a leading member of the Nazi Party. Among many offices, he was Hitler's designated successor and commander of the Luftwaffe...
. Following the war, the forgery was discovered in Göring's possession, and Han van Meegeren was arrested 29 May 1945 as a
collaboratorThe term "Collaboration" was coined by Marshall Philippe Pétain, who proclaimed the Vichy regime in July 1940 and actively supported Collaborationism with Nazi Germany....
, as the officials believed that he had sold
Dutch cultural property{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Infobox|image={{Life in the Netherlands}}{{Infobox|image=...
to the Nazis. These crimes threatened extensive prison time and so Van Meegeren fearfully confessed to the forgery. On 12 November 1947, van Meegeren was convicted of falsification and fraud charges, and was sentenced to a modest punishment of one year in prison. He never served his sentence, however; before he could be incarcerated, van Meegeren suffered a heart attack and died on 30 December 1947. It is estimated that van Meegeren duped buyers out of the equivalent of several million dollars.
Early years
Han (a diminutive version of Henri or Henricus) van Meegeren was born in 1889 as the third of five children of
middle-classThe middle class are any class in the middle of a social schema. In Weberian socio-economic terms they are the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socioeconomically between the working class and upper class. In Marxist terms, middle class commonly refers to either the...
Roman Catholic parents in the provincial city town of
DeventerDeventer is a municipality and city in the Salland region of the Dutch province of Overijssel. Deventer is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, but also has a small part of its territory on the west bank. In 2005 the municipality of Bathmen Deventer is a municipality and city in...
. He was the son of Augusta Louisa Henrietta Camps and Hendrikus Johannes van Meegeren, a French and history teacher at the
Kweekschool (training college for schoolmasters) in the city of Deventer.
Early on, Han felt neglected and misunderstood by his father, as the elder Van Meegeren strictly forbade his artistic development, and constantly derided him. He was often forced by his father to write a hundred times the phrase "I know nothing, I am nothing, I am capable of nothing." While attending the Higher Burger School, he met teacher and painter Bartus Korteling (1853 - 1930), who would become his mentor. Korteling had been inspired by Johannes Vermeer and showed the young Van Meegeren how Vermeer had manufactured and mixed his colours. Korteling had rejected the Impressionist movement and other modern trends, as decadent, degenerate art, and his strong personal influence probably later led van Meegeren to rebuff contemporary styles and paint exclusively in the style of the
Dutch Golden AgeThe Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, and art were among the most acclaimed in the world.- Causes of the Golden Age :...
.
Van Meegeren's father did not share his son’s love of art, and instead, encouraged Han to study
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
. In 1907, van Meegeren, compelled by his father's demands, left home to study at the
Technische HogeschoolThe Delft University of Technology in Delft, the Netherlands, is the nation's largest technical university, with over 15,000 students, 2,700 scientists and 1,800 people in the support and management staff...
in
DelftSee also: Delft, Cape Town, Delft IslandDelft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands...
(
Delft Technical College), the hometown of the Johannes Vermeer. Van Meegeren received drawing and painting lessons as well. During his studies, van Meegeren easily passed his preliminary examinations, but because he did not wish to become an architect, he never took the
Ingenieurs (final) examination. He nevertheless proved to be an apt architect, and in fact designed the clubhouse for his
rowing clubA rowing club is a club for people interested in the sport of Rowing. Rowing clubs are usually located near a body of water, whether natural or artificial, that is large enough for manoeuvering of the shells . Clubs usually have racks to store boats and a dock to put them in the water...
DDS in Delft (see image). This building still exists and has been designated a protected monument.
In 1913, van Meegeren gave up his architecture studies and concentrated on drawing and painting at the art school in
The HagueThe Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 485,818 and an area of approximately 100 km²...
. On 8 January 1913, he received the prestigious Gold Medal from the Technical University in Delft, for his
Study of the Interior of the Church of Saint Lawrence (Laurenskerk) in Rotterdam. The award was given every five years to an art student who created the best work, and was accompanied by a gold medal.
On 18 April 1912, van Meegeren married a fellow art student, Anna de Voogt, who was expecting their first child. The couple went to live with Anna’s grandmother in Rijswijk. Their son Jacques Henri Emil was born on 26 August 1912 in Rijswijk,
Jacques van MeegerenJacques van Meegeren , born Jacques Henri Emil van Meegeren, was a Dutch Illustrator and painter.He is also considered to be a forger of the work of his father Han van Meegeren...
would also become a painter; he died on 26 October 1977 in
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
.
Career as a legitimate painter
In the summer of 1914, van Meegeren moved his family to
ScheveningenScheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, as well as one of its subdistricts .Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse...
. That year, he completed the diploma examination at the
Royal Academy of ArtThe Royal Academy of Art is an Art Academy in The Hague, The Netherlands. It is the oldest art academy in Europe. Known in Dutch as "Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag" it was founded on 29 September 1682....
in The Hague. The diploma would allow him to teach, and soon he took a position as the assistant to Prfessor Gips, the Professor of Drawing and Art History, for the small monthly salary of 75
guldensThe guilder , represented by the symbol ƒ or fl., was the currency of the Netherlands from the 17th century until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro. Between 1999 and 2002, the guilder was officially a "national subunit" of the euro. However, physical payments could only be made in guilder, as...
. In March 1915, his daughter Pauline (later called Inez) was born. To supplement his income, Han would sketch posters and paint pictures (generally
Christmas cardA Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day on December 25 by many people in...
s, still-life, landscapes, and portraits) for the
commercial artCommercial art is a subsector of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising.-Skills of commercial art:...
trade. Many of these paintings are quite valuable today.
