Explore "The Fool's Paradise" by E.V. Lucas on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
There is an old picture-shop in the West-Central district of London, notable for the grime of its canvases, in the window of which there is to be seen at this moment -- unless a confiding purchaser has just borne it off -- a girl's head and bust by some very indifferent Dutch hand, under which is printed on the frame the startling and courageous legend, "The Coral Necklace. By Jan Vermeer, of Delft."
Of course the ascription is inaccurate. Were it accurate and the picture worthy of it, this little shop would be the Mecca of the first art experts of Europe and America, and the dealer would be in the way to affluence; nor does the picture's present owner probably believe in it. But what of some previous possessor who did believe in it -- some simple soul who was genuinely convinced that upon his wall hung a portrait by this rarest and most exquisite and radiant of Dutch masters? Do you not envy him his easy credence, his want of fastidious taste? I do.