BAESJOU, Jan - The Vermeer Forgeries : The Story of Van Meegeren - (1st Ed. Hardcover in Wrapper)

1956 - First English Edition - Translated from the Dutch - 132 pg. - Book is in  very good condition - Wrapper good - Same edition Google image used.   >>>   Henricus Antonius 'Han' van Meegeren (1889-1947), was a Dutch painter and portraitist and is considered to be one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century. As a child, van Meegeren developed an enthusiasm for the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, and later set out to become an artist himself. Art critics, however, decried his work as tired and derivative, and van Meegeren felt that they had destroyed his career. He decided to prove his talent to the critics by forging paintings of some of the world's most famous artists, including Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch, and Johannes Vermeer. He so well replicated the styles and colours of the artists that the best art critics and experts of the time regarded his paintings as genuine and sometimes exquisite. His most successful forgery was Supper at Emmaus, created in 1937 while living in the south of France. During World War II, wealthy Dutchmen wanted to prevent a sellout of Dutch art to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and they avidly bought van Meegeren's forgeries, thinking them the work of the masters. Nevertheless, a falsified 'Vermeer' ended up in the possession of Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering. Following the war, the forgery was discovered in Goering's possession, and van Meegeren was arrested in May 1945 as a collaborator, as officials believed that he had sold Dutch cultural property to the Nazis. This would have been an act of treason, the punishment for which was death, so van Meegeren confessed to the less serious charge of forgery instead. He was convicted on falsification and fraud charges in November 1947, after a brief but highly publicized trial, and was sentenced to a modest punishment of one year in prison. He did not serve out his sentence, however, but died on 30th December 1947, in the Valerius Clinic in Amsterdam, after two heart attacks. It is believed that many of his paintings are still in public collections.     * Art *