Han Van Meegeren: the art forger who swindled the Nazis
History is positively littered with swindlers and tyrants who elbowed their rivals in the eye to get ahead. Often, these figures deviate from the path of virtue to gain power or riches, many brazenly overlooking the harsh punishments of law in this world and eternal damnation in the next. Today, we examine the curious case of Han Van Meegeren, a famous swindler who managed to fall on the right side of history.
Born in October 1889 in Deventer, Netherlands, Van Meegeren showed an early talent for drawing and painting and came to idolise his home nation’s rich history in the fine arts. He studied at the prestigious Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and honed his skills as a versatile painter. Despite his prolific work and educational background, Van Meegeren felt underappreciated in the artistic community and struggled to achieve much in the way of critical favour.
After brooding in frustration for several years, Van Meegeren changed his approach, setting out to smear the pompous art establishment as a forger. Van Meegeren became particularly adept at imitating the styles of 17th-century Dutch masters, including Pieter de Hooch and Frans Hals. His most famous forgery was The Supper at Emmaus, which he passed off as an original Vermeer.
Van Meegeren was particularly attuned to Vermeer’s style and is thought to have created several forgeries throughout the early 20th century. Ensuring the paintings looked authentically aged was an art in itself. Van Meegeren used old canvases and mixed his own paints to mimic the materials available in the 17th century. Once completed, he applied a special resin to the paintings, which he baked to create the appearance of age cracks, a technique known as craquelure.
Van Meegeren was an incredibly talented forger and managed to deceive with most of his attempts. Still, The Supper at Emmaus pulled the wool over the critics’ eyes in the most spectacular fashion. “It is a wonderful moment in the life of a lover of art when he finds himself suddenly confronted with a hitherto unknown painting by a great master, untouched, on the original canvas, and without any restoration—just as it left the painter’s studio,” revered specialist Abraham Bredius wrote of the painting in the revered Burlington Magazine in 1937. “And what a picture!”
The deceived Vermeer specialist continued on his path of folly by perching the newly discovered Vermeer on a pedestal as one of the Dutch master’s finest overall masterpieces. “Neither the beautiful signature… nor the pointillés on the bread which Christ is blessing, are necessary to convince us that we have here—I am inclined to say—the masterpiece of Johannes Vermeer of Delft,” he added.
Van Meegeren undoubtedly had many a laugh up his sleeve. However, his career in forgery came to an intriguing conclusion at the end of World War II, when he was charged in the Netherlands with collaborating with the enemy. The Dutch authorities had traced his name back to the sale of a fake Vermeer to Nazi military leader and Adolf Hitler’s second in command, Hermann Goering.
During the heated trial, Van Meegeren claimed that The Woman Taken in Adultery, the painting he sold to the Nazi leader, was a forgery by his own hand. After the penny dropped, his web of deceit unravelled, leaving several red faces in the Dutch artistic establishment.
Due to the audacity of Van Meegeren’s exploits and his irrefutable artistic talent, he is now considered a late Dutch master. The Dutch people also remember Van Meegeren as a wartime hero since he traded his counterfeit Vermeer with Goering for 200 original Dutch paintings he had acquired during the Nazi advance. Before his trial, Van Meegeren had managed to accumulate approximately $30million in riches through forgery.
