Han van Meegeren was a Dutch painter who wanted fame, and the critics would not give it. They dismissed his own work as derivative. As a child, he had reportedly been punished by his father for his art, forced to write 'I know nothing, I am nothing' hundreds of times. In 1932 he decided to answer them all. He would spend six years perfecting a method to forge Johannes Vermeer, the 17th-century master. Vermeer left only about 35 known paintings, which left gaps where a newly found religious work would seem believable. This is the story of a forger who fooled the experts, sold a fake to a Nazi leader, and then escaped a treason charge by proving he had painted it. His target was Abraham Bredius, the most respected Vermeer expert of the day, who had long believed Vermeer painted religious scenes early in his career.
Han van Meegeren Fooled Göring With a Fake Vermeer
A forger who baked fake Vermeers sold one to Göring for 137 looted paintings, then escaped treason by painting another.
A Painter Nobody Praised
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Han van Meegeren make his fake Vermeers look 300 years old?
He painted on genuine 17th-century canvases scraped clean and mixed his pigments with Bakelite, an early plastic. He baked the canvases at roughly 100 to 120 degrees Celsius for several hours so the paint hardened at once. He then cracked the surface over a cylinder and rubbed India ink into the cracks to imitate dust.
Why was Han van Meegeren not executed as a traitor?
He was arrested for collaboration with the enemy, a charge that carried the death penalty. He confessed that he had painted the Vermeer sold to Göring, and then painted Jesus among the Doctors under guard to prove it. He was convicted of fraud instead and sentenced to one year in prison.
Who was fooled by Van Meegeren's forgeries?
The Dutch critic Abraham Bredius pronounced The Supper at Emmaus every inch a Vermeer in 1937, and a Rotterdam museum bought it for 520,000 guilders. In 1942 Hermann Göring traded 137 looted paintings for Christ and the Adulteress. Both men took the paintings to be genuine Vermeers.
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