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Article Archive
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Master of Transient Matter — Apollo, June 2012
Jonathan Lopez reports on the first exhibition ever devoted to the 17th-century Dutch painter Cornelis Bega.
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DeSilva's 'Cliff Walk' a Chilling Murder Mystery — Jonathan Lopez for the Associated Press, May 27, 2012
In his Edgar Award-winning first novel, "Rogue Island," published in 2010, Bruce DeSilva introduced readers to the affable Liam Mulligan, a crime-solving Rhode Island metro reporter for the fictional Providence Dispatch...
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Lifting the Veil — Art & Antiques, May 2012
The Van Gogh Museum’s chief curator of exhibitions, Edwin Becker, discusses an exhibition on Symbolist landscape painting with Jonathan Lopez.
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A Jewel Restored — Apollo, March 2012
The collection of artist Hendrik Willem Mesdag is best known today for its Barbizon and Hague School masterpieces. Mesdag's personal museum - overseen by the Van Gogh Museum - has recently been refurbished, revealing the pinnacle of Dutch fin-de-siècle interior design and the artist's refined tastes, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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Faces of the Renaissance — Apollo, March 2012
Jonathan Lopez reports on a New York-Berlin exhibition of Italian Renaissance portraits that includes many highlights but is badly let down by its accompanying publication.
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Bed, Bath and Before — The Wall Street Journal, February 25, 2012
Divided into sections on the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and living room, historian Lucy Worsley's "If Walls Could Talk" chronicles British domestic life since the Middle Ages. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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A Matter of Perspective — The Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2012
"Van Gogh Up Close," at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, presents a show about the artist's radical viewpoints, with little to say about how he achieved them. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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Author Tells Tale of Famed Bloch-Bauer Portrait — Jonathan Lopez for the Associated Press, February 8, 2012
In 1907, when Austrian artist Gustav Klimt painted his famed portrait of the Viennese socialite Adele Bloch-Bauer, he could not have known that the sophisticated world inhabited by the sitter's wealthy Jewish family would be destroyed by the Nazi takeover of the country in 1938...
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The Measure of All Things— The New York Times, February 5, 2012
In "Da Vinci's Ghost," Toby Lester, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, examines one of the artist's most famous images. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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Face Time - Art & Antiques, February 2012
Metropolitan Museum of Art curators Keith Christiansen and Andrea Bayer discuss the rise of portraiture in Renaissance Italy with Jonathan Lopez.
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Masterpiece: Revolutionary Militia— The Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2012
In "The Night Watch" (1642), Rembrandt reinvented the static tradition of group portraiture by marrying a sense of civic identity to the grandeur of historical narrative in a dynamic composition that stands as one of the highest achievements of Baroque art and of Western painting, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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Earthy Grandeur — The Wall Street Journal, December 31, 2011
"Pieter Bruegel," a superb and sumptuous monograph, presents the paintings of a Flemish artist known for his landscapes and depictions of peasant life. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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A Peaceable Canvas — The Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2011
In "Velázquez and the Surrender of Breda," longtime New Yorker writer Anthony Bailey chronicles the artist's life and career in the light of Spain's political and social history. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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Gift Guide: The Best of Art Books — The Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2011
Jonathan Lopez on the best art books of the year, from "A History of the World in 100 Objects" to the lavish catalog "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty"—a surefire hit with any fashionistas on your gift list.
