Meegeren was a dutch painter and art forger that lived from 1889 - 1947. Mainly a painter and a portraitist, Meegeren is known as one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century.
During WWII a wealthy dutchmen who wanted to prevent a sell out of dutch art to the Nazi party, rapidly bought Meegeren's forgeries. The forged "Vermeer" wound up getting Meegeren arrested, and Meegeren confessed to the forgery. He was sentenced to one year in prison but died of a heart attack before he could serve his time. It's estimated that Meegeren duped buyers, including the government of the Netherlands, out of more than thirty million dollars in today's money.
To create the "Perfect Forgery" Meegeren bought authentic 17th century canvas, mixed his own paints using old formulas, used badger-hair brushes, and used phenol formaldehyde to cause the paints to harden after application which made the paintings appear that they were 300 years old. After completing a painting, Meegeren would bake the painting to harden it, then roll the painting over a cylinder to increase the cracks. Later he would wash the painting with black india ink to fill the cracks.
In the picture on the right, Meegeren demonstrated his forgery techniques in front of an expert panel, painting his last forgery "Jesus Among the Doctors."
Meegeren's career as a legitimate painter consisted of sketching pictures and painting posters for the commercial art trade.
fascinating!
ReplyDelete