Research

Jonathan's research took him all over the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, and the United States, investigating more than thirty-five private and public archives, meeting with descendents of Van Meegeren's partners in crime, and examining all of Van Meegeren's known forgeries in museum storerooms, conservation laboratories, and the homes of private collectors.

This section from an old World War II poster shows the Nazis' plans for the complete domination of Europe—plans doomed to failure by the time of the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. While Axis optimists may have held out a hope for a negotiated peace, shrewder operators were prepared for other outcomes—hiding their ill-gotten loot and erasing all trace of their crimes and collaboration. Van Meegeren, for one, had a lot of erasing to do. See “The Endgame” Chapter Nine of The Man Who Made Vermeers.

Characters from The Man Who Made Vermeers

		Han van Meegeren The master forger's powers of deception extended beyond the realm of painting
		Hermann Goering A self-proclaimed Renaissance man, he desperately wanted a Vermeer, the ultimate trophy, for his private collection
		Theodore W. H. Ward The éminence grise behind Van Meegeren's earliest Vermeer forgeries
		Anna de Voogt Van Meegeren's family-minded first wife, shown here dressed for a costume party she didn't really care to attend
		Johanna de Boer Van Meegeren's second wife, a stage actress with a scandalous reputation
		Joseph Duveen The art dealer who unwittingly sold two of Van Meegeren's earliest Vermeer forgeries to Andrew Mellon
		Abraham Bredius The aging Dutch art expert who was duped into authenticating Van Meegeren's Supper at Emmaus
		Joseph Piller The Jewish Resistance hero who arrested Van Meegeren as a collaborator, but grew, in the end, to like and admire the master forger

To see more of the characters in The Man Who Made Vermeers watch the slide show.