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Masterpiece: Beware of Catching the King's Eye — The Wall Street Journal, October 22, 2011
Opulent living at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte aroused the suspicions of Louis XIV, who imprisoned the owner for embezzlement, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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A Stranger to Himself — The Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2011
A mammoth new biography by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith vividly reconstructs the twin stories of Van Gogh's searing art and turbulent life. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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Eureka! - Art & Antiques, October 2011
Beneath the surface of a medieval manuscript, conservators have discovered lost texts and diagrams by Archimedes, showing how far ahead of his time the ancient Greek scientist was, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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One Master Mines Another — The Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2011
"Rembrandt & Degas," currently at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam before traveling to Massachusetts and New York, reveals how the early efforts by Degas to forge a personal style were deeply influenced by Rembrandt. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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The Look of Salvation — The Wall Street Journal, August 11, 2011
"Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus," at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, offers a fascinating narrative of artistic innovation and spiritual growth, as we witness the master's evolving depiction of Christ, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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Why Stealing a Rembrandt Seldom Pays Off — Jonathan Lopez for the Associated Press, July 10, 2011
"Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists" (Palgrave Macmillan), by Anthony M. Amore and Tom Mashberg: In 1997, a gang of criminals escorted Boston Herald Sunday Editor Tom Mashberg to an undisclosed warehouse...
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Marvels of 'Magisterium' — Apollo, July-August 2011
An exhibition devoted to the medieval cult of relics highlights concepts key to the development of Western civilisation, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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A Never-Ending Treasure Hunt — The Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2011
In "Killer Stuff and Tons of Money," Maureen Stanton discovers unsettling truths about the antiques trade as she slips in and out of flea markets and auctions with a self-taught master dealer. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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Painter of Life— Apollo, June 2011
Jonathan Lopez applauds an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., that reveals why we should look more closely at Gabriel Metsu's painterly skills.
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The French Evolution, ARTnews, May 2011
"And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris" by Alan Riding, Knopf, 416 pages, $28.95
To practice their professions under Nazi rule, French artists, writers, and performers had to walk a fine line--as former New York Times cultural correspondent Alan Riding makes clear in his elegantly composed overview of the period. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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Talking Pictures: The Merits of Metsu, Art & Antiques, May 2011
Eclipsed by his countryman Vermeer more than a century ago, Gabriel Metsu is overdue for a re-assessment, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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An Intimate Modernist, The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2011
"Romare Bearden, American Modernist" Edited by Ruth Fine and Jacqueline Francis, National Gallery of Art, 304 pages, $70.
Romare Bearden once said his goal was to depict "the life of my people as I know it," and today he is justly recognized as one of the great visual chroniclers of the African American experience, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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Masterpiece: A Physical Place of Enchanting Illusion, The Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2011
Situated in the elegant Dutch city of The Hague, the Panorama Mesdag--a 360-degree painted view of the beach and dunes at Scheveningen--is a masterpiece of 19th-century art so simple that a child can love it yet sophisticated enough to beguile adults, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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A Painter in Her Own Right, The Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2011
"Lee Krasner" by Gail Levin, William Morrow, 546 pages, $30.
Gail Levin's biography of Lee Krasner places the artist firmly in the movement of Abstract Expressionism, arguing that Krasner also ensured Jackson Pollock's posthumous success. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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Collecting as a Fine Art, The Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2011
"Golden" by Frederik J. Duparc, Yale University Press, 404 pages, $65.
"Golden," surveys a collection of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings that Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo have assembled over the past two decades. Jonathan Lopez reviews.
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A Brush with Greatness, The Wall Street Journal, December 16, 2010
Bookshelf: "A Real Van Gogh" by Henk Tromp, University of Amsterdam Press, 351 pages, $49.50.
Chester Dale donated his Van Gogh to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it hung as the real thing until 1984, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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Unlucky in love and life but undaunted and original in her art — Jonathan Lopez, Globe Correspondent, The Boston Globe, December 12, 2010
"Alice Neel: The Art of Not Sitting Pretty," by Phoebe Hoban, St. Martin's, 512 pp., illustrated, $35: Alice Neel enjoyed the greatest second act in the history of American art...
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Saga of three kings of architecture — Jonathan Lopez, Globe Correspondent, The Boston Globe, December 5, 2010
"Triumvirate: McKim, Mead & White - Art, Architecture, Scandal, and Class in America's Gilded Age," by Mosette Broderick, Knopf, 581 pp., illustrated, $40: On the night of June 25, 1906, architect Stanford White attended the opening...
