Faking It

In his article on art forgeries ((ART, May 7)), Robert Hughes described Hans van Meegeren, who specialized in pseudo Vermeers, as a "talentless and paranoid academic hack." I knew Van Meegeren in the 1940s in the Netherlands when I was a teenager, and his portrait of my father now hangs in my home. He was undoubtedly paranoid. However, he was also very gifted, as numerous paintings and drawings can testify. To judge artists only by the imitations they make is to conclude a priori that they are not original in their art.

Jan van Eys

Houston