96 x 88 cm, painted around 1941-42


This was the picture that set the cat amongst the pigeons. Dicovered at the end of the war in Hermann Goering's art hoard in the Alt-Aussee salt mine in Austria, the painting was soon traced back to van Meegeren and was ultimately responsible for bringing his career of forgery into the open. In 1942 the picture had passed from van Meegeren through the hands of a number of intermediaries until finally it was bought by Dr. Walter Hofer on behalf of Goering for 1,650,000 guilders, the highest price ever paid for one of van Meegeren's forgeries. The price was the equivalent of 4M GB pounds today.