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Dutch Delights— Apollo, December 2010
Jonathan Lopez is seduced by the first show in 45 years of the 16th-century master Jan Gossaert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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Talking Pictures: Grace and Beauty — Art & Antiques, December 2010
Author Judith Dupré explores the range of the Virgin Mary’s incarnations in art, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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The Splendid Spoils of Standard Oil— Jonathan Lopez, The Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2010
"America's Medicis," by Suzanne Loebl, 429 pp., illustrated, $34.99: In the fanciful 1953 film "Bienvenido Mister Marshall," director Luis Berlanga envisioned America's aid to Spain as Santa Claus dropping bags of presents from a gleaming silver airplane. Within the realm of institutional arts funding, the Rockefeller family...
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Portrait of an artist— Jonathan Lopez, Globe Correspondent, The Boston Globe, November 7, 2010
"Grant Wood: A Life," by R. Tripp Evans, Knopf, 402 pp., illustrated, $37.50: In 1930, artist Grant Wood achieved sudden national fame with “American Gothic,’’ his iconic painting of a pitchfork-wielding farmer and a stern, black-clad woman posed before a Victorian farmhouse...
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Architectural historian offers vivid picture of Virgin Mary in 'Full of Grace' — Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, November 3, 2010
"Full of Grace: Encountering Mary in Faith, Life, and Art" (Random House, $40), by Judith Dupre: In this wide-ranging and lavishly illustrated volume...
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Uncompromising Truth— The Magazine Antiques, November/December 2010
On the occasion of an exhibition in Washington, Jonathan Lopez discusses Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelite movement, Victorian photographers and the aesthetics of veracity.
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'Rogue Island' evokes drama of crime reporting — Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, October 11, 2010
"Rogue Island" (Forge Books, $24.99), by Bruce DeSilva: Metro reporter Liam Mulligan gets no respect from City Hall as he uncovers a deadly arson conspiracy...
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Talking Pictures: Points of Departure — Art & Antiques, October 2010
Spanish modernist Joan Miró's 1928 trip to Amsterdam sent him on a journey to the 17th century and back, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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Historian goes behind palace doors — Jonathan Lopez, Globe Correspondent, The Boston Globe, September 6, 2010
"The Courtiers: Splendor and Intrigue in the Georgian Court at Kensington Palace," by Lucy Worsley, Walker & Co., 432 pp., illustrated, $30: In her appearances on BBC television, historian Lucy Worsley has shown herself to be an engaging...
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Hyde in Plain Sight— Art & Antiques, September 2010
Tucked away in rural Upstate New York, the Hyde Collection is a distinctive museum with a distinguished history, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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'Displaced Persons' spins hypnotic tale of postwar survival — Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, August 11, 2010
"Displaced Persons" (William Morrow, $25.99), by Ghita Schwarz: In this powerful debut novel, author Ghita Schwarz, a child of Holocaust survivors...
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Stealing and Dealing— Art & Antiques, Summer 2010
Retired G-man Robert Wittman speaks to Jonathan Lopez about the real motivations behind art theft.
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The Iceman Cometh— Apollo, July-August 2010
Jonathan Lopez visits an exhibition of Hendrick Avercamp's winter landscapes at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
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FBI agent writes memoir about solving art crimes — Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, June 2, 2010
“Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures” (Crown, 336 pages, $25), by Robert K. Wittman: In this stunning autobiography, former FBI undercover agent Robert K. Wittman...
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Talking Pictures: Cops and Counterfeiters— Art & Antiques, June 2010
An exhibition at the American Numismatic Society chronicles the evolving artistry on both sides of the law, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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Castelli's life and influence on modern art — Jonathan Lopez, Globe Correspondent, The Boston Globe, May 29, 2010
"Leo and His Circle: The Life of Leo Castelli," by Annie Cohen-Solal, translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti, Knopf, 576 pp., illustrated, $35: From the mid-1950s until his death in 1999, Leo Castelli, the renowned New York gallery owner...
