| By :
Martin Hofschroer
The Art Newspaper discovered that a notorious forger bought an enormous amount of Winsor & Newton art supplies. Han van Meegeren, a Dutch painter and portraitist who has been described as one of the most ingenious art forgers of the twentieth century, purchased extremely rare paint from the prestigious art supplies company during the 1930s. Van Meegeren bought the equivalent of eight years' total sales of ultramarine paint in order to forge Vermeer paintings as the pigment was used by the artist in the seventeenth century to create portraits such as Girl With a Pearl Earring. At the time the ultramarine paint, which is made from ground lapis lazuli, was more expensive by weight than gold but van Meegeren decided it was worth the investment as he felt that using modern synthetic blues would lead to his detection. Van Meegeren went to great lengths to mimic Vermeer's techniques and even used similar badger-hair paintbrushes to his compatriot who specialised in domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Once he completed a forgery, van Meegeren would bake the painting to harden the paint and roll it over a cylinder to increase the cracks before washing the work in black India ink to fill in the cracks. Van Meegeren's forgeries are so good that they can be enjoyed as pieces of art, according to critics. Emily Genauer, an art critic, wrote "Perhaps we are almost at the point of sophistication where we are able to enjoy a work of art for what it is." The Art Newspaper uncovered van Meegeren's 1930s activities after submitting a Freedom of Information request to the Metropolitan Police's Special Branch who held a file on the forger. The Scotland Yard report showed that Winsor & Newton received orders for approximately 12 ounces of ultramarine in a space of four months which was significant as the company usually only sold one or two ounces in a normal year. Van Meegeren was eventually arrested and put on trial for forgery and collaborating with the Nazis when art dealer Alois Miedl confessed to Allied forces that the Vermeer paintings owned by Hermann Göring were fakes. Collaboration charges where dropped but van Meegeren was found guilty of forgery and fraud, and sentenced to one year in prison, however, he died from a heart attack two weeks after sentencing. During the trial van Meegeren became a Dutch folk hero and an opinion poll at the time revealed him to be Holland's second most popular person behind only the Prime Minister.
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