Han van Meegeren was a Dutchman who wanted to be a painter, but whatever he tried was unacceptable to the critics. Then one day he decided to paint under another countryman's name -- Vermeer. His efforts with the new name were met with wild enthusiasm. van Meegeren found 17th century canvas and wood and went to great lengths to discover a method of "aging" his work -- even down to the nails and wood canvas supports-- so that it looked original. As this work was accepted, he engaged a middleman as he "found" more and more Vermeers for an unsuspecting art community. One of the victims of his forgeries was Adolph Hitler' right-hand man, Hermann Goering along with art experts and museum curators. In looking through the paintings included in this book, it is hard to see how the experts accepted his work as that of Vermeer. The answer was they saw what they wanted to see despite evidence to the contrary and some well-respected critics. In the end, it is easy to feel some compassion for van Meegeren who was accepted as one of the masters of the Dutch Golden Age of painting, but could never sell a work of his own. His reason was revenge on the art world that had rejected him. How he created his Vermeers and how he was discovered is the focus of this book as the greatest art hoax of the 20th century. I might not have given this book the attention it deserved. I abandoned it half-way through to read some other books, and a few months had passed before I picked it up again to finish it. I enjoyed Parts 1 & 2 immensely. I thought they were fascinating. Parts 3 & 4 were very slow for me--this is where I put the book down and I simply couldn't regain my momentum in this center portion of the book. Part 5 was great, interesting and easy to read as Parts 1 & 2 had been. If you get bogged down in the middle of the book, you can easily skip to Part 5 and not miss a beat of the story.
What do You think about De Vervalser (2010)?
If you are an artist or collector or have an interest in art, this is a good entertaining story.
—consywonsy
Fascinting look at forging and the Nazi's pillaging of art during the war.
—Nisi
