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Han van Meegeren was occ u pi e d hol l a n d 43 one of these nimble creatures, able to move more quickly than others in part because he did not carry the burden of a conscience. Van Meegeren did not need a nation overrun with “art lovers” in military uniforms in order to thrive. He had flourished even in the Depression. But think of the opportunities that wartime provided him. First, the frenzy to buy art meant that paintings turned up out of nowhere, every day, and sold with no questions asked.

Impulsively I looked in it. It contained chemical treatises assembled by an unknown writer. It seemed to be whisper­ ing a telepathic message to me. A miraculous thing happened. ” The Dutch painter Diederik Kraaijpoel, who wrote one of the best studies of Van Meegeren’s career, has a soft spot for forgers in general and for Van Meegeren in particular, but he discounts all such tales. Van Meegeren, says Kraaijpoel, was a habitual, incorrigible liar. ” His reminiscences are evidence of his charm, perhaps, Kraaijpoel says, but they are not evidence of any other sort.

Browns and yellows could be safely stored in bulk, in parchment-covered jars, but such costly preparations as ultramarine had to be prepared in small quantities and stored airtight, in a pig’s bladder. ) Each paint had to be tinkered with yet again just before the artist applied brush to canvas, by being thinned with some combination of oil and solvent that made it more workable. Van Meegeren labored away at his grindstone, his well-worn copy of a Ger­ man treatise, On Fat Oils: Substitutes for Linseed Oil and Oil-based Pigments, always close by.