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Talking Pictures: A Forger's Fears— Art & Antiques, May 2010
Mark Forgy, longtime companion of forger Elmyr de Hory, speaks with Jonathan Lopez about the benefits and liabilities of living with one of the world's most notorious art criminals.
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Author shows role of Betsy Ross in creating Stars and Stripes was complex, elusive — Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, April 29, 2010
“Betsy Ross and the Making of America” (Holt. 480 pages. $30.00), by Marla R. Miller: Every American schoolchild knows the legend... |
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Talking Pictures: Art Work — Art & Antiques, April 2010
Jonathan Lopez speaks with New York painter and draughtsman Stephen Talasnik about the challenges of earning a living as an artist.
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Ringing the Changes — Apollo, April 2010
Jonathan Lopez welcomes an exhibition organised by the Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida, and now at the the Marble House, Newport, Rhode Island, that explores the legacy of France's historical revivalism in the 19th-century.
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Talking Pictures: Modernizing the Mauritshuis— Art & Antiques, March 2010
Director Emilie Gordenker is taking the venerable Dutch museum into the internet age while preserving its understated elegance, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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Chronicling a Grand Diamond Heist — Jonathan Lopez, Globe Correspondent, The Boston Globe, February 6, 2010
"Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History," by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell, Union Square, 336 pp., $24.95: No safe, however secure, is impregnable. No criminal scheme, however cunning, is foolproof...
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Talking Pictures: A Life in Letters — Art & Antiques, February 2010
A new annotated edition of Vincent van Gogh's letters reveals the full scope, depth, and context of the artist's correspondence, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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Talking Pictures: Sons, Fathers and Forefathers — Art & Antiques, January 2010
Jonathan Lopez speaks with author Henry Adams about Jackson Pollock, family ties and the nature of influence.
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Michelangelo, redefined: This detailed portrait of the master brings to life the man but not his times — Jonathan Lopez for The Boston Globe, December 27, 2009
William Wallace, a professor of art history at Washington University in Saint Louis, is widely considered America’s preeminent authority on Michelangelo. In an array of scholarly books and articles...
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Talking Pictures: Christmas Present, Christmas Past — Art & Antiques, December 2009
For the first time in two decades, the Brooklyn Museum unveils James Tissot's monumental series "The Life of Christ," writes Jonathan Lopez.
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Master of Light — Apollo, November 2009
An exhibition now in Los Angeles goes to the heart of 18th-century Spanish still-life painter Luis Meléndez, who sought fame and fortune but had to settle for mere greatness, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Talking Pictures: The Scholar Dealer — Art & Antiques, November 2009
Otto Naumann, America's preeminent dealer in Dutch Old Master paintings, puts his knowledge to work for his clients, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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New book puts spotlight on the Bauhaus movement — Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, October 29, 2009
“The Bauhaus Group: Six Masters of Modernism” (Knopf. 544 pages. $40.00), by Nicholas Fox Weber: In this informal group biography, art historian Weber... |
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Talking Pictures: Maid in Manhattan — Art & Antiques, October 2009
At long last, Vermeer's enigmatic "Milkmaid" is on view in the U. S., writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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"The Man Who Loved Books Too Much" stole them — Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, September 21, 2009
Over a period of about ten years, book collector John Gilkey of Modesto, Calif., acquired an impressive array of rare first editions... |
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Rescuing Rembrandt: "Monuments Men" and "Venus Fixers" recount how Allied soldiers and scholars saved cultural treasures from destruction and the Nazis — Jonathan Lopez for The Boston Globe, September 6, 2009
During the darkest days of World War II, a ragtag band of British and American art scholars braved the battlefields of Europe to rescue thousands of cultural treasures... |
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Talking Pictures: The Great Debate — Art & Antiques, September 2009
An exhibition in Washington on the late 15th/early 16th century Venetian sculptor Tullio Lombardo revives a Renaissance argument between painters and sculptors, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Rivals in Venice — Apollo, July / August 2009
