Legendary forgers staged a solo exhibition

[Тютчев]

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At forty Meegeren was divorced from Anna de Vooht, started an affair with the wife of one of the critics and in 1929 married her. After the wedding, from time to time he would experience a little romance with a model. The father denied his son-artist.

In 1935 Van Meegeren wrote a Frans Hals, one Terborch, two Vermeer.

The life and work of Vermeer of Delft and to this day remain largely unknown. From the field of view of scientists fall whole periods of his life. Meegeren decided to take advantage of this. He decided to create a completely "new" area of the great artist who did not leave behind a religious compositions, the benefit that they have nothing to be compared, except among themselves, one fake on the other.

In Search of Van Meegeren story stopped at the famous story of the Gospel of the resurrected Christ to his disciples at Emmaus. And as the songs he chose a picture of the famous artist Caravaggio, written on the same topic. It remained the most difficult - to paint a picture so that no one had any doubts about its origin brush of a great artist.

Meegerena tormented by the question: how to make the canvas and stretcher were genuine? It's easy to find a picture of the XVII century antiquarian, not of artistic value. It is necessary to clear several layers of painting, without damaging Underpainting. This is a very complicated operation. When writing a picture can not use substances, which came into usage later era of the great master Vermeer. This can be through chemical analysis. Van Meegeren learned to prepare myself paint, found suppliers of other rare materials. However, the most important problem was craquelure.


"Christ at Emmaus" (Vermeer)

The most famous of all the fakes van Meegerena, was written in his villa in ROQUEBRUNE (Roquebrune) in southern France, on top of the canvas 17th century with a religious scene "The Raising of Lazarus" by an unknown artist. This canvas and wooden stretcher were cut from the left side to match the size zadummanoy simulation.
Van Meegeren revealed that he kept the strip of linen and two of the stretcher, which had been removed, but only one part of the stretcher was found by police when they searched the villa. However, annual rings and a wormhole in this part of the timber exactly coincided with the subframe under the picture in conducting forensic analysis.
According to legend, the painting was bought by the representatives of the old Dutch kind of living in Italy.
Several leading experts including the most authoritative expert on Vermeer Dr. Abraham Bredius (Dr. Abraham Bredius) unanimously attributed this picture early Vermeer.
Van Meegeren sold the painting through an intermediary - an old friend, lawyer, Dr. J. A. Bona (Dr. GA Boon) and a leading Dutch dealer's DA Hogendeyka (DA Hoogendijk) Dutch Rembrandt Society for the sum of 520,000 guilders (£ 1.8 million pounds) at the end of 1937. Then the painting was transferred to the museum of Rotterdam Boyman van Boyningena (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), which caused a real sensation.
The museum and today does not recognize the fact of forgery and considers this painting Vermeer (http://www.boijmans.nl/nl/)


The Disciples at Emmaus 115 x 127 cm, painted around 1936-37