Han van Meegeren (1889 to 1947) was a Dutch painter who became one of the most infamous and ingenious art forgers.
He struggled to gain recognition as an artist in his own right. Despite studying at The Hague Academy of Fine Arts and moving to Paris to establish himself, his original works failed to receive the acclaim he desired.
Frustrated by this lack of recognition, van Meegeren turned to forgery. Among his most famous forgeries was "Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus," initially authenticated as a genuine Vermeer and displayed in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. Van Meegeren also produced forgeries attributed to other Dutch Golden Age painters, such as Pieter de Hooch and Frans Hals, selling them for substantial sums. They were exhibited in other museums including the National Art Gallery in Washington D.C.
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Van Meegeren employed sophisticated techniques to create forgeries.
Van Meegeren’s meticulous study of the styles, techniques, and subjects of the artists he was forging allowed him to create works that fit seamlessly into the known oeuvres of these artists. Van Meegeren also paid close attention to provenance, concocting plausible stories about the origins of his paintings and providing false documentation to support their authenticity.
One of his primary methods was the selection of materials. He used old canvases and wood panels from the same era as the artists he was forging, ensuring that the materials matched the age of the works. Additionally, he recreated historical paints by grinding his own pigments to match the chemicals, colors, and consistency of the originals.
Before today's advanced scientific tests such as radiometric dating and spectroscopy, the standard test to determine if a questioned oil painting was old was to rub alcohol as a solvent on a small portion and try to poke a needle through the paint. As oil paint is very slow drying, if the needle didn't penetrate the surface, that meant the painting was at least fifty years old. Meegeren came up with a brilliant way to beat the test. He mixed his paints with hard-drying Bakelite plastic.
Van Meegeren employed other aging techniques to give his forgeries an authentic look. After completing a painting, he baked it in an oven at a low temperature. This caused the Bakelite-infused paint to harden and crack, mimicking the natural aging and craquelure found in old paintings. He also used various chemicals to simulate the discoloration and patina that develop over time, further enhancing the illusion of age.
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The strange way he was outed as a forger
One of Han van Meegeren’s forgeries, “Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery,” ended up in Nazi hands during World War II. In 1943, he sold it to Alois Miedl, who then sold it to Hermann Göring, believing it to be a genuine Vermeer. After the war, the Allies recovered Göring’s art collection, including the supposed Vermeer. Selling a national treasure to the enemy during wartime was treason, punishable by death.
His defense was that the Vermeer wasn't original because he made it. The prosecutors and judge were incredulous at this seemingly ridiculous claim. However, he proved his case by making a painting in court in front of the judge and was convicted of the much lesser crime of fraud. He died of a heart attack before serving his time.
In recent decades, new scientific tests have identified many of the substances in the painting and shown that they are too modern for the paintings to be authentic.
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