Describe a Painting or Work of Art: IELTS Speaking Part 2-Style Practice with the True Story of the Man Who Fooled Göring
A painting with a story is easier to talk about than one you can only describe visually. Supper at Emmaus was hailed by the expert Abraham Bredius as a Vermeer masterpiece, and the Rembrandt Society bought it for 520,000 guilders. It was really painted by the Dutch forger Han van Meegeren.
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What should you say when the card asks you to describe a painting?
Not colours. "What happened to it" is on the card, and that is an invitation to tell a history. A painting nobody can place becomes memorable the moment it has a plot. Here is the practice card, our own wording:
Describe a painting or work of art that you know about.
You should say:
- what it is
- who made it
- what happened to it
and explain why you find it memorable.
The painting is the fake Vermeer that fooled Göring. Read the story first — every claim on it carries a source.
Facts you’ll need — each one is checked, with its source, on the story page:
- Supper at Emmaus was hailed by Abraham Bredius: "we have the masterpiece of Johannes Vermeer of Delft"
- The Rembrandt Society bought it for 520,000 guilders; shown at the Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam
- Critics had called van Meegeren a gifted technician with every virtue except originality
- Six years on technique in the south of France: 17th-century canvases, raw-material paints, Bakelite
- He baked the canvases, rolled them to crack the paint, washed them with India ink
- Göring traded 137 looted paintings for Christ with the Adulteress; found in an Austrian salt mine in May 1945
- Arrested 29 May 1945; threatened with the death penalty; not believed at first
- July–December 1945: painted Jesus among the Doctors before witnesses; Bakelite proved the fakes
- 12 November 1947: one year for forgery and fraud; died 30 December 1947 without serving it
What if you know little about art?
Good: the card rewards the story, not the connoisseurship. You need the painter, the ownership, the twist, and your opinion — none of which requires an art degree. The "describe an artist" variant works the same way: van Meegeren is the artist, and his story answers the card from the man's side. That is the standard retelling trick — what story retelling is — applied to a canvas.
How do you tell the fake Vermeer story in two minutes?
Craft, success, twist, judgement. One word per point in the preparation minute:
- Opener (~35 words)Supper at Emmaus — the "Vermeer" that was really painted by Han van Meegeren. Your part: how you heard about it.
- The craft (~70 words)Critics had dismissed his own work as technically gifted but unoriginal, so he set out to prove himself by forging Dutch Golden Age paintings. In a rented mansion in the south of France he spent six years on technique: real 17th-century canvases, paints mixed from raw materials, and Bakelite to harden the paint so it looked 300 years old. He baked the canvases, rolled them to crack the paint, and washed them with India ink to imitate dust.
- The success (~55 words)Abraham Bredius, in his eighties and nearly blind, hailed it as a masterpiece — his words were "we have the masterpiece of Johannes Vermeer of Delft". The Rembrandt Society bought it for 520,000 guilders, and it was shown at the Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam, where visitors stood before it as if in a chapel.
- The twist (~80 words)Hermann Göring traded 137 looted paintings for another fake, Christ with the Adulteress. It was found in an Austrian salt mine in May 1945, and van Meegeren was arrested on 29 May and threatened with the death penalty. He confessed — and was not believed, so between July and December 1945 he painted Jesus among the Doctors in front of witnesses. Experts found 20th-century Bakelite in the paint, and the collaboration charges were dropped.
- Explain (~50 words)On 12 November 1947 he was sentenced to a year for forgery and fraud and died that December without serving it. His question stays open: "the picture has not changed. What has?" Your part: your answer, and why the story is memorable.
About 266 words in total — 1:46 to 2:08 spoken at 125–150 words per minute.
| Card point | Your note |
|---|---|
| what it is | fake Vermeer |
| who made it | van Meegeren |
| what happened to it | Göring, trial |
| and explain why you find it memorable | value question |
One word per point, written in the preparation minute — never a sentence you could recite by accident.
Which art words lift a Part 2 answer?
Forgery, masterpiece, authentic, canvas, expert, priceless, fraud. Notice they are all words of valuation — which is the story's real subject. Drop one more in the closing: the court's finding that the paint contained 20th-century Bakelite resins. A single technical word used correctly is worth more than a paragraph of vague praise.
