Han van Meegeren - Woman Reading a Letter [1935-40]

Han van Meegeren - Woman Reading a Letter [1935-40], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Han van Meegeren (Deventer, October 10, 1889 - Amsterdam, December 30, 1947) was a Dutch painter and is considered to be one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century. When art critics decried his work as tired and derivative, van Meegeren felt that they had destroyed his career. Thereupon, 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. This painting was hailed by some of the world’s foremost art experts as the finest Vermeer they had ever seen.

[Rijksmuseum - Oil on canvas, 58.5 x 57 cm]