The rediscovery of the seventeenth-century Delft master Johannes Vermeer in the late nineteenth century captivated European and American collectors, who eagerly sought his rare paintings. As their value soared, so did the incentive to forge them. Forgers often confounded scholars through innovative painting techniques and carefully chosen subjects. The most famous was Han van Meegeren, whose The Supper at Emmaus was hailed by Dutch authorities as one of Vermeer’s greatest masterpieces.

The “Van Meegeren Affair” centers on the sensational trial in which Van Meegeren was accused of selling a “Vermeer” to Nazi leader Hermann Göring, one of history’s most notorious art looters. In his defense, the Dutch forger claimed that he had not sold priceless Vermeers to the Nazis but had successfully deceived them into purchasing his own forgeries. During the trial, Van Meegeren also admitted that he had painted The Supper at Emmaus.

These shocking revelations forced scholars to reassess Vermeer’s oeuvre, sometimes leading them to reject genuine works. One such painting was Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, now in The Leiden Collection. Drawing on decades of research, Arthur Wheelock will explore the controversy surrounding this masterpiece and the evidence that led him to conclude it is an authentic Vermeer

About The Speaker:

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. is Senior Advisor to The Leiden Collection, the largest private collection of Dutch art in the world. He is former curator of Northern Baroque painting at the National Gallery of Art and Professor of Art History at the University of Maryland. During his tenure at the National Gallery from 1975 to 2018, Wheelock oversaw a significant expansion of the Gallery’s collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings and organized many major exhibitions. 

Wheelock has lectured and written extensively about Dutch and Flemish art, but never before in Mexico! He has written and edited collection catalogues for the National Gallery’s Dutch (1995) and Flemish (2005) paintings, as well as the on-line collection catalogue of the Dutch paintings in The Leiden Collection. His revised and expanded catalogue of the National Gallery’s Dutch paintings (an online catalogue) received the George Wittenborn Book Award as the best art publication in the United States for 2014. 

Wheelock has organized over fifty international loan exhibitions over the course of his career, both thematic shows such as Rembrandt’s Late Religious Portraits, and Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age (2009); but also monographic ones, including Anthony van Dyck; Jan Steen; Jan Lievens; and Gerard ter Borch. He not only organized the important Vermeer exhibition at the National Gallery of Art and the Mauritshuis in 1995-96, but he has also curated Vermeer exhibitions in Paris, Dublin, Dresden, Tokyo, and Kyoto. 

Wheelock holds numerous distinctions, among them being named Knight Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Dutch government, and Commander in The Order of Leopold I by the Belgian government. He also received the Bicentennial Medal and the Kellogg Award for lifetime achievement from Williams College; the Centennial Medal from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University; and the honorary degree of Doctor of Art from Dickinson College.