In 1937 , a very similar painting , " Smiling Girl " , at the time also thought to be by Vermeer , was donated by collector Andrew W. Mellon to the National Gallery of Art in Washington , D.C. Now widely considered to be a fake , the painting was claimed by Vermeer expert Arthur Wheelock in a 1995 study to be by 20th - century artist and forger Theo van Wijngaarden , a friend of Han van Meegeren .