Van Meegeren showed his first paintings publicly in The Hague, where they were exhibited from April to May 1917 at the Kunstzaal Pictura. In December 1919, he was accepted as a select member to the
Haagse Kunstkring, an exclusive society of writers and painters, who met weekly on the premises of the
RidderzaalThe Binnenhof , is a complex of buildings in The Hague. It has been the location of meetings of the Staten-Generaal, the Dutch parliament, since 1446, and has been the centre of Dutch politics for many centuries....
. In his studio at The Hague, opposite the Royal Palace
Huis ten BoschHuis ten Bosch is one of the four official residences of the Dutch Royal Family, located in The Hague in the Netherlands. It has been home to Queen Beatrix since 1981. The other royal palace in The Hague, Noordeinde Palace, is used for work-related purposes...
, van Meegeren would paint the tame
Roe DeerThe European Roe Deer is a deer species of Europe, Asia Minor, and Caspian coastal regions. There is a separate species known as the Siberian Roe Deer that is found from the Ural Mountains to as far east as China and Siberia...
belonging to Princess
JulianaJuliana was Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from her mother's abdication in 1948 to her own in 1980.-Early life:...
. He made many sketches and drawings of the deer and in 1921, painted
Hertje (
The fawn), which became quite popular in the Netherlands. Van Meegeren undertook numerous journeys to
BelgiumThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
, France, Italy and England, and acquired a name for himself as a talented portraitist. He earned stately fees through commissions from English and American socialites who spent their winter vacations on the Côte d'Azur. His clients were impressed by his understanding of the 17th century techniques of the Dutch masters. Throughout his life, van Meegeren would paint pictures to which he would sign his own signature, which differed greatly from the marks he used on his forgeries.
By all accounts, infidelity was responsible for the break up of van Meegeren’s marriage to Anna de Voogt; they were divorced on 19 July 1923. Anna left with the children and moved to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where from time to time, Van Meegeren would visit his children. Van Meegeren now dedicated himself to portraiture and began producing forgeries to increase his income.
In 1928, he was remarried, in
WoerdenWoerden is a municipality and a city in the central Netherlands. Due to its central location between Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, and the fact that it has excellent rail and road connections to those cities, it is a popular town for commuters who work in those cities.-Population...
, to the raffish actress Johanna Theresia Oerlemans (also known under her stage name Jo van Walraven), with whom he had been living for the past three years. Jo had previously been married to
art criticAn art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
and journalist, Dr. C H. de Boer (Karel de Boer), and she brought their daughter, Viola, into the Van Meegeren household.
The forgeries
In the Netherlands, Han van Meegeren had become a well-known painter.
Hertje (1921) and
Straatzangers (1928) were particularly popular. His first legitimate copies were painted in 1923 – his
Laughing Cavalier and
Happy Smoker – both in the style of Frans Hals. By 1928, the similarity of van Meegeren’s paintings of those of the
old masters"Old Master" is a term for a European painter of skill who worked before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print made by an artist in the same period...
began to draw the reproach of Dutch art critics, who were, at that time, more interested in the Cubist, Surrealist, and other movements. It was said that van Meegeren’s gift was in imitation and that, outside of copying other artists' work, his talent was limited. One critic wrote that he was "A gifted technician who has made a sort of composite facsimile of the Renaissance school, he has every virtue except originality." In response to these comments, van Meegeren published a series of aggressive articles in the monthly magazine
De Kemphaan (“The Game Cock”). Between April 1928 and March 1930, and together with journalist Jan Ubink, he raged against the art community, and in the process, lost any sympathy with the critics.
Van Meegeren felt that his genius had been misjudged, and set out to prove to the art critics that he could not only copy the style of the Dutch masters in his paintings, but that he could produce a work of art so magnificent that it would rival the works of master painters. He moved with his second wife, Jo, to the South of France and began preparations for this ultimate forgery, which took him six years, from 1932 to 1937. In a series of early exercises, he forged works by
Frans HalsFrans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter especially famous for portraiture. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in...
,
Pieter de HoochPieter de Hooch was a genre painter during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a contemporary of Dutch Master Jan Vermeer, with whom his work shared themes and style.-Biography:...
,
Gerard ter BorchGerard ter Borch was a Dutch genre painter, who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic....
, and
Johannes VermeerJohannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque painter who specialized in exquisite, domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime...
. In the end, he chose to forge a painting by Vermeer as his masterpiece. Vermeer had not been particularly well-known until the beginning of the twentieth century; his works were both scarce—only about 35 of his works had survived—and extremely valuable.
Van Meegeren delved into the biographies of the old masters, studying their lives, their occupations, their trademark techniques and their catalogues. In October 1932, Dr. Abraham Bredius published an article about a recently discovered Vermeer which he described as a painting of a
Man and Woman at a Spinet. The painting was later sold to Amsterdam banker
Dr. Fritz MannheimerFritz Mannheimer was a powerful German Jewish banker and art collector who was the director of the Dutch branch of the Berlin-based investment bank Mendelssohn & Co....
.
Inventing the "perfect forgery"
In 1932, Van Meegeren moved to the village of
Roquebrune-Cap-MartinRoquebrune-Cap-Martin is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in south-eastern France between Monaco and Menton. The name was changed from Roquebrune due to increasing urbanization in the French Riviera.-History:In pre-Roman times the area was settled by the Ligurians...
with his wife. There he rented a furnished mansion called “Primavera” and set out to define the chemical and technical procedures which would be necessary to create his perfect forgeries. Van Meegeren bought authentic 17th century canvas to paint on and mixed his own paints from raw materials (such as
lapis lazuliLapis lazuli is a relatively rare, semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense blue color....
