Han van Meegeren began his life of crime at the age of 38. It had taken six years of study and experimentation, but now, as he pulled the canvas from the oven and gazed down on the unspoiled figures of Christ and the disciples, he knew he had finally perfected the means of perpetrating the fraud.
The year was 1937. Previously, van Meegeren had been a successful, critically-esteemed artist. But the art world had moved on; critics were embracing the new styles of cubism and surrealism, and the conservative van Meegeren was being left behind. His anger at this affront manifested itself in a series of scathing articles, but soon he decided to channel his outrage into a scheme to make fools of the pompous art critics who derided him.
Anatomy of a Fraud
He chose Vermeer as his subject for numerous reasons. Vermeer's works had recently been rediscovered after years of obscurity, and critics were rapturous in their praise of his genius. Additionally, few known Vermeers were in existence; consequently their asking prices were high. Finally, many scholars believed a number of the master's paintings might be missing, particularly some works thought to bridge the gap between Vermeer's early religious canvases and later secular ones. Van Meegeren, playing to critics' expectations, decided to paint a version of Christ and his disciples at Emmaus, using a Caravaggio work as a template, but painting in the style of Vermeer.
Van Meegeren bought a mediocre 17th-century painting and meticulously scraped it bare. He then painted his masterpiece, using Vermeer's hallmark hues. Van Meegeren mixed the colors himself, adding lavender oil and a new compound called Bakelite (plastic). He baked the painting at low heat; the Bakelite hardened the paint to a point consistent with a painting of the proper age. Afterwards, Van Meegeren rolled the canvas across dowels to crack the paint, then smeared the surface with India ink to simulate dirt inside the cracks.
Once the painting was finished, Van Meegeren came up with a phony provenance for it and, working through an intermediary, contacted Abraham Bredius, an elderly but highly respected expert on Vermeer. Bredius proclaimed the painting genuine and wrote a paper praising its beauty. The painting was duly purchased and put on display, and while there were critics who suspected forgery from the start, the general consensus was that the Disciples at Emmaus was a indeed a long-lost Vermeer.
Trial and Aftermath
Over the next few years, Van Meegeren painted more Vermeers, and though his later forgeries are almost laughably slapdash, he continued to sell them for exorbitant rates. He also forged works by Hals, de Hooch, and ter Borch, raking in over $25 million in today's dollars. He might have continued the charade, but in the end an ironic twist brought him down: After World War II, he was accused of having sold a Vermeer to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, a charge that could get him executed for treason. At his trial, Van Meegeren admitted to forgery to save his skin, and even painted a new "Vermeer" while under house arrest. The artist was sentenced to one year for forgery, but died before beginning the sentence.
Today, Van Meegeren's forgeries, as well as original works under his own name, fetch handsome prices and hang in museums around the world. In Holland, he is considered a national hero for supposedly duping the Nazis; in a 1947 poll of the Dutch people, the master forger ranked second in popularity, right after the Prime Minister. So perhaps the much maligned Van Meegeren did indeed get the last laugh at his critics.
Sources:
- 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.
- Dolnick, Edward. (2008). The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century. Harper.
