38. A Mediocre Painter
Van Meegeren graduated from art school in 1914, and got a job as an assistant art professor. He supplemented his income with commercial paintings for advertisements, Christmas cards, portraits, and landscapes. In the 1920s, he became relatively popular with paintings of tame deer belonging to a Dutch princess, which became a hit with the masses. All in all, van Meegeren was a relatively successful artist in his own country, although not exactly a trailblazing one.
By the late 1920s, however, van Meegeren’s old school tastes grew old. Contemporary critics, who were more into modern art forms like Surrealism and Cubism, began to deride van Meegeren’s work as derivative. They basically called him an unoriginal hack, who could only imitate the works of other artists. He responded by getting into a flame war with his critics, heatedly attacking them in art publications. By the time the dust settled in 1930, van Meegeren had rendered himself a pariah in the art world.
