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FAKES after HAN van MEEGEREN

After Han van Meegeren became famous in 1945, the price of his own works rose with his fame. People wanted genuine Meegeren paintings, especially in the United States where an interest had arisen in the work of the man “who swindled Goering”. It became lucrative to forge a Meegeren painting, so that many wrongly attributed and dubious pictures reached the market.
A great difficulty arises here as both Meegeren fakes and originals have been made with modern paint, modern canvases and using modern styles. Distinguishing between genuine and forged Meegeren paintings is extremely difficult and often inconclusive.
Moreover Van Meegeren has made it difficult for us as he has worked in so many styles: classic; impressionistic; “sweet”; jocularly; surrealistic; Chinese-like; etcetera.

An assessment of authenticity is always risky but in the case of Meegeren pictures it is even more so since his son Jacques is known to have faked his father’s work as well. He knew the trade from his father and worked in the same style.


COLLECTION of SIGNATURES

Studying the Meegeren signatures may help. Throughout his life he signed with the same signature H. van Meegeren; only in his youth and in his student days did he occasionally sign with H.A. or h.A. van Meegeren. Either type of signature is, however, easy to fake.
If a signature is missing this might point to a forgery as he almost always signed his works, but this is not conclusive.
On the other hand, a well-made signature is no proof for authenticity either as his signature can easily be imitated. Only in cases where a poorly made signature is apparent, forgery can be taken as a fact.

In order to assist the reader in distinguishing between sound and fake signatures a collection of Meegeren signatures is shown here. Most of them are genuine. The second one in the left-hand column is suspect because of the slanting letters and the use of a v. instead of the word van. The fifth signature in the left-hand column is by Han’s son Jacques, with slanting, sharper letters. The seventh one in the centre column comes from the official Meegeren identity card from 1941. The bottom ones in the centre and right-hand columns are imitations.


Signatures

     
 




When Van Meegeren became famous after the disclosure of his fakes in 1945 his own work came in demand, prices rose fast and it became worth-while to forge Van Meegeren.
The forger was forged… the deceiver cheated.

In the following gallery FALSE and GENUINE pictures of Van Meegeren will be shown, and also a few DOUBTFUL ones.



Twee verschillende "Christuskoppen"
(Two different Heads of Christ)

We begin with a most interesting case of two “Heads of Christ” from one and the same collection.
Because of the provenance of the collection we are sure that these are original Van Meegerens. But the question is which of the two: father Han van Meegeren or son Jacques?

I’ am inclined to regard the right hand picture as the work of Van Meegeren’s son Jacques and the left hand picture as his own work.



"Dubbelportret" (Double Portrait)

This picture is most intriguing with respect to its authenticity. We see Van Meegeren two times, sitting at a table in a pub, once in white and once in yellow. The style is slightly jocular and primitive; the blue figure in the fore-ground has not been worked out.
Is this a double self-portrait by Han van Meegeren?
Or is it a double portrait of father Han made by his son Jacques van Meegeren? There is no way to be sure but I’ am inclined to attribute this picture to Jacques.


"Herbergje" (Little Inn)

This drawing is meant to be in the same style as the beautiful "Rembrandtje" we have seen in the gallery on the homepage. The quality, however, is far less and the drawing is in no way as convincing as Van Meegeren's "Rembrandtje".
I’ am inclined to attribute this drawing to Jacques van Meegeren.
(Enlarge by clicking)



A Second version of "Nude in Black Stockings"

It is amazing how often Van Meegeren created two pictures that are almost identical. See this version of his "Nude in Black stockings" and compare it with the "Nude in Black Stockings" on the homepage of this website.
At a first glance we see no difference, but after looking again we see that the lady holds her mirror in another way. Why?

We don’t know why.
We only know that Van Meegeren has done this as well with his price-winning picture "St. Laurens Kerk", see below. He recorded that one also twice, with tiny differences.

And he did it also with his Vermeer fake "Last Supper" that he painted in France in 1939, and recreated in Holland in 1941.

There exist more examples.

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A second version of "St. Laurens Kerk"

This is another example of a picture that hardly differs from its original. Compare it with the "St. Laurens Kerk" on the homepage.
Again a case of Van Meegeren faking Van Meegeren.

"A Student's Nightmare"

There exist two versions of this "Student's Nightmare", one of the two is shown here and has been taken from the 1912 yearbook of Van Meegeren’s Student Club in Delft. A second version still hangs in the boardroom of his Student Club in Delft.
One can wonder why he has this tendency to copy himself, Van Meegeren faking Van Meegeren?

Statuette of Van Meegeren

This small statue has been made after Van Meegeren's full-lenght self-portrait from about 1935.


The "Disciples at Emmaus" just beforing finishing

The "Disciples at Emmaus" is the greatest fake Van Meegeren ever made. The picture is, however, more than that.
It has been shown (and accepted by experts of Rijksmuseum and Museum Boymans) that Van Meegeren's wife Jo modelled for each of the four figures. But her face was hidden.
In that way the painting is not a portrait of the disciples at Emmaus, but a group-portrait showing four times Jo !

More details in Van Meegeren's biography "A New Vermeer".
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