Jacques Henri Emil van Meegeren (August 26, 1912 – October 26, 1977) was a Dutch illustrator and painter.

His father introduced him to friends, fellow-artists of The Hague Art Circle, painters and actors, and took him to theaters and restaurants.

[10] In 1938, his father suggested that he visit the exhibition of paintings of the Dutch Golden Age in Rotterdam, and see the "newly discovered" Supper at Emmaus by Vermeer.

When his father later asked about the impression the picture had made on him,[11] van Meegeren replied, "It is a masterpiece of this century, certainly no Vermeer".

On September 22, 1938, van Meegeren married Lucienne Combey, a girl from Annecy in France, near the Swiss border.

At the end of World War II, he and their two children went to live with her parents in Annecy, because food had become scarce in Paris.

[13] After the war, van Meegeren left his family and went to the Netherlands to help his father, who had been arrested for his fraud with the Supper at Emmaus and other fake paintings.

On November 12, 1947, the Fourth Chamber of the Amsterdam Regional Court found Han van Meegeren guilty of forgery and fraud, and sentenced him to one year in prison.

[16] He had a heart attack on November 26, 1947, the last day to appeal against the ruling, and was rushed to the Valeriuskliniek, a hospital in Amsterdam.

[21] Van Meegeren started to paint and sell pictures with his father's signature, gaining a significant profit.

[22] In the last year of his life, he confessed to a nurse that he had abandoned his family and had made and sold fake pictures with his father's signature.

[24] After Han van Meegeren had become known for his forgeries, his own work rose in price and it became worthwhile to fake his paintings.