,
white leadWhite lead is the chemical compound 2·Pb2. It was formerly used as an ingredient for lead paint and a cosmetic called Venetian Ceruse, because its opaque quality made it a good pigment...
,
indigoIndigo is the color on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet. Although traditionally considered one of seven divisions of the optical spectrum, modern color scientists do not usually recognize indigo as a separate division and...
, and
cinnabarCinnabar, sometimes written cinnabarite, is a name applied to red mercury sulfide , or native vermillion, the common ore of mercury. The name comes from the Greek - "kinnabari" - used by Theophrastus, and was probably applied to several distinct substances. Other sources say the word comes from the...
) using old formulas to ensure that they were authentic. In addition, he used badger-hair paintbrushes, similar to those Vermeer was known to have used. He came up with a scheme of using phenol formaldehyde to cause the paints to harden after application, making the paintings appear as if they were 300 years old. After completing a painting, Van Meegeren would bake it at {{convert|100|°C|°F|1}} to {{convert|120|°C|°F|1}} to harden the paint, and then roll it over a cylinder to increase the cracks. Later, he would wash the painting in black
India inkIndia ink , or less commonly called Chinese ink since it may have been first developed in either India or China, is a simple black ink once widely used for writing and printing, and now more commonly used for drawing, especially when inking comics and comic strips...
to fill in the cracks.
It took van Meegeren six years to work out his techniques, and when he was done, he was pleased with his work, on both an artistic and deceptive level. Two of these trial paintings were “Vermeers”:
Lady Reading Music, after Vermeer’s
Woman in Blue Reading a LetterThe Woman in Blue Reading a Letter is a painting finished around 1663-1664 by the Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer. It is housed in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam....
at the
RijksmuseumThe Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history...
in Amsterdam, and
Lady Playing Music, after Vermeer’s
Woman with a Lute near a window hanging in the
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, known colloquially as The Met, is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, USA. It has a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art, divided into nineteen curatorial...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
. Van Meegeren did not sell these paintings; both are now at the
RijksmuseumThe Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history...
.
Following a journey to the
1936 Summer OlympicsThe 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
, van Meegeren painted
The Supper at Emmaus, using the ultramarine blues and yellows preferred by Johannes Vermeer and other Dutch Golden Age painters. After learning that the experts assumed Vermeer had studied in Italy, Van Meegeren used
The Supper at Emmaus by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, located at Italy’s Pinacoteca di Brera, as a model for his next work. He had always wanted to walk in the steps of the masters, and he felt that his forgery was a fine work in its own right. Van Meegeren gave the work to his friend, the
attorneyA lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver...
C. A. Boon, telling him it was a genuine Vermeer, and asked him to show it to the famous art connoisseur and Vermeer expert, Dr. Abraham Bredius, who was living nearby in
MonacoMonaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a small sovereign city-state located in South Western Europe on the northern central coast of the Mediterranean Sea, having a land border on three sides only with France, and being about away from Italy. Its size is just under 2 km² with an...
. Bredius examined the forgery in September 1937, and despite some initial doubts, he accepted it as a genuine Vermeer and praised it highly.
The painting was purchased by The Rembrandt Society for 520,000 guilders ($300,000 or about $4 million today.) with the aid of a wealthy shipowner Willem van der Vorm and donated to the
Museum Boijmans Van BeuningenThe Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main art museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The museum began in 1847 with the collection of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans . In 1958 the collection of businessman Daniël George van Beuningen was added to the museum...
in
RotterdamRotterdam ; city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, situated in the west of the Netherlands. The municipality is the second largest in the country, with a population of 584,046 as of January 2007...
. In 1938, the piece was highlighted in a special exhibition at the Rotterdam museum along with 450 Dutch masterpieces dating from 1400-1800. In the "Magazine for [the] History of Art", A. Feulner wrote that "In the rather isolated area, in which the Vermeer picture hung, it was as quiet as in a chapel. The feeling of the consecration overflows on the visitors, although the picture has no ties to ritual or church."
In the summer of 1938, van Meegeren moved to
NiceNice is a city in southern France located on the Mediterranean coast, between Marseille, France, and Genoa, Italy, with 347 060 inhabitants in the 2006 estimate...
. Using the proceeds from the sale of
The Supper at Emmaus, he bought a 12 bedroom estate at Les Arènes de
CimiezCimiez is an upper class neighborhood in Nice, France. The area contains the Henri Matisse Museum and the ruins of Cemenelum, capital of the Ancient Roman province Alpes Maritimae on the Ligurian coast...
. On the walls of the estate hung several genuine Old Masters. Two of van Meegeren’s better forgeries were made here,
Interior with Cardplayers and
Interior with Drinkers, both displaying the signature of
Pieter de HoochPieter de Hooch was a genre painter during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a contemporary of Dutch Master Jan Vermeer, with whom his work shared themes and style.-Biography:...
. During his time in Nice, Van Meegeren painted his
Last Supper I in the style of Vermeer.
In September 1939, as the Second World War threatened, he returned to the Netherlands. He remained at a hotel in Amsterdam for several months and in 1940 moved to the village of
Larenis a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called 't Gooi, it is the oldest town in that area. It is one of the richest towns in the Netherlands, along with its neighbour Blaricum...
