The Smiling Girl

Published as a newly discovered Vermeer by W. R. Valentiner in Art in America (April 1928, ‘A Newly Discovered Vermeer’, pp. 101–107) and hung as Vermeer at the Boijmans 1935 show before passing to Andrew Mellon and entering the National Gallery of Art as accession 1937.1.55. Now catalogued by the NGA as ‘Anonymous Artist, The Smiling Girl, c. 1925,’ with the presumed forger named as Theodorus van Wijngaarden; pigment analysis revealed synthetic ultramarine and lead chromate, both unavailable in the seventeenth century.