LFINO - Issue #4 Reading The Recognitions - Chapter 2 Bonus Essay: Fakes and Frauds
In the bowls to this second chapter of, The Recognitions, lay two references which point the way forward for the rest of the novel. Both of these are potentially easily missed by a newcomer to the novel, especially one who is not making use of any supplementary material.
The first of these references is to Denis Vrain-Lucas, who, between 1861 and 1869, scammed the famous mathematician, Michel Chasles, out of 140,000 Francs in return for 30,000 forged letters. These letters, all written in a hackneyed attempt at medieval French, were purported to have been written by such luminaries as: Cleopatra, Blaise Pascal, and Mary Magdalene. In its day, this incident proved to be a major scandal and one which the reputation of Chasles never truly recovered from. Lucas, alternatively, would spend the rest of his life in and out of prison for various con-jobs and social impropriety. The two men would die within a year of each other (1880 and 1881) respectively.
The other tale Gaddis manages to weave into this chapter, somewhat more obscurely through a very sly reference within dialogue, is the story of Hans van Meegeren. Meegeren, a painter from The Netherlands who lived between 1889 and 1949, is perhaps the most significant case of forgery to have occurred in Gaddis’s lifetime. Throughout the mid-1930s, Hans van Meegren had developed a method of production which allowed him to recreate the natural ageing that had occurred to the work of 17th century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer. Taking advantage of a gap in the historical record of Vermeer’s life, and the number of Vermeer’s paintings which had been wrongfully attributed, Meegeren claimed to have found a number of works from the great master which he himself had created. So successful were these forgeries that the lie was only revealed when Meegeren admitted to it in a court of law when he was accused of collaborating with the Nazi occupation by selling one of these fake Vermeer’s to Hermann Göring. He spent one year in prison and died soon after.
The reason why these two stories are so significant is obvious to anyone with even a passing understanding of the events of, The Recognitions. It goes without saying why a novel about forgery would weave into itself the two most significant cases of forgery in the last two centuries. The question at ask is really what Gaddis is communicating to us through their very conscious and conspicuous deployment.