Inventing the “perfect forgery”

In 1932, van Meegeren gone to live in the village of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin with his wife. There he rented a furnished mansion called “Primavera” and set to define mit and technical procedures that could be necessary to create his perfect forgeries. He bought authentic 17th century canvas and mixed his own paints from recycleables (for example lapis lazuli,white lead, indigo, and cinnabar) using old formulas to ensure that they were authentic. Additionally, he used badger-hair paintbrushes; similar to those Vermeer was known to purchase. He created a scheme of utilizing phenol formaldehyde to make the paints to harden after application, making the paintings realistic appear as if they were 300 yrs . Old. After completing a painting, van Meegeren would bake it at 100 °C (212.0 °F) to 120 °C (248.0 °F) to harden the paint, after which roll it on the cylinder to improve the cracks. Later, he would wash the painting in black India ink to complete the cracks.

The Supper at Emmaus by Han van Meegeren (1936)

It took van Meegeren six years to sort out his techniques, so when he ended, he was pleased about his work, on artistic and deceptive levels. Two of the trial paintings were “Vermeers”: Lady Reading Music, after Vermeer’sWoman in Blue Reading instructions at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and Lady Playing Music, after Vermeer’s Woman using a Lute near a Window hanging within the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New york. Van Meegeren didn't sell these paintings; are both now on the Rijksmuseum.

Following a journey for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, van Meegeren painted The Supper at Emmaus, while using the ultramarine blues and yellows desirable to Johannes Vermeer as well as other Dutch Golden Age painters. After learning how the experts assumed Vermeer had studied in Italy, van Meegeren used The Supper at Emmaus by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, located at Italy’s Pinacoteca di Brera, being a model for his next work. He had always aspired to walk inside the steps from the masters, and the man felt that his forgery was a fine work in a unique right. He gave the task to his friend, the attorney C. A. Boon, telling him it absolutely was a real Vermeer, and asked him showing it towards the famous art connoisseur and Vermeer expert, Dr. Abraham Bredius, who had been living nearby in Monaco. Bredius examined the forgery in September 1937, and despite some initial doubts, he accepted it a real Vermeer and praised it highly.
The painting was purchased through the Rembrandt Society for 520,000 guilders ($300,000 or about $4 million today.) with the aid of a wealthy shipowner Willem van der Vorm and donated to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen inRotterdam. In 1938, the piece was highlighted inside a special exhibition on the Rotterdam museum along with 450 Dutch masterpieces dating from 1400-1800. In the “Magazine for [the] History of Art”, A. Feulner wrote that “In the rather isolated area, in which the Vermeer picture hung, it absolutely was as quiet as with a chapel. The impression of the consecration overflows around the visitors, even though picture does not have any ties to ritual or church.”

In the summertime of 1938, van Meegeren gone to live in Nice. While using results of the sale with the Supper at Emmaus, he bought a 12-bedroom estate at Les Arènes de Cimiez. On the walls with the estate hung several genuine Old Masters techniques. Two of his better forgeries were made here, Interior with Cardplayers and Interior with Drinkers, both displaying the signature ofPieter de Hooch. During his in time Nice, he painted his Last Supper Iin the type of Vermeer.
In September 1939, as the Second World War threatened, he returned towards the Netherlands. He remained at a hotel in Amsterdam for a number of months and in 1940 moved to the village of Laren. Throughout 1941, van Meegeren issued his designs, which he published in 1942 as Han van Meegeren: Teekeningen I (Drawings nr I)a sizable and luxurious book. During this time period, he created several forgeries, including The Head of Christ, The final Supper II, The Blessing of Jacob, The Adulteress and also the Washing with the Feet, all in the manner of Vermeer. On 18 December 1943, he divorced his wife, but this is merely a formality; the couple remained together, but a sizable share of his capital was utilized in her accounts being a safeguard against the uncertainties with the war.

In December 1943, the van Meegerens moved to Amsterdam, where they took up residence in the exclusive Keizersgracht 321. His forgeries had earned him between 5.5 to 7.5 million guilders (or about $25-30 million today). He used this money to get a large amount of real-estate, jewelry and artwork, and also to further his luxurious lifestyle. In a 1946 interview, he told Marie Louise Doudart de la Grée he owned 52 houses and 15 country houses around Laren, one of them grachtenhuizen, beautiful mansions along the famous Amsterdam canals.