An ambitious attempt to chart how the careers of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese intertwined presents all three artists in a novel - and not always flattering - light, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Talking Pictures: Curatorial Logic — Art & Antiques, Summer 2009
Rafael Viñoly's expansion of the Cleveland Museum of Art fulfills the promise of the original design, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Seven Eighths Underwater — Journal of Art Crime, July 2009
Jonathan Lopez discusses the methodology for researching historical art crime, where the facts - like seven eighths of an iceberg - are generally hidden from view. |
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Talking Pictures: Revolutionary Road — Art & Antiques, June 2009
In Mexico, Edward Weston made waves with photography, not politics, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Relaxing on the River — Apollo, June 2009
An exhibition focusing on Gustave Caillebotte’s depictions of water captures the essence of his art, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Bamboozling Ourselves (and More Bamboozling) — New York Times, May 27 - June 17, 2009
Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris interviews Jonathan Lopez for a seven-part series on the Van Meegeren case and the Netherlands during World War II. |
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Talking Pictures: A Holland-America Line— Art & Antiques, May 2009
The National Gallery's acquisition of a major Ter Brugghen opens a window on the history of taste, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Lady vanishes: two books on the Mona Lisa theft — Jonathan Lopez for The Boston Globe, May 17, 2009
On Aug. 21, 1911, a journeyman laborer named Vincenzo Peruggia surreptitiously unhooked Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" from the walls of the Louvre and headed off to a service stairwell...
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Interview -- The Essential Vermeer, April 2009
Jonathan Lopez discusses his new book, "The Man Who Made Vermeers," with Jonathan Janson at TheEssentialVermeer.com. |
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Pride of Place -- Apollo, March 2009
Jonathan Lopez visits a show at the Mauritshuis and the National Gallery of Art that teases out the meanings behind the Dutch tradition of 'town views'. |
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Madoff's Moment -- U.S. News & World Report, March 16, 2009
Psychologically, the New York financial scam is reminiscent of great art forgery swindles of the past, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Andrew Wyeth -- Art & Antiques, March 2009
Upon the occasion of the artist's death, Jonathan Lopez looks back at A & A's coverage of the 'Helga' contretemps of 1986 and assesses Wyeth's legacy. |
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"Gardner Heist" author turned sleuth posits plausible theories about world's largest art theft -- Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, Feb. 22, 2009
Just after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men wearing police uniforms knocked on the door of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, informing the guard on duty that they had received a complaint about a disturbance on the premises...
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The Light of God -- Apollo, February 2009
An exhibition of Van Gogh’s night scenes opens this month in Amsterdam after its New York showing. As Jonathan Lopez explains, it draws attention to the neglected religious background to these paintings. |
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A Legacy of Plunder -- ARTnews, January 2009
A new book lays bare the entire paintings collection of Hitler henchman Hermann Goering, reports Jonathan Lopez. |
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Out of the Shadows -- Apollo, January 2009
Far from playing second fiddle to Rembrandt, Jan Lievens was a virtuoso innovator in his own right throughout his long career, as an exhibition in Washington demonstrates, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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"Unholy Business" spins a good yarn about faith, fraud, and forgery --Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, November 6, 2008
In November 2002, an article in The Biblical Archaeology Review heralded the discovery of an ancient Judean ossuary — a limestone box intended for the storage of human remains. The story was immediately picked up by CNN, ABC and many of the world's major newspapers. Attention of that kind is quite rare in the sleepy precincts of archaeology, but this was no ordinary ossuary...
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The Met After Montebello -- Apollo, October 2008
Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, since 1977, retires at the end of this year. As the museum prepares to mark the event with an exhibition of acquisitions made over the last 31 years, Jonathan Lopez assesses the de Montebello legacy and considers the museum's future under its newly appointed director, Thomas P. Campbell.
