Utterly fascinating biography of Han Van Meegeren.
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I never thought I would come to learn that artistic forgery can involve respect towards the original artist. The title of the book is a mere gimmick -- the core of the book is concerned with the art and beauty that engulfed forger Han Van Meegeren's life as an admirer of Vermeer. Anyone can paint a painting, but the real challenge rests in completely imitating the style of another artist, and Van Meegeren was most certainly a man capable of doing so. Pushing aside the ethics of forgery, this book invites the reader to open their eyes to the amount of talent that is required in producing masterpieces, forgery or not. While I found numerous occasions of editorial oversight, I still devoured this book. It does not demand great knowledge of Western art history (Google is your friend!), and presents the most dazzling biography I've encountered in a while, delicately tracing the life of whom I daringly see as a true artist. ( )

This is the fascinating story of Han van Meegeren, a 20th century art forger.
He was born in 1889 in the Netherlands to a middle class family.His father refused to support his art studies and insisted that he study Architecture. Along the way he marries, has two children, lives a life of debauchery and poverty, divorces his wife and woos and marries Joanna Oolerman, the wife of a prominent art critic.
Van Meegeren painted in the style of the Dutch masters which was considered passé compared to emerging styles such Impressionism and cubism. Unable to prosper, he decided to launch a career as a forger. His chosen artist was Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) who seemingly had painted only 30 or more canvasses. He realized there was a gap between young Vermeer and old Vermeer paintings and painted a masterpiece called The Supper at Emmaus which would bridge both time periods. His methodical approach included purchasing a 300 year old canvas, mixing pigments that imitated Vermeer's, perfecting the craquelature with a combination of formaldehyde and heat, and adding Vermeer's signature. He presented himself as an art agent for a wealthy family down on their luck and through an intermediary sold the Vermeer to the Boijman's museum in Rotterdam. He was so successful in duping prominent critics and art historians that he continued with several other forgeries and amassed a fortune.
In the summer of 1945 he was arrested not for his forgeries but because a painting for which he was a sales agent wound up in the collection of Field Marshall Goring. He was charged with collaborating with the Nazis. At the ensuing trial he pleaded guilty to the charges of forgery instead of aiding and abetting the enemy.
Great story ( )

Antes de contar a história de van Mergeerer, Wynne enumera os estereótipos sobre falsário. Contraditoriamente, ele cai nesses estereótipos logo em seguida. ( )

Having already read Edward Dolnick's account of the Dutch WWII Vermeer forger Han van Meegeren called The Forger's Spell, I was pleasantly surprised to note that the two books complement each other well. Wynne's book is filled with famous one-liners such as "Of the 2,500 authentic works painted by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, 7,800 are in American collections alone". Museums and art collections have every interest not to reveal that their precious items are not originals. Thus, the longer the pedigree of a forgery the higher the chance it is accepted into the canon. The recent documentary about the authenticity of the newly discovered Leonardo da Vinci La Bella Principessa pointedly shows how much of such a decision rests in convincing a small number of insiders, turning a 22,000 USD painting by a German 19th century artist into a 100,000,000 USD masterwork (or not).

One important finding is that the forgery has to match current taste. Thus, today, van Meegeren's works look hopelessly old-fashioned and completely unlike those of Vermeer. In his time, however, they were what the buyers expected and craved for (at least until van Meegeren got lazy). A quick fun read. ( )