. Throughout 1941, van Meegeren issued his designs, which he published in 1942 as
Han van Meegeren: Teekeningen I (Drawings nr I) a large and luxurious book. During this time, Van Meegeren created several forgeries, including
The Head of Christ,
The Last Supper II,
The Blessing of Jacob,
The Adulteress and
The Washing of the Feet, all in the manner of Vermeer. On 18 December 1943, he divorced his wife, but this was only a formality; the couple remained together, but a large share of his capital was transferred to her accounts as a safeguard against the uncertainties of the war.
In December 1943, the van Meegerens moved to Amsterdam, where they took up residence in the exclusive Keizersgracht 321. His forgeries had earned him between 5.5 to 7.5 million guilders (or about $25–30 million today). He used this money to purchase a large amount of real estate, jewelry and works of art, and to further his luxurious lifestyle. In a 1946 interview, he told Marie Louise Doudart de la Grée that he owned 52 houses and 15 country houses around Laren, among them
grachtenhuizen, beautiful mansions along the famous Amsterdam canals.
The forger fools Hermann Göring
During the German occupation of the Netherlands, one of van Meegeren’s agents sold a Vermeer forgery,
Christ with the Adulteress, to Nazi banker and art dealer Alois Miedl in 1942. Experts could probably have identified it as a forgery; as van Meegeren's health declined, so did the quality of work. He chain-smoked, drank heavily and became addicted to
morphineMorphine is a highly potent opiate analgesic psychoactive drug, is the principal active ingredient in Papaver somniferum , is considered to be the prototypical opioid. Like other opioids, e.g...
-laced sleeping pills. Fortunately for van Meegeren, there were no genuine Vermeers available for comparison, since most museum collections were in protective storage as a prevention against war damage. Miedl later sold it to Reichsmarshall
Hermann GöringHermann Wilhelm Göring was a German politician, military leader and a leading member of the Nazi Party. Among many offices, he was Hitler's designated successor and commander of the Luftwaffe...
for 1.65 million guilders ($625,000 or $7 million today.)
Göring showcased the Vermeer forgery at his residence in
CarinhallCarinhall was the country residence of Hermann Göring, built on a large hunting estate northeast of Berlin in the Schorfheide forest between the Großdöllner See and the Wuckersee in the north of Brandenburg....
(about 65 kilometers north of
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
). On 25 August 1943, Göring hid his collection of
lootedLooting , to rob, sacking, plundering, despoiling, or pillaging is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe or riot, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...
artwork, including
Christ with the Adulteress, in an
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n salt mine, along with 6,750 other pieces of artwork looted by the Nazis. On 17 May 1945, Allied forces entered the salt mine, where Captain Harry Anderson discovered the previously unknown "Vermeer".
In May 1945, the Allied forces questioned banker and art dealer Alois Miedl regarding the newly discovered Vermeer. Based on Miedl's confession, the painting was traced back to van Meegeren. On 29 May 1945, he was arrested and charged with fraud and aiding and abetting the enemy. He was remanded to Weteringschans prison. As an alleged
Nazi collaboratorThe pursuit of Nazi collaborators refers to the post-WWII pursuit and apprehension of individuals who were not citizens of the Third Reich at the outbreak of World War II and collaborated with the Nazi regime during the war...
and
plundererNazi plunder refers to art theft and other items stolen as a result of the organized spoliation of European countries during the time of the Third Reich by agents acting on behalf of the ruling Nazi Party of Germany. Plundering occurred from 1933 until the end of World War II, although most plunder...
of Dutch cultural property the authorities threatened Van Meegeren with extensive prison time. Faced with these bleak choices, and after spending three days in jail, he confessed to forging paintings attributed to Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch. He exclaimed, "The painting in Göring’s hands is not, as you assume, a Vermeer of Delft, but a Van Meegeren! I painted the picture!". It took some time to verify this and for several months van Meegeren was detained in the Headquarters of the Military Command at Herengracht 468 in Amsterdam. Between July and about November/December 1945, and in the presence of reporters and court-appointed witnesses, he painted his last forgery,
Jesus among the Doctors, also called
Young Christ in the Temple. After the trial painting was finished he was transferred to the fortress-prison
Blauwkapel. Van Meegeren was released from prison in January or February 1946.
Trial, sentence and death
The trial of Han van Meegeren began on 29 October 1947 in Room 4 of the Regional Court in Amsterdam. The collaboration charges had been dropped, since the expert panel had found that the "Vermeer" sold to Hermann Göring had been a forgery and was, therefore, not the cultural property of the Netherlands. The public prosecutor, H. A. Wassenbergh, brought charges of forgery and fraud and demanded a sentence of two years in prison.
The court commissioned an international group of experts to address the authenticity of Van Meegeren's paintings. The commission included curators, professors and doctors from the Netherlands,
BelgiumThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
, and England and was led by the director of the chemical laboratory at the
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of BelgiumThe Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium , is one of the most famous museums in Belgium....
, Dr. Paul Coremans. The commission examined the eight Vermeer and
Frans HalsFrans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter especially famous for portraiture. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in...
paintings which van Meegeren had designated as forgeries. With the help of the commission, Dr. Coremans was able to determine the chemical composition of Han van Meegeren’s paints. He found that van Meegeren had prepared the paints by mixing them with the plastic bonding agent Albertol, a
phenolformaldehyde resinThe earliest commercial synthetic resin is based on a Phenol formaldehyde resin with the commercial name Bakelite, and is formed from an elimination reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. Phenol is reactive towards formaldehyde at the ortho and para sites allowing up to 3 units of formaldehyde to...
