STILL LIFE, c.1948
JEFFREY SMART
watercolour on paper
27.0 x 36.5 cm
inscribed lower right: HAN VAN MEEGEREN / (1948)
Barbara Woodward, Adelaide, acquired directly from the artist
Thence by descent
Private collection, London
...this modest watercolour is amusingly inscribed lower right ‘Han Van Meegeren' 1948’. The infamous Han van Meegeren 1889 – 1947, was a Dutch painter and portraitist. However Van Meegeren was best known as an exquisite forger whose copies of Dutch masters including Vermeer were very convincing. This light hearted Still Life by Jeffrey Smart, painted the year after Van Meegeren’s death, is remembered as a homage in jest to the great forgers achievements.
Deutscher and Hackett gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Stephen Rogers, Archivist for the Estate of Jeffrey Smart, in cataloguing this work.