The Forger's Spell - Edward Dolnick [155]
“He Paints For His Life”…Kilbracken cites this headline (see p. 158), as does David Anderson in “Old Masters to Order: Forgery as a Fine Art,” New York Times Magazine, Dec. 23, 1945.
Neither author mentions a newspaper, and I have been unable to find the headline myself.
“under the constant supervision of six”…“Han van Meegeren Vertelt,” Het Binnenhof, October 22, 1945.
one of the secretaries gladly…Kreuger, De Arrestatie, p. 27.
“He is a simple, rather small”…“Han van Meegeren,” The Liberator, Oct. 31, 1945.
“Forgery of Paintings Discovered”…It was De Waarheid that had broken the news, a week before, that Van Meegeren had given Hitler a book of drawings with a handwritten inscription.
perhaps a “German officer”…The American scholar Jonathan Lopez recently proved that Van Meegeren wrote both the inscription and the signature. Lopez, De Groene Amsterdammer, Sept. 29, 2006.
“Experts have hailed the picture”…“The Greatest Art Sensation of the Decade,” Illustrated London News, Nov. 3, 1945.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN: THE EVIDENCE PILES UP
As a young boy growing up…Kilbracken, p. 81.
Coremans’s team was sworn in…Coremans’s book detailing his findings is the best source of technical information on Van Meegeren’s forgeries.
he had used India ink…Ibid., p. 23.
cobalt blue turned up…Ibid., p. 12.
Wooning found all the signs…Ibid., p. 5 and plate 45.
“I think it was just slovenliness”…Kraaijpoel, personal communication, March 15, 2006.
a painting by the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Abraham Hondius…Coremans, p. 39. This evidence came to light after Van Meegeren’s trial.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT: THE TRIAL
The trial date was October 29, 1947…The trial lasted only a single day. The details in this chapter come from coverage of the case in Dutch newspapers, from Doudart de la Grée’s eyewitness account in Geen Standbeeld voor Han van Meegeren, and from a brief Dutch newsreel entitled Proces van Meegeren, available from the Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid.
Over the course of ninety minutes…“Paintings as Silent Witnesses,” Volkskrant, Oct. 29, 1947.
in the fur collar and green glasses…“Van Meegeren Lawsuit,” Elseviers Weekblad, date unknown.
“big stuff”…“Van Meegeren Before the Judge,” Het Parool, Oct. 29, 1947.
called to mind machine gun fire…Algemeen Handelsblad, Oct. 29, 1947
thinner than usual, almost frail…Doudart de la Grée.
He took a long moment…“Han van Meegeren on Trial,” De Tijd, Oct. 29, 1947.
its two huge and gleaming…“Van Meegeren Before the Judge,” Het Parool, Oct. 29, 1947.
“would have been the delight”…David Anderson, “Forging of Masters Admitted by Artist,” New York Times, Oct. 30, 1947.
“As the cameras clicked”…“Van Meegeren in Courtroom Full of Paintings,” Trouw, Oct. 29, 1947.
“Welcome to Cinema Prinsengracht”…Unidentified newspaper, “Magic Lantern and ‘Vermeers’ as Court-room Décor,” Oct. 29, 1947. (Several newspaper clippings in the Dutch archives, the RKD, are incomplete.)
Why had Captain Piller kept…Kraaijpoel and Van Wijnen.
he bought the Last Supper, too…van Beuningen offset part of the purchase price by turning over to Hoogendijk several pictures from his collection, including the Head of Christ. Hoogendijk still owned that picture at the time of Van Meegeren’s trial, which presumably shows he did not suspect it was fake.
“It’s difficult to explain”…Kilbracken, p. 180.
buried his face in both hands…“The Van Meegeren Trial,” Rotterdams Nieuwsblad, Oct. 30, 1947.
Van Meegeren and two friends…Doudart de la Grée, Geen Stanbeeld. De la Grée was one of Van Meegeren’s lunch companions.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE: THE PLAYERS MAKE THEIR EXITS
“I think I must take it”…“Calm at Sentencing,” New York Times, Nov. 13, 1947.
“the man who swindled Goering”…Irving Wallace, Saturday Evening Post, Jan. 11, 1947.
“I am for Han van Meegeren”…Vestdijk’s essay appeared in De Baanbreker, Jan. 1947. Van Wijnen quotes the passage cited here in Kraaijpoel and Van Wijnen.
“But it’s impossible!”…Helen Boswell, “Berlin Newsletter,” Art Digest, Jan. 1, 1948, and Feb. 15, 1948.
“It would be a