What do examiners listen for?
The four criteria are the ones in the public band descriptors. What the app can measure is narrower, and it never produces a score or band for any of them:
- Fluency and coherence
- Build the story as suspense and let the twist land late — a deliberate "then came the war" keeps the two minutes taut.SoulfulStories measures: your pace, your pauses and your filler words — how long you keep the floor and how your answer is organised.
- Lexical resource
- Forgery, masterpiece, authentic, canvas, expert, priceless, fraud — the art-crime register that fits this card exactly.SoulfulStories measures: the CEFR level of the words you used, and where you rephrased around a missing word.
- Grammatical range and accuracy
- Reported speech (he claimed that…) and passives (was hailed, was found, was arrested) do the range work here.SoulfulStories measures: nothing — grammar is not measured, because a transcript-based check would be guesswork; the examiner on test day judges it.
- Pronunciation
- Names said steadily, no restarts: Vermeer, Göring, Bredius. Rehearse them slowly first.SoulfulStories measures: nothing automatic today — pitch and volume variation are measured, but clear pronunciation is yours to hear in the playback.
How do you end with your own opinion?
Borrow the forger's question — "the picture has not changed. What has?" — and answer it in one sentence of your own. That is the "explain why you find it memorable" point, delivered as a position rather than a shrug. The same closing move works on other cards:
- Describe a song that has an interesting story behind itAnother work of art whose worth — and authorship — was disputed for decades.
- Describe a mistake you made or sawThe experts' mistake is the story's hinge; Ashoka's page shows the same judgement-move in a leader.
The Part 2 practice page collects the angle switches, and the methodology page shows how the facts in your retelling are checked.
How do you practise this answer out loud?
Read the story, close it, note your four words, and speak for two minutes into the recorder. The report covers pace, fillers, pauses and which facts survived — practice feedback only, never a score. Do the second take tomorrow; the twist lands better when you stop rushing to it.
Tell how one forger fooled the experts and Göring, in two minutes.
Feedback on your pace, filler words, pauses, which key facts you covered, and the CEFR level of your vocabulary. Free to try, no card — and no score or band.
Questions and answers
Can I describe a painting I have not seen in person?
If the card asks for a painting you know about, yes. If it asks for one you have seen, say where you saw a picture of it, then cover every point on the card.
Who was Han van Meegeren?
A Dutch painter considered one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century. He sold fake Vermeers, one of them to Hermann Göring, and in 1945 proved they were his by painting another in front of witnesses.
How do I describe a painting without just listing colours?
Tell what happened to it: who made it, who owned it, and what changed. Then give your opinion. A story gives you more to say than a visual description alone.
Does this page predict my IELTS score?
No. SoulfulStories is independent practice. It gives feedback on pace, fillers, pauses, key facts covered and CEFR vocabulary, not a score or band.
Sources
Every outside fact on this page comes from the story’s cited sources, listed with their accessed dates on the story page.
- Han van Meegeren — Wikipedia · accessed 25 October 2026
- Forger to the Reich — The Guardian · accessed 25 October 2026
- IELTS Academic: Speaking test format — ielts.org · accessed 1 November 2026
Keep going
- IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue cardsPart 2-style practice cue cards backed by true, sourced stories, with a one-minute note grid and a model outline.
- IELTS Speaking Part 2 Practice: The Long Turn AloneA free, repeatable loop for the long turn: one minute of notes, two recorded minutes, one listen, one fix — with a worked cue card taken three ways.
- How to Tell a Story Out Loud: Voice, Pace, PausesDelivery for spoken stories — openings, pace, the three pauses — with the same opening told three ways and timed, so you can hear the difference.
- MethodologyHow a retelling is measured and how every story is verified before it is published.
- The Man Who Fooled GöringFacing death for selling a national treasure to the Nazis, a Dutch painter saved himself by proving the Vermeer was his own fake.
IELTS is a registered trademark of its owners. SoulfulStories is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to IELTS, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge. We don't give band scores.