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"Going Dutch" offers a thought-provoking look at relations between England and the Netherlands -- Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, September 26, 2008
In November 1688, Prince William of Orange, the elected leader of the Dutch republic, set sail from the port of Hellevoetsluis in command of a 450-ship invasion fleet bound for England... |
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Art in an Age of Ease -- Apollo, September 2008
An exhibition organised by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and now at the Nasher Museum of Art, makes a bold and persuasive case for the artistic achievements of the neglected reign of Philip III of Spain, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Fakery Behind Closed Doors -- De Groene Amsterdammer, August 29, 2008
Han van Meegeren was not a misunderstood genius; he was a forger down to the bone. He was also a Nazi sympathizer and collaborator. As the historian Jonathan Lopez--whose new biography of Van Meegeren has just appeared in America--explains, this too went hand in hand with Van Meegeren's career in fraud. (subscription site; article in Dutch)
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A Forger's Masterpieces -- by Jonathan Lopez (International Herald Tribune) August 11, 2008
Smart, knowledgeable people can sometimes be taken in by attractively packaged products of little inherent value. |
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Impersonator of Noel Coward, Humphrey Bogart, others comes clean in memoir about her forgeries — Jonathan Lopez for The Associated Press, July 31, 2008
"She is a bright, talented actress," Noel Coward once wrote of Julie Andrews, "and quite attractive since she dealt with her monstrous English overbite."
Pure Coward — except that it isn't. Banged out on an old Olympia typewriter in 1991, this quote was invented by Lee Israel, the screwball literary forger of Manhattan's Upper West Side. During an improbable crime spree lasting approximately 18 months, Israel impersonated...
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Van Meegeren's Early Vermeers -- Apollo, July-August 2008
Jonathan Lopez reveals that three 1920s fake Vermeers are by the notorious forger Han van Meegeren, who, far from being an independent operator, was part of a slick operation of organised art fraud. |
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National Treasure -- Apollo, June 2008
Revered in his native Spain, Antonio Lopez Garcia is little known outside it. An exhibition in Boston could change that, writes Jonathan Lopez.
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A Skilful Charmer -- Apollo, March 2008
At the Rijksmuseum, the first monographic exhibition ever devoted to Karel du Jardin reveals a versatile painter with a taste for the good life, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Protestant Virtues -- Apollo, January 2008
To mark the publication of a catalogue of its Dutch paintings, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is showing its entire collection, writes Jonathan Lopez. |
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Gross False Pretences: The Misdeeds of Art Dealer Leo Nardus -- Apollo, December 2007
Several of the greatest collectors of Old Master paintings in turn-of-the-century America were sold fakes or wildly misattributed works by Leo Nardus. Drawing on newly discovered documents, Jonathan Lopez explains how Nardus was exposed and discusses the impact of his chicanery on the art market.
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The Master Forger and the Fascist Dream -- De Groene Amsterdammer, September 29, 2006
The famed art forger Han van Meegeren found Nazism quite appealing. He made paintings for the occupation government and proudly dedicated these works to Hitler at public exhibitions. Deceit, wrath, and treachery were like second nature... The American historian Jonathan Lopez is working on a biography of Han van Meegeren that is scheduled to appear in two years' time. In the course of his research, Lopez has discovered large numbers of previously unknown documents that cast a revealing light on Van Meegeren's personality, on his work as an artist and forger, and on his relationships--for instance, with prominent members of the Liberal State Party, one of whom, Gerard A. Boon was duped into acting as a strawman for Van Meegeren in the sale of forgeries. The notorious investigation into Van Meegeren's wartime collaboration--part of the complex and disorderly postwar purge process--has always been surrounded by riddles. The central question was to what extent Van Meegeren really embraced Nazi ideology. In the article below, Lopez reveals that Van Meegeren's sympathies were far browner than has generally been assumed... (Subscription site; article in Dutch. English translation available as Pdf at Scribd.) |
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