The Forger’s Spell by Edward Dolnick

On Monday, June 1st, the Booked for the Day Book Group met to discuss, The Forger’s Spell by Edward Dolnick. Here are a few things we discussed during the meeting:

• We started our discussion with everyone agreeing that they enjoyed the book, that is was well researched and at times humorous. Some of us read the footnotes and thought it was worthwhile taking the time to read. It provided excellent background information on the story.
• When we looked at the photos in the book before starting to read we wondered why the experts could not tell the paintings were forgeries.  But after reading the book we thought the author did an excellent job laying out the details as to why this happened.
• We talked about Van Meegeren’s motivation and did not feel it was a financial reason but more due to the fact that he was angry because of the all-too-meager appreciation of his work from critics. He wanted revenge because he believed he was a great artist and the critics and experts did not give him the respect he thought he deserved. We also thought that he wanted to be caught so he could let the world know what he accomplished.
• We talked about whether Van Meegeren was a genius and we all thought yes, he was highly intelligent mainly due to the fact that he was clever enough to give the art world what they craved and for his work on the Bakelite paint. We thought if he put his genius to good use he may have invented something worthwhile and not had to resort to forgeries to boost his ego.
• We discussed whether Van Meegeren deserved his status as a folk hero. This is where we differed. Many thought he did. It gave Holland something to cheer about in a time when they desperately needed something to be happy about. Others thought that since he swindled his own country and not just Goering he should not have been hailed as a hero. We were also disappointed that he only received a year’s prison term when we all felt that he should have paid restitution to Holland for the price they paid for his forgeries.
• We talked about Vermeer’s work. One of our members volunteers at the Chicago Art Institute and told us even though the Art Institute is now considered one of the top art museums in the world they do not have a Vermeer. We spent some time comparing Van Meegeren and Vermeer’s work and talked about our impression of both men’s art works.
• We were left wondering if Bredius knew that the art work was a forgery before he died and wished we knew more on what Duveen and Fowles thought about the discovery. We were all glad that Goering was told about the Vermeer forgery before he died.
• Lastly, we all thought that this would make a great movie and that we would highly recommend the book.

These are just a few things mentioned during the discussion. Please feel free to add any of your thoughts in the comment section.