. A bottle with exactly that ingredient had been found in van Meegeren's studio. This chemical component was introduced and manufactured in the 20th century, proving that the “Vermeers” and “Frans Halses” examined by the commission were not painted in the 17th century by the Dutch masters, but were in fact made by van Meegeren. The commission's other findings suggested that the dust in the
craquelureIn art, craquelure is the fine pattern of cracks formed on old paintings. It is sometimes used to detect forged art, as craquelure is a hard-to-forge signature of authenticity.The precise pattern of craquelure depends upon where the picture was painted...
was too homogeneous to be of natural origin. The matter found in the craquelure appeared to come from India ink, that had even gathered in areas that natural dirt or dust would never have reached. The paint had become so hard that not only alcohol but also strong acids and bases did not attack the surface, a clear indication that the surface had not been formed in a natural manner. The craquelure on the surface did not always tally with the craquelure in the ground layer, which with a natural craquelure would certainly have been the case. Thus, the test results obtained by the commission appeared to confirm that the works were forgeries created by van Meegeren, but their authenticity would continue to be debated by some of the experts until 1967 and 1977, when new investigative techniques were used to analyze the paintings (see below).
On 12 November 1947, the Fourth Chamber of the Amsterdam Regional Court found Han van Meegeren guilty of forgery and fraud, and he was sentenced to a minimal one year in prison On 26 November 1947, the last day to appeal the ruling, van Meegeren suffered a
heart attackMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart, causing some heart cells to die...
and was rushed to the Valeriuskliniek hospital in Amsterdam.. While at the hospital, Van Meegeren suffered a second heart attack on 29 December. He was pronounced dead at 5:00 pm on 30 December 1947, at the age of 58. His family and several hundred of his friends attended his funeral at the Driehuis Westerveld Crematorium chapel. In 1948, his urn was buried in the general cemetery in the village of
DiepenveenDiepenveen is a village in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It is located in the municipality of Deventer, about 4 km north of the city centre.Diepenveen was a separate municipality until 1999, when it became a part of Deventer.-External links:*...
(municipality of Deventer).
Aftermath
After his death, the court ruled that van Meegeren’s estate be auctioned and the proceeds from his property and the sale of his counterfeits be used to refund the buyers of his works and to pay income taxes on the sale of his paintings. In December 1945, van Meegeren had filed for
bankruptcyBankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring...
. On 5 and 6 September 1950, the furniture and other possessions in his Amsterdam house at Keizersgracht 321 were auctioned by order of the court, along with 738 other pieces of furniture and works of art, including numerous paintings by old and new masters from his private collection. The house was auctioned separately on 4 September. Together with the house, estimated to be worth 65,000 guilders, the proceeds of the sale amounted to 123,000 guilders. Van Meegeren’s unsigned
The Last Supper I was bought for 2,300 guilders, while
Jesus among the Doctors (which Van Meegeren had painted while in detention) sold for 3,000 guilders (about $800 or about $7,000 today.) Today the painting hangs in a
JohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi or Jo'burg, is the largest city in South Africa. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
church. The sale of van Meegeren's entire estate amounted to 242,000 guilders ($60,000, or about $0.5 million today).
Throughout his trial and bankruptcy, van Meegeren maintained that his second wife, Jo, had nothing to do with the creation and sale of his forgeries. A large part of his considerable wealth had been transferred to her when they were divorced during the war, and the money would have been confiscated, if she had been ruled to be an accomplice. To all authors, journalists and biographers Van Meegeren told the same story: "Jo didn’t know", and apparently most believed him. Some biographers believe, however, that Jo must have known the truth. Her involvement was never proven, and she was able to keep her substantial capital. Jo outlived her husband by many years, always in great luxury, until her death at the age of 91.
M. Jean Decoen's objection
M. Jean Decoen, a Brussels art expert and restorer, stated in his 1951 book that he believed two of van Meegeren's paintings,
The Supper at Emmaus and
The Last Supper II, to be genuine Vermeers. Decoen went on to state that conclusions of Dr. Paul Coreman’s panel of experts were wrong and that the paintings should again be examined.
The buyer of
The Last Supper II,
Interior with Drinkers, and
The Head of Christ, Daniel George van Beuningen, demanded that Dr. Paul Coremans publicly admit that he had erred in his analysis. When Coremans refused, Van Beuningen sued him, alleging that Coremans’ wrongful branding of
The Last Supper II diminished the value of his “Vermeer” and asking for compensation of £500,000 (about $1.3 million or about $10 million today).) The trial was set for 2 June 1955, but was delayed owing to van Beuningen's death on 29 May 1955. Approximately seven months later, the court heard the case on behalf of van Beuningen's heirs. The court found in favour of Coremans, and the findings of his commission were upheld.
Further investigations
In 1967, the Artists Material Center at
Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since its inception, Carnegie Mellon has grown into a world-renowned institution, with numerous programs that are frequently ranked among the best in the world...
in
PittsburghPittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the second largest city in the state. Its population was 334,563 at the 2000 census; by 2006, it was estimated to have fallen to 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is...
examined several of the “Vermeers” in their collection. Under the direction of Dr. Robert Feller and Dr. Bernard Keisch, the examination confirmed that several of their paintings were, in fact, created using materials invented in the 20th century. They concluded that the “Vermeers” in their possession were modern and could thus be van Meegeren forgeries. This confirmed the findings of the 1946 Coremans commission, and refuted the claims made by M. Jean Decoen. The test results, obtained by the Carnegie Mellon team are summarized below.
Han van Meegeren knew that white lead was used during Vermeer’s time, but of course Van Meegeren had to obtain his stocks through the modern colour trade, which had changed significantly since the 17th century. During Vermeer’s time, Dutch lead was mined from deposits located in the Low Countries; however, by the 19th century, most lead was imported from Australia and the
AmericasThe Americas, or America, are lands in the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America...
