Han van meegeren biography
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Han van Meegeren
Dutch painter and art forger (–)
In this Dutch name, the surname is van Meegeren, not Meegeren.
Han van Meegeren | |
|---|---|
Van Meegeren painting Jesus Among the Doctors in | |
| Born | Henricus Antonius van Meegeren ()10 October Deventer, Netherlands |
| Died | 30 December () (aged&#;58) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Occupation(s) | Painter, art forger |
| Spouses | Anna de Voogt &#; &#; (m.&#;; div.&#;)&#;Jo Oerlemans &#; (m.&#;)&#; |
| Children | Jacques Henri Emil |
Henricus Antonius "Han" van Meegeren (Dutch pronunciation:[ɦɛnˈrikʏsɑnˈtoːnijəsˈɦɑɱvɑˈmeːɣərə(n)]; 10 October – 30 December ) was a Dutch painter and portraitist, considered one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century.[1] Van Meegeren became a national hero after World War II when it was revealed that he had sold a forged painting to ReichsmarschallHermann Göring during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
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"A Liar&#;s Biography"
An art forger’s success has less to do with “his prowess as a visual artist than with his use and misuse of history.” So writes Jonathan Lopez ’91 in “A Liar’s Biography,” the introduction to his new work, The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of mästare Forger denne van Meegeren (Harcourt, $26). More from the astonishing tale:
At the end of World War II, shortly after the liberation of Amsterdam, the Dutch government threw wealthy artist Han van Meegeren into jail as a Nazi collaborator, charging that he had sold a priceless Vermeer to Hermann Goering during the German occupation. In a spectacular vända of events, Van Meegeren soon broke down and confessed that he han själv had painted Goering’s Vermeer. The great masterpiece was a phony.
While he was at it, Van Meegeren also admitted to forging several other pictures, including Vermeer’s famed Supper at Emmaus, the pride of Rotterdam’s Boijmans Museum, a painting once hailed bygd th
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Han van Meegeren
Spoiler, we’re talking about yet another art forger today. This guy is on another level though, Han van Meegeren is sometimes called the boldest modern forger of Old Masters. So what exactly did he do, how did people find out, and what do the Nazis have to do with it?
Background
Of course, I’ll provide a little context for you, to set the stage. Han van Meegeren was born on October 10, in Deventer, Netherlands. He showed promise in visual art as a little kid but he quickly was forbidden from pursuing this by his father who was pretty abusive from what I can gather. When he was in high school he met a teacher who was also an artist, Bartus Korteling, who became his mentor. Kortling was an especially big fan of the Old Masters and Vermeer specifically, he showed van Meegeren how Vermeer mixed his colours and applied them to the canvas. Remember this.
After graduating it is no surprise that van Meegeren’s father didn’t want him to go to art school