The forger who fooled the nazis

9 min read

HAN VAN MEEGEREN

HAN VAN MEEGEREN PAINTED FORGERIES THAT CONNED HERMANN GÖRING, AND IT MAY HAVE SAVED HIS LIFE

WORDS ALEX BOWERS

In the ruins of Berlin in 1945, a book with a curious inscription was discovered in the personal library of Adolf Hitler. The deluxe volume of poems, co-authored by a Nazi Dutch writer, contained illustrations from artist and fellow countryman Han van Meegeren. Within its pages, van Meegeren had seemingly penned a glowing dedication to his “beloved Führer|”, which posed a considerable threat to the painter who had by then been arrested as a potential Nazi collaborator, with a possible jail sentence looming over him.

But it was to be his association with another Nazi leader – notorious art plunderer Hermann Göring – that would garner the vast majority of the public’s attention. A few years earlier, the German Reichsmarschall had purchased a painting he believed to be the creation of renowned 17th-century artist Johannes Vermeer. Except he hadn’t. What Göring had bought was an ‘authentic’ van Meegeren forgery, a wickedly gratifying con that elevated its maker’s status from traitor to cunning anti-hero in an instant. It also, perhaps most significantly, left the art world reeling from the harsh reality of fakes.

The Making of a Master Forger

Born in 1889 to a Catholic family in the Netherlands, Henricus van Meegeren – nicknamed Han – was never destined to become an artist in his parents’ eyes. The boy’s passion for Dutch Golden Age art was dismissed by his father, who sent him to study architecture in Delft – the hometown of Vermeer. There, his admiration for the Old Masters only grew, and he decided against taking his final architect examination and instead pursued a career in drawing and painting. Around this time, he married art student Anna de Voogt and the couple had their first of two children together. His household then moved to The Hague for van Meegeren to study for a degree at the local art academy.

The painter’s first public exhibition of legitimate work was heralded a success in 1917. Unfortunately, the Biblical themes of his second exhibition – while commercially successful and largely praised – failed to endear every critic. Reported infidelities, especially on various European tours, likewise prompted the breakdown of his marriage as his insatiable lust for the high life reached new levels. Divorcing Anna in 1923, van Meegeren turned to alcohol and other vices to ease his disillusionment with a fickle art scene. Despite having carved out a modest existence with his sketches, drawings and paintings, his bitterness towards his detractors, spurred on by his craving for fame and fortune, led him down a dark path.