. Thus, modern white lead differs greatly from the white lead Vermeer would have used, both in the
isotopeIsotopes are different types of atoms of the same chemical element, each having a different number of neutrons. Correspondingly, isotopes differ in mass number but not in atomic number. The difference in the number of nucleons comes from a difference how many neutrons are in the atomic nucleus...
composition of the lead and in the content of trace elements found in the ores. Dutch white lead was extracted from ores containing high levels of trace elements of
silverSilver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
and
antimonyAntimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb and atomic number 51. A metalloid, antimony has four allotropic forms. The stable form of antimony is a blue-white metalloid. Yellow and black antimony are unstable non-metals...
. On the other hand, the modern white lead used by Han van Meegeren contained neither silver nor antimony, as those elements are now separated from the lead during the modern
smeltingSmelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
process.
Forgeries in which modern lead or white lead pigment has been used can be recognized by using a technique called Pb(Lead)-210-Dating. Pb-210 is a naturally occurring radioactive element that is part of the
Uranium-238Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature. When hit by a neutron, it eventually becomes plutonium-239 ....
Radioactive decay seriesIn nuclear science, the decay chain refers to the radioactive decay of different discrete radioactive decay products as a chained series of transformations...
, and has a half life of 22.3 years. To determine the amount of Pb-210, the alpha radiation emitted by another element,
PoloniumPolonium is a chemical element with the symbol Po and atomic number 84, discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie. A rare and highly radioactive metalloid, polonium is chemically similar to bismuth and tellurium, and it occurs in uranium ores. Polonium has been studied for possible use in...
-210 (Po-210), is measured. Thus it is possible to estimate the age of a painting, within a few years' span, by extrapolating the Pb-210 content present in the paint used to create the painting.
The white lead in the painting
The Supper at Emmaus had Polonium-210 values of
8.5 +/- 1.4 and
RadiumRadium is a radioactive chemical element which has the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. Its appearance is almost pure white, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, turning black. Radium is an alkaline earth metal that is found in trace amounts in uranium ores. It is extremely radioactive...
-226 (part of the Uranium-238 Radioactive decay series) values of
0.8 +/- 0.3. In contrast, the white lead found in Dutch paintings from 1600-1660 had Polonium-210 values of
0.23 +/- 0.27 and Radium-226 values of
0.40+/- 0.47.
In 1977, another investigation was undertaken by the States forensic labs of the Netherlands, using up-to-date techniques like gas chromatography, to formally confirm the origin of six van Meegeren forgeries, including the
Emmaus and the
Last Supper that were rumored to be genuine Vermeers. The conclusions of the 1946 commission were again reaffirmed and upheld by the Dutch judiciary system. No further investigations have occurred.
Legacy
Van Meegeren played different roles, some of which were shrouded in fraudulent intentions, as he sought to fulfill his goal of besting his critics. Early on Han’s father may have foreseen his path, as his father once told him, "You are a cheat and always will be." On the other hand, his brothers and sisters perceived him as loyal, generous and affectionate, and he was always loving and helpful to his own children. The question “what was his character” cannot be answered unequivocally. Indeed, recent works question many of the existing assumptions about van Meegeren and the motivations for his career in forgery. With Han van Meegeren, everything was double-edged and his character presents itself as fragments rather than unity.
After van Meegeren was released, he continued to paint, signing his works with his own name. His new-found popularity ensured quick sale of his new paintings, often selling at prices that were many times higher than before he had been unmasked as a forger. Van Meegeren also told the news media that "he had an offer from a Manhattan gallery to come to the U.S. and paint portraits "in the 17th century manner" at $6,000 a throw."
A Dutch opinion poll conducted in October 1947 placed Han van Meegeren’s popularity second in the nation, behind only the
Prime Minister'sThe prime minister of the Netherlands is the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Netherlands. He is the de facto head of government of the Netherlands and coordinates the policy of the government. The current prime minister is Jan Peter Balkenende.-Role:Because of his or her limited powers,...
. The Dutch people viewed van Meegeren as a cunning trickster, who had successfully fooled the Dutch art experts, and more importantly, Hermann Göring himself. In fact, according to a contemporary account, when Göring was informed that his “Vermeer” was actually a forgery, "[Göring] looked as if for the first time he had discovered there was evil in the world". Han van Meegeren remains one of the most ingenious art counterfeiters of the 20th century. After his trial, however, he declared, "My triumph as a counterfeiter was my defeat as [a] creative artist."
Known forgeries
List of known forgeries by Han van Meegeren:
- A counterpart to The Laughing Cavalier
*Laughing Cavalier 1624 painting by Frans Hals*The Laughing Cavalier a prequel to The Scarlet Pimpernel series of novels by Baroness Orczy*The Laughing Cavalier...
after Frans Hals (1923) once the subject of a scandal in The Hague in 1923, its present whereabouts are unknown.
- The Happy Smoker after Frans Hals (1923) hangs in the Groninger Museum
The Groninger Museum is a museum of modern and contemporary art located in Groningen, in the north of The Netherlands.-Background:Although not as well known as other Dutch institutions of fine art, the Groninger Museum was founded in 1894...
in the Netherlands
- Man and Woman at a Spinet 1932 (sold to Amsterdam banker, Dr. Fritz Mannheimer)
- Lady Reading Music 1935 - 1936 (unsold, on display at the Rijksmuseum.)
- Lady Playing Music 1935 - 1936 (unsold, on display at the Rijksmuseum.)
