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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.



"Four biblical scenes"

Four examples of fakes after Van Meegeren, in all probability made by his son Jacques. Fakes like these have adversely affected Van Meegeren's reputation as an artist.
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SIGNATURES

Han van Meegeren made hundreds of pictures under his own name. About 450 works were registered in a study of 1979, more than 100 have come to light since then. It may safely be assumed that Van Meegeren created at least 800 pictures in his life, including advertisements, posters, book-illustrations, jocular sketches, etc.

Almost all these works have been signed “H. van Meegeren”, see the collection of signatures at the top of this page, unsigned works are rare.
However, a small number of works – seven up till now – were signed “H v M” (with or without dots); five of these signatures are shown above. They usually represent work with an anecdotic touch and encompass the following works:

1. The Ragman 1920/32 (see below)
2. Napolitaine 1920/32 (see below)
3. The Gamecock 1929/30
4. Cook's Cabin 1945
5. Nativity 1946/47
6. Sketch underpainting Emmaus 1945 (see below)
7. Sketch underpainting Last Supper 1945-46 (see below)

Two examples of pictures signed HvM

The aquarel "Ragman" and the painting "Jeune Napolitaine" are two examples of pictures signed HvM, from his The Hague Period ca 1920 - 1932.


Two sketches of underpaintings, signed HvM

When in custody Van Meegeren made sketches to indicate where in X-ray photographs underpaintings would show up.
At left a sketch of the "Emmaus" with an arrow towards a little head that would show up (and actually did).
At the right side a sketch of the old canvass under his "Last Supper I".
Both show a hasty scribbled HvM.