5. The “perfect forgery” became van Meegeren’s goal in the 1930s
Han van Meegeren moved to the south of France in 1932, accompanied by his second wife. From a large rented house, he perfected the painting techniques of Johannes Vermeer, and traveled to view the master’s works displayed in museums throughout Europe. Van Meegeren studied the Vermeer Woman With a Lute Near a Window (now in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art). From it, he produced a similar painting, attributed to Vermeer, titled Lady Playing Music. Another genuine Vermeer, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, led him to paint Lady Reading Music. Neither paintings were sold, instead van Meegeren used them to perfect his techniques of “aging” his forgeries, a critical step in deceiving experts into designating them as genuine Vermeers. Today both hang in the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands.
In 1936 van Meegeren painted The Supper at Emmaus, using the pigments favored by Vermeer, and using a painting by Caravaggio on the same theme as a guide. He aged it using the techniques then perfected, and had it sent to Abraham Bredius as a recently discovered Vermeer. Bredius reported of the discovery of a “hitherto unknown painting of a great master…on the original canvas, and without any restoration…” in the Burlington Magazine. Bredius went on to describe the portrayal as the “masterpiece of Johannes Vermeer of Delft”. He decided the painting dated from Vermeer’s early period, when the master created several works based on Biblical scenes. The painting sold for the equivalent of approximately $4.5 million in 2021, before being donated for display at a Rotterdam museum.