In the first decade of the 20th century, Han van Meegeren studied architecture at the Delft Technical College. There, he also studied drawing and painting. Until the 1930s, van Meegeren pursued a career as a legitimate artist. In the 1930s, using antique canvases and mixing his own pigments, he began to forge works in the style of renowned 17th-century artist Jan Vermeer. During World War Two, one of van Meegeren’s Vermeer forgeries, Christ with the Adulteress, ended up in the hands of Nazi official Hermann Göring. When allied troops discovered Göring’s collection in 1945, they found Christ with the Adulteress, which the authorities traced back to van Meegeren. Arrested, imprisoned, and charged with collaborating with the enemy, an offense punishable by death, van Meegeren proved his innocence at his trial by painting a Vermeer using the materials and techniques he had employed for the other forgeries. At the conclusion of the trial, which lasted two years, the collaboration charges were changed to forgery and van Meegeren was sentenced to one year in prison. On 26 November 1947, he died of a heart attack while awaiting his transfer to prison. Having fooled Göring, he died a national hero.
By Elliot Penn
Sources:
Dolnick, Edward. “How Mediocre Dutch Artist Cast ‘The Forger’s Spell.’” NPR 12 July 2008. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92483237
Janson, Jonathan. “Han van Meegeren’s Fake Vermeers.” Essential Vermeer 3.0 8 May 2021. http://www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/van_meegeren.html.