I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger [Hardcover]

Frank Wynne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2006

Frank Wynne's remarkable book tells the story of Han van Meegeren, a paranoid, drug-addicted, second-rate painter whose Vermeer forgeries made him a secret superstar of the art world--and along the way, it reveals the collusion and ego that, even today, allow art forgery to thrive. During van Meegeren's heyday as a forger of Vermeers, he earned 50 million dollars, the acclamation of the world's press, and the satisfaction of swindling the Nazis. His canvases were so nearly authentic that they would almost certainly be prized among the catalogue of Vermeers if he had not confessed. And, no doubt, he never would have confessed at all if he hadn't been trapped in a catch-22: he had thrived so noticably during the war that when it ended, he was quickly arrested as a Nazi collaborator. His only defense was to admit that he himself had painted the remarkable "Vermeers" that had passed through his hands--a confession the public refused to believe, until, in a huge media event, the courts staged the public painting of what would be van Meegeren's last "Vermeer." I Was Vermeer is an utterly gripping real-life mystery, capturing both the life of the consummate art forger, phenomenally skilled and yet necessarily unrecognized, and the equally fascinating work of the experts who identify forgeries and track down their perpetrators. Wry, amoral, irreverent, and plotted like a thriller, it is the first major book in forty years on this astonishing episode in history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this intriguing if dry biography, Wynne recounts how Dutch forger Han van Meegeren successfully passed off more than a dozen bogus works—including, most famously, The Supper at Emmaus in 1937—as authentic Vermeers, Halses and de Hooches. Van Meegeren, who favored the style of the old Dutch masters just as modernism was hitting its stride, decided to embarrass his forward-looking critics by creating and selling his own "Vermeer." He continued his charade until he was forced to admit his crimes in 1947 while defending himself against a separate charge of treason. Wynne takes great care in explaining just how the increasingly paranoid and drug-addicted van Meegeren managed to fool the international art community, including a technical breakdown of how van Meegeren employed plastic to create the antique look of cracked craquelure in his canvases. Wynne also ruminates on how the arrogance of the art world—of critics like Abraham Bredius who were so confident in their ability to spot fakes that they brushed aside X-rays and other modern tests, as well as collectors desperate for authenticity—fuels the market for forgeries. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The police tracked down Han van Meegeren in 1945 after learning of his connection to a "Vermeer" stashed in the loot of Hermann Goring. Bursting with malevolent pride, van Meegeren made the astonishing admission that he, not Johannes Vermeer van Delft, was the painter--and one of the great art-world scandals was off and running. Wynne's account of van Meegeren's fraud, the first book-length account in English in four decades, contains insights into the mind of a forger as well as narrative verve about van Meegeren's methods of foisting his deceptions upon the Dutch art-history elite. Born in 1889, the youthful van Meegeren began a painting career and received accolades, but his Old Masters style was considered passe. Expert in seventeenth-century technique, Van Meegeren cunningly plotted vengeance by exploiting critics' belief that Christ-themed Vermeers awaited discovery; mirabile dictu, the theorized "Vermeers" turned up in the 1930s and 1940s. An astutely rendered and delicious tale of an infamous forger. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; First Edition, First Printing. edition (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582345937
• ISBN-13: 978-1582345932
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #620,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Art of the Forger, January 31, 2007

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger (Hardcover)

In 1938 in Rotterdam there was a museum exhibition of masterpieces headlined by _The Supper at Emmaus_, a recently discovered painting by Jan Vermeer who had died over two hundred years before. It was being hailed as the masterwork of the famous artist, and the exhibit was a sensation. One man returned to view the painting repeatedly, day after day, standing before it and insisting he was not one of the awestruck viewers reverentially taking it in: "I can't believe they paid half a million guilders for this," he would declare. "It's obviously a fake." The other viewers, if they replied, would attempt to contradict him, but he could not be swayed. He was right, though, and he knew he was right, because he himself had painted the picture. _I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger_ (Bloomsbury) by journalist Frank Wynne tells the astonishing story of Han van Meegeren, a complicated saga of art forgery that came to light merely because van Meegeren had to confess to the forgeries to avoid being convicted of collusion with the Nazis. Even then, some didn't believe his confession.

