The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century Book

My review is going to be choppy, like this book. Yes, at times it was a fascinating read, but I think the author tried to cram too much information into one book. It was extensively researched and annotated, but jumped from subject to subject without much continuity.

It was part technical manual (forgery 101), biography, art history, art hoaxes, and WWII history (in particular the Nazi looting of Europe's works of art). One good thing about this book was that it made me want to read several others that deal with many of the different subjects it touched on.

The basic outline told the story of art forger, Han Van Meegeren, and how he cheated Nazi Luftwaffe Commander, Hermann Goering, out of millions of dollars by selling him his own paintings that he claimed were never-before-discovered Vermeers. Van Meegeren also painted and sold fake works by Hals and De Hooch, but he is most (in)famous for wowing the art world with his fake Vermeer, titled Christ at Emmaus.

How did he do it? Quite a few chapters were devoted to the way Van Meegeren, through much trial and error, perfected the creation of paints that would appear to match those used in the seventeenth-century. He also bought inexpensive paintings from that time period and scraped the old painting off of the canvas before painting his "Vermeer." He would then bake the paintings so that they appeared fragile. After that he would crack them, varnish them, and pour India ink into the cracks to give the appearance of the dust that would have naturally accumulated with age.

Van Meegeren also had the word of art experts who validated the authenticity of the paintings. Many, but not all, were in fact taken in and believed in the authenticity of the works. They also believed the stories behind how Van Meegeren had "acquired" the paintings. He would simply say that a Dutch family, who wished to remain anonymous, wanted to sell their painting in order to gain safe passage out of Holland before/during the Nazi occupation.

Why did he do it? There were two reasons. One, obviously, was greed. The other was revenge on the art-world critics who he felt failed to recognize the "genius" of his own work. He definitely felt he had the last laugh when his Christ at Emmaus was revealed to be a fake. I won't spoil it here, but it's interesting to read about how he was finally caught.

I want to end on one of my favorite quotes from the book:

The Met's Theodore Rousseau once remarked, "We should all realize that we can only talk about the bad forgeries, the ones that have been detected; the good ones are still hanging on the walls."



******
Miscellaneous thoughts that don't really fit anywhere in this review:

1. I learned a new word and I think I'm going to incorporate it into my everyday life: Craquelure. This is the delicate network of cracks that appear on old paintings. Art experts and forgers pay special attention to these cracks because they help validate the age and authenticity of a painting.

I'll use it in a sentence: Dang, I've got some serious craquelure going on around my eyes and I need botox!

2. Cool, this book has pictures!

3. This was before I finished reading the book. The pre-review:

I'm not finished reading this yet, but I read an interesting quote last night. It is relevant to today's war, which is no doubt why it was included in the book.

From G.M. Gilbert's interview with Hermann Goering at Nuremberg:

Gilbert remarked that in democracy the people have a say in the decision to go to war.
"Oh, that is all well and good," Goering replied, "but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."