- Portrait of a Man 1935 - 1936 in the style of Gerard ter Borch (unsold, on display at the Rijksmuseum.)
- Woman Drinking 1935 - 1936 (unsold, on display at the Rijksmuseum.)
- The Supper at Emmaus, 1936 - 1937 (sold to the Boymans for 520,000 - 550,000 guldens, about $300,000 or $4 Million today)
- Interior with Drinkers 1937 - 1938 (sold to D G. van Beuningen for 219,000 - 220,000 guldens about $120,000 or $1.6 Million today)
- The Last Supper I, 1938 - 1939
- Interior with Cardplayers 1938 - 1939 (sold to W. van der Vorm for 219,000 - 220,000 guldens $120,000 or $1.6 Million today)
- The Head of Christ, 1940 - 1941 (sold to D G. van Beuningen for 400,000 - 475,000 guldens about $225,000 or $3.25 Million today)
- The Last Supper II, 1940 - 1942 (sold to D G. van Beuningen for 1,600,000 guldens about $600,000 or $7 Million today)
- The Blessing of Jacob 1941 - 1942 (sold to W. van der Vorm for 1,270,000 guldens about $500,000 or $5.75 Million today)
- Christ with the Adulteress 1941 - 1942 (sold to Hermann Göring for 1,650,000 guldens about $624,000 or $6.75 Million today)
- The Washing of the Feet 1941 - 1943 (sold to the Netherlands state for 1,250,000 – 1,300,000 guldens about $500,000 or $5.3 Million today, on display at the Rijksmuseum.)
- Jesus among the Doctors- September 1945 (sold at auction for 3,000 guldens, about $800 or $7,000 today)
Posthumously, van Meegeren's forgeries have been shown in exhibitions around the world, including exhibitions in Amsterdam (1952),
BaselBasel is Switzerland's third most populous city . With 830000 inhabitants in the tri-national metropolitan area , Basel is Switzerland's second-largest urban area....
(1953),
ZurichZürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne...
(1953),
Haarlem', in the past usually Harlem in English, is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is also the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic.Haarlem had a total population 148...
in the Kunsthandlung de Boer (1958),
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
(1961),
RotterdamRotterdam ; city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, situated in the west of the Netherlands. The municipality is the second largest in the country, with a population of 584,046 as of January 2007...
(1971), Minneapolis (1973),
EssenEssen is a city in the central part of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Located on the Ruhr River, its population of approximately 579,000 makes it either the 7th- or 8th-largest-city in Germany...
(1976-1977),
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
(1977), Slot Zeist (1985),
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(1987), Berkeley, CA (1990),
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
(1991), Rotterdam (1996), The Hague (1996) and more recently at the Haagse Kunstkring, The Hague (2004) and
Stockholm' is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the Riksdag , and the official residence of the Swedish Monarch as well as the prime minister. The Monarch resides at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm since 1980 and uses the Royal Palace of...
(2004), and have thus been made broadly accessible to the public.
Potential forgeries
It is possible that other fakes hang in art collections all over the world, probably in the style of 17th-century
Dutch mastersThe Dutch School were painters in the Netherlands from the early Renaissance to the Baroque. It includes Early Netherlandish and Dutch Renaissance artists active in the northern Low Countries and, later, Dutch Golden Age painting in the United Provinces.Many painters, sculptors and architects of...
, including works in the style of Frans Hals and the school of Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, and
Gerard ter BorchGerard ter Borch was a Dutch genre painter, who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic....
. In interviews with journalists, regarding discussions with his father Jacques van Meegeren suggested his father had created a number of other forgeries. Some of these paintings include:
- Boy with a Little Dog and The Rommelpotspeler after Frans Hals. The Frans Hals catalogue by Frans L. M. Dony mentions four paintings by this name attributed to Frans Hals or the "school of Frans Hals", one of these could easily be by Van Meegeren.
- A counterpart to Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring
The Girl with a Pearl Earring is a Vermeer painting from the 1600s.It may also refer to:*Girl with a Pearl Earring , a novel by Tracy Chevalier, inspired by the painting*Girl with a Pearl Earring , a 2003 film based on the novel...
. A painting called Smiling Girl hangs in the National Gallery of ArtThe National Gallery of Art is a national art museum, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museum was established in 1938 by the United States Congress, with funds for construction and a substantial art collection donated by Andrew W. Mellon plus major art works donated by Lessing J...
in Washington, D.C. (bequest Andrew W. MellonAndrew William Mellon was an American banker, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector and Secretary of the Treasury from March 4 1921 until February 12 1932.-Early life:...
) that could fit with Jacques’ description and has been recognized by the museum as a fake. It was attributed to Theo van Wijngaarden, friend and partner of Van Meegeren, but may have been painted by Van Meegeren.
- Lady with a Blue Hat after Vermeer which was sold to Baron Heinrich Thyssen
Heinrich Thyssen , since June 22, 1907 Heinrich Freiherr Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva, was a German-Hungarian entrepreneur and art collector.-Biography:...
in 1930. Its present whereabouts are unknown.
Original artwork
Van Meegeren was a prolific artist, and produced thousands of original paintings in a number of diverse styles. This wide range in painting and drawing styles often irritated art critics. Some of his typical works are classical still lifes in convincing 17th century manner, Impressionistic paintings of people frolicking on lakes or beaches, jocular drawings where the subject is drawn with rather odd features, Surrealistic paintings with combined fore- and backgrounds. Van Meegeren's portraits, however, are probably his finest works.
Among his original works is his famous
Deer, pictured above. Other works include his prize-winning
St. Laurens Cathedral; a
Portrait of the actress Jo Oerlemans (his second wife) ; his
Night Club from the Roaring Twenties; the cheerful watercolor
A Summer Day on the Beach and many others.
