Vermeer Newsletter no. 45

Dear Subscriber,
It's not every morning that one wakes up and reads about a "new" Vermeer. But last Tuesday the Dresden Gemäldegalerie posted the first image of its newly restored early masterpiece by Vermeer, Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. Take a glance at the before-and-after image below and you may agree that it is, in fact, not that far from truly being a "new" Vermeer, as it has been affectionately dubbed by the Gemäldegalerie. The picture will be shown together with 9 other masterpieces by Vermeer in Dresden, Sept. 10-Feb. 2, 2022 (see details below).

Just a note or two.

For those who have not followed the story, the painting has undergone a major restoration, which was initiated in 2017. It now displays the brilliant color scheme of other early works by Vermeer (The Procuress, The Milkmaid and Officer an Laughing Girl), freed from its previous comfortable but misleading Old Master tone caused by aged varnish. So that's great.

But the big surprise is elsewhere.

Although a hidden Cupid picture-within-a-picture on the background wall of the painting had been known through an x-ray image made in 1979 and infrared reflectography in 2009, it was unanimously understood that it had been painted out by Vermeer himself before the work left his studio. Not so. During the course of the restoration, conservators discovered that the Cupid had, instead, been painted out decades later by another hand. I won't get into the details, but I see no reason to doubt the findings of the in-depth technical investigation of the painting or the efficacy of the restoration. The painting is again as Vermeer wanted us to see it.

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In any case, I'll be able to come up with a more pondered assessment of this complicated work after I see it at the press presentation in Dresden on September 9 and the day after when the exhibition opens to the public. Icing on the cake, I'll be in Berlin on the11th to see The Glass of Wine, my last Vermeer.

If our paths happen to cross, don't hesitate to let me know.

BTW, I would greatly appreciate it if you would take a moment to let your opinion be known about the "new" Vermeer via a survey on Essential Vermeer

My very best,
Jonathan Janson

1.
JOHANNES VERMEER: ON REFLECTION
Dresden Old Masters Picture Gallery (Zwinger)
September 10, 2021 – February 1, 2022

from the CODART website:
The Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window will be the centerpiece of the exhibition in the rooms of the Semper Building set aside for special exhibitions. Along with nine other paintings by Vermeer, including Woman in Blue Reading a Letter and Lady Standing at a Virginal, which are closely related to the painting, some 50 works of Dutch genre painting from the second half of the 17th century will be on display. Paintings by Pieter de Hooch, Frans van Mieris, Gerard Ter Borch, Gabriel Metsu, Gerard Dou, Emanuel de Witte and Jan Steen will show the artistic environment in which Vermeer worked and with which he was in close contact. Selected examples from other artistic genres, such as drawings and prints, sculptures and historical furniture will further enrich the exhibition.

A segment of the exhibition will be specifically devoted to Vermeer’s painting technique and the restoration of the Girl Reading a Letter in order to illustrate the complex, experimental process used in creating the painting.

entrance:
daily 10—18, Monday closed

admission fees:
normal 12 € | reduced 9 € | under 17 free | combination ticket Vermeer/Zwinger 20 €

tickets (tickets must be booked in advance):
https://shop.skd.museum/index.php/korona/?theme=-36941589

more about the exhibition:
https://gemaeldegalerie.skd.museum/ausstellungen/vermeer-johannes-vermeers-dresdner-briefleserin-am-offenen-fenster-und-die-hollaendische-genremalerei-des-17-jahrhunderts/

more about the restoration:
https://gemaeldegalerie.skd.museum/forschung/vermeer/

Gemäldegalerie Instagram post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CS9h46RoqVc/?hl=en

more info from The Art Newspaper:
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/first-look-at-new-vermeer-painting-as-whole-hidden-cupid-finally-revealed

Below are the ten Vermeer paintings that will be part of the exhibition.

• Diana and her Companion
• The Procuress
• Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window
• The Little Street
• The Girl with a Wineglass
• Woman in Blue Reading a Letter
• Woman Holding a Balance
• Woman with a Pearl Necklace
• The Geographer
• Lady Standing at the Virginal

2.

JOHANNES VERMEER: ON REFLECTION
Stephan Koja, Uta Neidhardt, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. et al.
264 pages, 252 color illus., 28 x 24 cm., hardcover
release date: 9/10/2021
English and German
ISBN 978-3-95498-610-1

preorder book here:
https://verlag.sandstein.de/detailview?no=98-610

preview English version here:
https://verlag.sandstein.de/reader/98-611_Vermeer-engl/

The Girl Reading a Letter at the Open Window by Johannes Vermeer in Dresden's Old Masters Picture Gallery is one of the world's most famous works of Dutch art of the 17th century. From 2017 to 2021 the painting was completely restored. After removing a large overpainting from a later period, the appearance of the picture has changed profoundly. On this occasion, the painting will be presented in the context of other masterpieces by Vermeer and the Dutch genre painting of his time in order to illustrate the relationships and interactions in the work of the Delft painter and his fellow artists.

