The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han Van Meegeren

ISBN-13: 9780547247847 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 352 str.

Jonathan Lopez

Opis

It's a story that made Dutch painter Han van Meegeren famous worldwide when itbroke at the end of World War II: A lifetime of disappointment drovehim to forge Vermeers, one of which he sold to Hermann Goering inmockery of the Nazis. And it's a story that's been believed ever since.Too badit isn't true. Jonathan Lopez has drawn on never-before-seen documents from dozens of archives to write a revelatory new biography of the world s most famous forger. Neither unappreciated artist nor antifascist hero, Van Meegeren emerges as an ingenious, dyed-in-the-wool crook a talented Mr. Ripley armed with a paintbrush. Lopez explores a network of illicit commerce that operated across Europe: Not only was Van Meegeren a key player in that high-stakes game in the 1920s and '30s, landing fakes with famous collectors such as Andrew Mellon, but he and his associates latercashed in on the Nazi occupation. The Man Who Made Vermeersis a long-overdue unvarnishing of Van Meegeren s legend and a deliciously detailed story of deceit in the art world. "