New York Times Bestseller

"Dolnick brilliantly re-creates the circumstances that made possible one of the most audacious frauds of the 20th century. And in doing so Dolnick plumbs the nature of fraud itself . . . an incomparable page turner." --Boston Globe

As riveting as a World War II thriller, The Forger's Spell is the true story of Johannes Vermeer and the small-time Dutch painter who dared to impersonate him centuries later. For seven years a no-account painter named Han van Meegeren man...

Offers an overview on the development of British painting in the eighteenth century, which anticipated themes, and techniques that later became paradigms of modernity. This book focuses on the English context at a time when the growth of artistic standing was accompanied by the country's conquest of hegemony on a political and economic plane.