The catalog brings together texts by renowned authors who address both the restored main work and fundamental questions about the style and essence of Vermeer's painting, his optical realism, his love for symbolism and the world of women in the so-called Golden Age.

essays:

• STEPHAN KOJA - The Inner Cohesion of the World: Vermeer’s Paintings as Spaces of Reflection
• ARTHUR K. WHEELOCK JR. - Johannes Vermeer – a Classicist among Genre Painters
• MARJORIE E. WIESEMAN - Women of the Dutch Republic: Genre Painting and Society in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century
• ROBERT FUCCI - Curtains and Perspectives: Vermeer's Optical Realism
• GREGOR J. M. WEBER - Cupid in Vermeer's Paintings
• UTA NEIDHARDT - Interplay of Art and Life: Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window in a New Guise
• CHRISTOPH SCHÖLZEL - On the Restoration and Painterly Technique of Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window by Johannes Vermeer

3.
JOHANNES VERMEER AND 17TH-CENTURY PAINTING
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
January 22 – April 3, 2022
https://www.tobikan.jp/en/exhibition/2021_dresden.html\

Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window will be displayed in Japan for the first time after a thorough restoration revealed a "picture-within-a-picture" showing a Cupid, which had been previously believed to have been painted over by the artist himself. Also featured will be some sixty 17th-century Dutch paintings from the collection of the Dresden Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, including important works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Gabriël Metsu and Jacob van Ruisdael.

ESSENTIAL VERMEER WEBSITE ADDITIONS

4.
INTERACTIVE DELFT
Hoping to bring EV visitors closer to Vermeer's art and life, I have recently published a series of articles dedicated to Delft and Vermeer's masterpiece, View of Delft. These include an in-depth timeline of Delft, three interactive roll-over image maps of Delft, an extensive gallery of paintings, engravings and photographs of the immediate environs of the View of Delft as well as a detailed image map of the View of Delft.

The popular image-map interface offers an efficient and enjoyable way to explore all the minutiae of the places and monuments associated with the artist's life and work. To explore the contents of each high-resolution image, just roll your cursor over any area of interest and a tooltip pop-up will furnish the relative information.

As an aside, the only element in the View of Delft I was not able to come up with any secure information was the type of tree that stands tall next to the sunlit tower of Delft's Old Church. If anybody happens to know something about that, please drop me a line. Naturally, any additions, corrections or suggestions concerning and of the articles below are warmly welcomed (see email icon below). I look forward to learning and interacting with EV readers.

1. A Timeline of the City of Delft: 1100-1836
2. Interactive Map of Vermeer's View of Delft
3. Interactive Map of Vermeer places in Delft
4. Interactive Map of the Gates,Towers and Windmills of 17th-Century Delft
5. Vermeer's View of Delft: Environs

Addendum

Since high-quality images of the newly restored Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window have been widely circulated by both the traditional press outlets and the internet, I have initiated a brand-new survey to gauge the public's reaction to the "new" Vermeer.

If you would like to respond, all you have to do is click on the link below, and when the survey is displayed on your browser, check the response that most accurately reflects your feelings. It only takes a few seconds:

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/dresden-girl-reading-a-letter-survey.html

If enough of the 4,000-plus Vermeer Newsletter subscribers were kind enough to take part in the survey, I believe we may begin to see through the fog and form a reasonably balanced idea of how the painting will be collectively appreciated in the near future. This is particularly true because the subscribers of the newsletter represent a representative swath of the population interested in matters of art, ranging from seasoned art historians, critics and conservators—many of whom are directly involved with the art of Vermeer—to writers, long-time Vermeer aficionados and passionate neophytes.

On the same page as the survey, you will find a list of useful resources and, for now, a shortlist of reviews and newspaper articles about the painting that have trickled out after the exhibition opened on September 10. Not as many as one might suspect have come out, except for a very interesting article in the Danish newspaper Politiken, which investigates not only the restoration but its "political" ramifications.

If you come by any articles or reviews that you think should be noticed, don't hesitate to send them along. Any language is fine.

Thanks so much for your cooperation.

My very best,
Jonathan Janson

PS As a note, I had formerly launched a similar survey but when the painting was at the mid-point of the restoration and the Cupid was only partially uncovered. Now that the restoration has been completed, the new survey will allow us to acquire more valid results.