Van Meegeren was an artist outside of his time. "Peering into Han's studio," Wynne writes, "it was as though a century of artistic revolution never happened." He could not make his realistic paintings pay. He was angry at the critics, and he was broke, and he determined he would do something about both. He would make a name for himself by painting pictures that would be praised as lost masterpieces of famous past artists, and eventually he would let the world know how he had fooled the so-called experts. Han determined that he would paint a Vermeer, and in order to be sure that his forgery was accepted, he set technical demands for himself. Van Meegeren practiced different techniques in experimentation before beginning his masterwork, _The Supper at Emmaus_, on which he worked for six months after years of planning and research. He had picked the subject of the painting with as much care as he had his materials, so that it fit into a void in Vermeer's career that critics were happy to see filled. He made up a story about the painting's provenance, and got a stooge to present it to one of the top critics of the day, who was flabbergasted to see such a magnificent Vermeer, and announced it as such to the world. Van Meegeren went on to sell a Vermeer to Hermann Göring, for more than a million guilders and the return of hundreds of genuine old Dutch masters which the Nazis had looted. After the war, van Meegeren was arrested not for forgery, but for treason in dealing with the enemy. He was six weeks in custody before he accepted that there was only one way to clear himself, by admitting that he had sold no Vermeer but that he himself was the painter of Göring's canvas, as well as many others. When authorities didn't believe him, he was given a chance to paint a new Vermeer while in custody, and there was agreement that he had, indeed, turned out a Vermeer to rank with his others, but even so, not all the art critics consented, some complaining he was using a ruse in order to get out of the treason charges.

Van Meegeren was vindicated, in a way. He became known as "The Man who Swindled Göring", and bragged of his patriotism in bringing back the looted paintings the Nazis had stolen. He was convicted of minor fraud charges, but died in 1947 before serving any of his one year sentence. His lawyers had argued that there was no fraud; Van Meegeren had never said he was offering a real Vermeer, but the experts declared them to be real, so where was the fraud? The judge in the trial summed up, "The art world is reeling and experts are beginning to doubt the very basis of artistic attribution. This was precisely what the defendant was trying to achieve." This perceptive book can't make van Meegeren into any sort of hero, but instead he emerges a complicated con-artist with at least some goals that were not mercenary. The extent of his achievements and how much work they entailed are well documented, but the main fun of the book is enjoying, rather like co-conspirators of the forger himself, the readiness of smart and urbane authorities of the art world to be hoodwinked.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!, December 26, 2006

By 

jeffsdate "jeffsdate" (Boxford, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger (Hardcover)

I am a huge Vermeer fan and already knew quite a bit about Van Meegeren before reading this. I agree with the reviewer who says that the author invents conversations or claims to know what Van Meegeren thought on a specific occasion, which is impossible -- but I think much of the book is based on fact, and it's a fabulous read. As far as I know, there are not many other places where Van M's works are reproduced in color, either - and I like it that the book includes appendices listing the whereabouts of all extant works by Vermeer and Van M.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite simply, brilliant..., September 25, 2006

By 

kaimac "kaimac" (San Diego, Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger (Hardcover)

The life of the scheming fraudster is by its very nature more interesting than that of the natural genius. Everyone loves an underdog, and Han van Meegeren was that most unusual of underdogs: a winner.

Wynne's book, described last weekend by [English Newspaper] The Observer as 'gripping and psychologically fascinating', seeks to do more than simply recount this most interesting of stories. It gets inside van Meegeren's head, and in doing so sheds new light on one of the most intriguing characters the art world has ever seen.

This is just a fascinating story, brilliantly told. Very highly recommended.