The forger forged
Van Meegeren’s own work rose in price after he had became famous and it consequently became worth-while to fake his paintings as well. Existing paintings obtained a signature “H. van Meegeren”, or new pictures were made in a Van Meegeren style and falsely signed.
When Van Meegeren saw a fake like that, he ironically remarked that he would have adopted them if they had been good enough, but regrettably he had not yet seen one.
Later on, however, his son
Jacques van MeegerenJacques van Meegeren , born Jacques Henri Emil van Meegeren, was a Dutch Illustrator and painter.He is also considered to be a forger of the work of his father Han van Meegeren...
started to fake his father’s work. He made paintings in his father’s style – although of much lower quality – and was able to place a perfect signature on these imitations.
Many fakes – both by Jacques and by others – are still on the market. They can be recognized by their low pictorial quality, but are not always regarded as such. As a result they have given a bad name to Van Meegeren’s oeuvre, see the article about
Jacques van MeegerenJacques van Meegeren , born Jacques Henri Emil van Meegeren, was a Dutch Illustrator and painter.He is also considered to be a forger of the work of his father Han van Meegeren...
, section “Fake van Meegerens”.
Further reading
Han van Meegeren biographies
- Baesjou, Jan (1956). The Vermeer forgeries: The story of Han van Meegeren. G. Bles. A biography/novel based on the author's conversations with Van Meegeren's second wife. {{OCLC|3949129}}
- Moisewitsch, Maurice (1961). The Van Meegeren mystery. London: A&C Black. A biography/novel.
- Godley, John Raymond Lord Kilbracken
John Raymond Godley, 3rd Baron Kilbracken, DSC was a British-born, later Irish-resident peer, wartime naval pilot, journalist, author and farmer. He was the son of the 2nd Baron Kilbracken; his grandfather, Arthur Godley, 1st Baron Kilbracken, was William Gladstone's private secretary...
(1967). Van Meegeren: A case history. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd. 1967, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. The standard English-language account, based on the author's literature research and conversations with Van Meegeren's son and daughter.{{oclc|173258}}
- Brandhof, Marijke van den (1979): Een vroege Vermeer uit 1937: Achtergronden van leven en werken van de schilder/vervalser Han van Meegeren. Utrecht: Spectrum, 1979. The only scholarly biography of Van Meegeren. An English-language summary is offered by Werness (1983).
- Werness, Hope B.(1983). "Han van Meegeren fecit". The forger’s art: Forgery and the philosophy of art. ed. Denis Dutton
Denis Dutton is an academic, web entrepreneur and libertarian media commentator/activist. He is a professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand...
. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Guarnieri, Luigi (2004) La doppia vita di Vermeer. Mondadori Mailand. ISBN 3-88897-381-3
- Wynne, Frank (2006). I was Vermeer: the rise and fall of the twentieth century's greatest forger. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-58234-593-2.
- Kreuger, Frederik H.
Frederik Hendrik Kreuger , is a Dutch high voltage scientist and inventor, lives in Delft, Holland, and is professor emeritus of the Delft University of Technology. He is also a professional author of technical literature, nonfiction books, thrillers and a decisive biography of the master forger...
(2007). A New Vermeer: Life and Work of Han van Meegeren. Quantes Publishers, Rijswijk 2007. ISBN 978-90-5959-047-2
- Lopez, Jonathan
Jonathan Lopez is an American writer and art historian. Born in 1969 in New York City, he was educated there and at Harvard. He writes a monthly column for Art & Antiques called "Talking Pictures" and is a frequent contributor to London-based Apollo: The International Magazine of the Arts...
(2008). The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han Van Meegeren. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-15101-341-8.
Novels about or inspired by Han van Meegeren
Films about or inspired by Han van Meegeren
- Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. He is currently professor of cinema studies at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.-Early life:...
's A Zed & Two NoughtsA Zed & Two Noughts is a 1985 film written and directed by Peter Greenaway.-Plot:The plot centres on twin brothers, Oswald and Oliver Deuce, whose wives are killed in a car accident. The brothers enter a relationship with Alba Bewick, the driver of the car, who lost one of her legs in the accident...
(1985). In this film actor Gerard Thoolen plays "Van Meegeren", a surgeonIn medicine, a surgeon is a person who performs surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such to remove a diseased organ or to repair a tear or breakage. Surgeons may be medical doctors,...
and painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
modeled after Han van Meegeren.
- Jan Botermans and Gustav Maguel (1951). Van Meegeren’s false Vermeers [Film]. (See Sepp Schueller, p. 57.)
Plays inspired by Han van Meegeren
- Bruce J. Robinson(2007). Another Vermeer [Play]. Produced by the Abingdon Theatre Company of New York City
- Ian Walker (playwright)
Ian Walker is an African-American playwright, stage actor, designer, producer, director, and advocate for the arts.- LIFE :Ian Walker is the son of George Walker , the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music, and music historian Helen Walker-Hill. He is co-founder of the Second...
. Ghost in the Light [Play]. Produced by Second Wind Productions of San Francisco.
External links
{{commons|Han van Meegeren}}
{{Persondata
|NAME= Han van Meegeren
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Henricus Antonius van Meegeren (full name)
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= Painter and art forger
|DATE OF BIRTH=10 October 1889
|PLACE OF BIRTH=Deventer, Netherlands
|DATE OF DEATH=30 December 1947
|PLACE OF DEATH= Amsterdam, Netherlands
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meegeren, Han Van}}