Theo van Wijngaarden
Van Wijngaarden Theo van Wijngaarden (27 February 1874, Rotterdam – 4 November 1952, Voorburg) was a Dutch art forger and restorer, best known for his involvement in the creation and distribution of forged paintings in collaboration with Han van Meegeren, another notorious art forger.
Theo van Wijngaarden
- Born
- Theo van Wijngaarden was born on 27 February 1874. · Rotterdam.
- Died
- Theo van Wijngaarden died on 4 November 1952. · Voorburg.
- Nationality
- Kingdom of the Netherlands
- Occupation
- painter · art forger
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Documentary evidence
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wikidata · Q7781518 · wikipedia · Theo van Wijngaarden
In this article
Early life and career
Early life and career
Van Wijngaarden was born in Rotterdam and later lived in The Hague. Trained as an artist and restorer, he found his primary source of income in the art restoration field. Van Wijngaarden was skilled in restoring and altering paintings, a talent that allowed him to manipulate and modify artworks in ways that would later serve his involvement in forgery.
Collaboration with Han van Meegeren
Collaboration with Han van Meegeren
• Illustration — The Smiling Girl Associated often with fellow art forger Han van Meegeren, Van Wijngaarden was a lesser artist whose legitimate income came largely from restoration, working with cheaply purchased pictures and moving them to other areas of Europe to sell for a profit. He worked on several of van Meegeren's forgeries, including Frans Hals and Smiling Girl, a painting once thought to be a work of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, akin to his Girl with a Pearl Earring and donated by collector Andrew W. Mellon to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1937. Van Wijngaarden often served as the front man, making the sales deals on van Meegeren's forgeries. • Illustration — The Lacemaker, another forgery.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Rotterdam.
Birth place
Voorburg.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Theo van Wijngaarden”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q7781518: Theo van Wijngaarden
General reference · Wikidata
Literature
• Jonathan Lopez: The Man Who Made Vermeers. Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren. Orlando, Harcourt Inc., 2008.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Theo van Wijngaarden, revision 1365904698 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Hoving, Thomas. False Impressions. Simon and Schuster. 168. 1997-05-08. 978-0-684-83148-0.
- 2.Kilbracken, John Raymond Godley Baron. Van Meegeren, Master Forger. Scribner. 98. 1968.
- 3.Godley, John. Master Art Forger - The Story of Han Van Meegeren. 88. 2007. 978-1-4067-3417-1.
- 4.Classics, Delphi. The History of Art in 50 Paintings (Illustrated). Delphi Classics. 256. 2017-04-07. 978-1-78656-508-2.
- 5.Vrij Nederland (magazine) (February 26, 1996), p. 35–69.
- 6.Radnóti, Sándor. The fake: forgery and its place in art. Rowman & Littlefield. 22. 1999. 978-0-8476-9206-4.
- 7.Kreuger, Frederik H. The Deception. Quantes uitgeverij. 214. 2005. 978-90-5959-031-1.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 19 August 2026.
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