The Death Penalty for Forgery?
The Procuress, late 1930s
- Han van Meegeren (1889–1947)
- Copy after Dirck van Baburen (around 1594–1625)
- Oil paint on canvas
- Geoffrey Webb gift, 1960
- P.1960.XX.269
The Dutch forger Han van Meegeren made a fortune selling supposed Vermeers in the 1930s-40s. He was charged after the war with treason for having sold such seemingly precious cultural artefacts to the Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. Facing the death penalty, Van Meegeren’s only defence was to unmask himself as the forger – a claim the court initially refused to believe until he created a forgery in front of the courtroom officials and reporters
This forgery by him purports to be a lost painting by the 17th-century artist Dirck van Baburen, which is depicted in the background of two of Vermeer’s works.
The painting was known to be a forgery when it was presented to Geoffrey Webb, a Courtauld professor, by a Dutch colleague who believed it would make an interesting and fitting gift to mark Webb’s war service recovering Nazi-looted art. Webb, in turn, donated it to The Courtauld for students to investigate Van Meegeren’s techniques, such as his special recipe to age the appearance of his forgeries using the synthetic resin Bakelite and baking the paintings in an oven to harden their surface.
The genuine Van Baburen painting is today in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Part of The Curiosity Cabinet exhibition 'FAKE OR REAL? - King's X The Courtauld Gallery'.