![]() "The dénouement of the Van Meegeren affair brought about a kind of a catharsis. Above all, contemporary methods of evaluating the work of master painters required a profound reconsideration. Art historians, connoisseurs, museum directors and unscrupulous dealers had all been involved. The doubts regarding international art establishment spurred by the Van Meegeren case resulted in years of a much-needed self-examination. I produced them not for money but for art's sake." Epilog My paintings will become original Vermeers once more. But sir, I'm sure about one thing: if I die in jail they will just forget all about it. I know because I looked it up in our laws twelve years ago, before I started all this. "Two years," he told a reporter, "is the maximum punishment for such a thing. The subject and early technique of the painting also helped to mask his own technical and expressive inadequacies.Īt the end of the trial, the collaboration charges were changed to forgery and Van Meegeren was condemned to one year in confinement, but it was said he was tickled to get only one year in jail. ![]() Scholars had long suspected that Vermeer had been to Italy and Van Meegeren's lost painting would have confirmed that. Instead of forging variations of the interiors which could be compared to works hanging in museums, Van Meegeren chose to forge an early Vermeer of a religious theme based on a composition of Caravaggio. The buyer of the Christ painting was only too eager to snap-up the full-scale painting." 1Īfter having tried his hand at a few typical Vermeer interior compositions, for whom the artist is renowned, Van Meegeren had what might be called his stroke of genius. He painted a head of Christ, sold it through an intermediary and then "found" the Last Supper for which it was a supposed study. During the incredible two-year trial, Van Meegeren confessed that "spurred by the disappointment of receiving no acknowledgments from artists and critics.I determined to prove my worth as a painter by making a perfect seventeenth-century canvas." "During the investigation, Van Meegeren revealed that having once fooled the art world with Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus, probably his best forgery, he was encouraged to try new forgeries. 3), using the materials and techniques he had employed for the other forgeries. In order to demonstrate his case, it was arranged that, under police guard before the court, he would paint another "Vermeer," Jesus Among the Doctors (fig. ![]() 2) began on 29 October 1947 in Room 4 of the Regional Court in Amsterdam. In no other picture by the great master of Delft do we find such sentiment, such a profound understanding of the Bible story-a sentiment so nobly human expressed through the medium of highest art." quite different from all his other paintings and yet every inch a Vermeer. ![]() 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. And what a picture! Neither the beautiful signature. Shortly after having viewed the painting, the 83-year old art historian wrote an article in the Burlington Magazine, the "art bible" of the times, in which he stated, "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. In 1937, Abraham Bredius, who as one of the most authoritative art historians had dedicated a great part of his life to the study of Vermeer, was approached by a lawyer who claimed to be the trustee of a Dutch family estate in order to have him look at a rather large painting of a Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus (fig. Van Meegeren's story is absolutely unique and may be justly considered the most dramatic art scam of the twentieth century. An exception is Han van Meegeren (1889–1947). Erroneous Vermeer attributions and forgeries - 2įorgers, by nature, prefer anonymity and therefore are rarely remembered.Erroneous Vermeer attributions and forgeries - 1.
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