The Forger's Spell - Edward Dolnick [81]
So the answer was, first the varnish, then the ink. Van Meegeren took his newly baked forgery from the oven, varnished it, and cracked it over his knee. Then he covered the entire cracked and varnished surface with a layer of India ink. He let the ink sit. Eventually some of it seeped its way into the cracks; the rest, sitting harmlessly on top of the varnish, could easily be cleaned away.
The varnish, too, had come in for some special care. Van Meegeren had made sure to give it a brownish tint, since he knew that on so old a painting a bit of discoloration was only to be expected.
The forger topped off his work with one final, cynical flourish. Having labored for months to create a brand-new old painting, Van Meegeren immediately damaged it, to simulate wear and tear. First he scraped the picture in a few random places. Then, in one not quite random spot, the back of Jesus’ right hand, he tore the canvas. (For forgers, the question of where to inflict random damage demands serious thought. Faces always escape unharmed.)
Van Meegeren repaired the tear just poorly enough to call attention to the need for a better job. Then he retrieved the stretcher and nails he had set aside. He lovingly tapped the seventeenth-century slats of wood into place on the back of his picture.
At this point, no one but Van Meegeren (and perhaps his wife) had ever seen Emmaus. Now the world would have its chance.
Photographic Insert
Deer by Van Meegeren, Teekeningen I, 1942
Skull and Top Hat by Van Meegeren, Teekeningen I, 1942
Han van Meegeren was a competent artist who believed he was a genius. He had a taste for the sentimental and the creepy. His big-eyed deer was the most popular drawing he ever made and once could have been found in nearly every Dutch home.
Dancing Sailor by Van Meegeren, Teekeningen I, 1942
Pictures like the Dancing Sailor and Blowing Bubbles brought Van Meegeren prosperity but not the respect of the art establishment. As a young man, he had painted biblical scenes and other serious subjects, but the critics condemned his work as shallow and insipid. He turned to more approachable themes, and to forgery.
Blowing Bubbles by Van Meegeren, Teekeningen I, 1942
A Boy Smoking by Van Meegeren, Groninger Museum, Groningen
Van Meegeren made a fortune—$ 30 million in today’s dollars—from his forgeries of old masters. This fake Frans Hals, A Boy Smoking, was one of several Hals forgeries that the critics fell in love with.
The Portrait of a Man was meant to evoke Gerard ter Borch. Perhaps because he was dissatisfied with the result, or because Ter Borch was not famous enough, Van Meegeren never tried to sell the picture.
Portrait of a Man by Van Meegeren, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Vermeer’s Milkmaid is one of his best-loved domestic interiors. The light streaming through a window in the left-hand wall, the use of yellows and blues, and the dots of light on the bread were all Vermeer trademarks that Van Meegeren would steal, magpie-style.
The Milkmaid by Vermeer, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Vermeer’s Astronomer is another classic image. Van Meegeren studied the astronomer’s left hand and forearm and painted an almost exact—but botched—copy in his most famous forgery, Christ at Emmaus.
The Astronomer by Vermeer, Louvre, Paris, France
Vermeer’s output was tiny, only 35 or 36 paintings in all. Each one is immensely valuable. Christ in the House of Mary and Martha is by Vermeer, though we do not usually associate him with biblical works. This painting was lost until 1901. Its discovery raised hopes that more Vermeers might turn up.
Christ in the House of Mary and Martha by Vermeer, National Gallery of Scotland
Vermeer’s Allegory of Faith, another religious painting, was discovered in 1899. The man who found it, a renowned Vermeer scholar named Abraham Bredius, hoped for the rest of his long life to cap his career with one more spectacular Vermeer find. He was destined to become