The Forger's Spell - Edward Dolnick [160]
White, Osmar. Conqueror’s Road. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Wright, Christopher. The Art of the Forger. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1985.
———. Vermeer. London: Chaucer, 2005.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’ve spent the last five years prowling the back alleys of the art world, in the company of crooks and con artists and the detectives and sleuths who try to unmask them. Without guides to the underworld, I never would have made my way.
Four people especially, three of them Dutch and one English, helped me stumble toward an understanding of how Han van Meegeren fooled the art experts of his day. Albert Blankert is a renowned art historian who reluctantly opened his door to me one summer afternoon and went on, over the following year and a half, to spend hundreds of hours answering questions and debating Van Meegeren theories with me. He is a model of an open-minded and insightful (and stubborn) intellectual, and an authority on art history, forgery, and connoisseurship. His essay on Van Meegeren (see Bibliography) is groundbreaking. Jim van der Meer Mohr is an art historian and a brilliant researcher, who generously shared his archival treasures with me. Diederik Kraaijpoel, a painter and an art historian both, led me by the hand in a brilliant tutorial. And Leo Stevenson, an English painter and an authority on forgery (but not a forger himself ), took me inch by inch through the process of creating a new “old master.” Stevenson notes that he has painted “more Vermeers than Vermeer.” His copies are purchased by such institutions as the British Foreign Office, so that various dignitaries can enjoy a Rembrandt, say, while the genuine article sits safely in a vault. Stevenson’s extraordinary work can be seen at www.leostevenson.com.
Marleen Blokhuis, an art historian and researcher who is a find in her own right, unearthed countless deep-buried gems. Michele Missner and Kate Headline cajoled lost articles and pictures from libraries in half a dozen countries. Katerina Barry, artist and computer savant, dazzled digitally. Cornelis Glaudemans took on what was intended to be a small translation project and ended up with what was nearly an extra job. I’m delighted to say that this work relationship grew into a fast friendship.
Jenna Dolan copyedited thoughtfully and meticulously. Rafe Sagalyn is my agent and my friend. Hugh Van Dusen is the editor every writer hopes for. It’s been my good fortune to have found him.
My two sons, writers both, read every draft and weighed in on every editorial decision. No writer could imagine better allies.
Lynn deserves more thanks than I know how to put in words.
SEARCHABLE TERMS
Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.
Page numbers of photographs appear in italics.
A
Aarts, Marina, 231, 242
“Abraham Bredius, a Biography” (Barnouw de Ranitz), 307n
Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, 56
Adoration of the Lamb (Eyck), 254, 254n
Agnew art dealers, 89
Alberto and Annette Giacometti Foundation, 75n
Allegory of Faith (Vermeer), 127, 127n, 131, 139, 142
Alsop, Joseph, 302n
Alt Aussee (salt mine at), Austria, 253–55, 254n, 262
Altena, J. Q., 217
Amstel Hotel, Amsterdam, 12
Amsterdam
Anne Frank’s house, 32
anti-pogrom strike in, 31–32
Goering buying of jewelry and art in, 12
Van Meegeren’s house in, 3–4, 32, 263, 295n
Vermeer era, 86
Anderson, Maj. Harry, 260–61
Arendt, Hannah, 81
Art and Illusion (Gombrich), 302n, 308n
“Art as Dung” (Gerritsen), 133, 308n
art experts, 19, 20, 23–24, 45n, 64n, 66n, 89, 108, 149. See also Bredius, Abraham; Hannema, Dirk
charges of fakery made by, 224–25, 224n, 316n
Christ at Emmaus forgery, other forged Vermeers, and, 188–90, 190, 191, 192, 195–97, 196n, 201–2, 205–6, 206n, 209, 213–14, 217, 218–22, 223, 231–33, 238,