On this page are listed exhibitions, conferences, multimedia events and publications of the recent past which are related to the life and/or work of Johannes Vermeer.
Click here to see Vermeer-related events of the past.
Click here to view a sortable table of all past, ongoing, and future Vermeer exhibitions.
EV founder Jonathan Janson questions authenticity of Young Woman Seated at the Virginal (Leiden Collection) 
"Young Woman Seated at a Virginal: A Second Look"
Jonathan Janson (OPINION)
https://www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/Young-Woman-Seated-at-a-Virginal-A-Second-Look.pdf
(attributed to Johannes Vermeer)
c. 1670
Oil on canvas, 25.2 x 20 cm.
Leiden Collection, New York
Since the 2004 sale of Young Woman Seated at a Virginal at Sotheby’s, this small canvas has been accepted as an authentic painting by Vermeer almost exclusively on the basis of a decade-long technical investigation spearheaded—please note—by Sotheby’s itself. Since then, there has been only a handful of high-intensity critical analyses of this “new Vermeer.” In this essay, I attempt to evaluate the picture from a fresh point of view via a side-by-side comparison with Vermeer’s later works, such as The Lacemaker, The Guitar Player, Lady Standing at a Virginal, and Lady Seated at a Virginal. These paintings—whatever their expressive merit—rank among Vermeer’s most technically refined and compositionally innovative achievements, and, by comparison, I believe, expose the rudimentary design and numerous technical shortcomings of the Leiden painting that have thus far been substantively unaddressed.
Vermeer-Related Publication
John Ringling and the Greta Garbo Vermeer
Linda R. McKee and Deborah W. Walk
August 17, 2024
https://www.amazon.com/John-Ringling-Greta-Garbo-Vermeer/dp/B0DDHH9VW7
Linda R. McKee and Deborah W. Walk
John Ringling was one of the most prolific encyclopedic art collectors of the early twentieth century in America. Despite many purchases and acquisitions, his eponymous museum in Sarasota, Florida contained few written records of his art activities. This all changed in 1995 when The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Archives received a treasure trove of German archival documents sent to them by Julius Böhler's nephew, Florian Eitle-Böhler. There was now secure evidence that Ringling was not only a collector, he was an investor and partner, working in close consort with his dealer Julius Wilhelm Böhler (1883-1966).
This book is a case study of the life of a painting that typifies much of the unpleasant side of the business of the international art world. The story is a result of serendipity, the author in 2008 reading Jonathan Lopez's book, The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren, and discovering that Ringling himself was once the co-owner, not of a Van Meegeren, but of a well-known but poor Vermeer imitation, The Girl With the Blue Hat.
Special Vermeer Exhibiton at the Newly Reopened Frick Collection in 2025
Vermeer’s Love Letters
June 18 –September 8, 2025
Frick Collection, New York
The Frick Collection will reopen in April 2025 (exact date to be announced), introducing significant changes and additions to its renowned New York City mansion. Among the highlights of the reopening is a groundbreaking Vermeer exhibition, Vermeer’s Love Letters,which will bring together three notable Vermeer paintings with a letter-writing theme: Mistress and Maid (Frick Collection), The Love Letter (Rijksmuseum), and Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid (National Gallery of Ireland). This exhibition will run from June 18 to September 8, 2025, and will showcase Vermeer's intimate depictions of letter-writing within a specially-designed gallery, offering an unparalleled viewing experience, and will offer visitors an opportunity to consider Vermeer’s treatment of the theme of letters as well as his depiction of women of different social classes.
The exhibition is curated by Dr. Robert Fucci, a distinguished expert on Vermeer from the University of Amsterdam, who will author a catalogue focused on the three works and their broader themes in seventeenth-century Dutch art.
In addition to the Vermeer exhibition, the museum’s extensive renovations include opening the second floor of the mansion to the public for the first time. This newly accessible space will feature ten galleries, including the Boucher Room in its original setting, along with displays of recently acquired objects, clocks, and watches. Visitors can also explore a new Cabinet Gallery on the first floor, which will exhibit rare drawings and sketches by artists such as Rubens, Degas, and Goya.
This reopening underscores the Frick's dedication to both its historic legacy and the enhancement of public access to its collections, aiming to captivate both new and returning visitors with its transformed and expanded spaces.
Vermeer's House: Hans Slager rebufs Frans Grijzenhout's recent claims about the location of Johannes Vermeer's house
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/SLAGER-VermeersHouseAgainandtheJesuit%20Church.pdf
In his article "Vermeer's House Again and the Jesuit Church," Hans Slager critiques Frans Grijzenhout's recent claims about the location of Johannes Vermeer's house (published in "Finding Vermeer, Back to the Molenpoort") and the hidden Jesuit church in Delft. Grijzenhout relies on a 1674 taxation ledger to place Vermeer’s residence at the eastern corner of the Molenpoort, but Slager argues that this method is flawed due to the many unknowns, guesswork, and incomplete research. Instead, Slager maintains his previously reasoned likelihood that Vermeer lived on the western corner of the Molenpoort, in a house called Trapmolen. He emphasizes that there is no solid proof for Grijzenhout's theory and critiques his reliance on assumptions.
Furthermore, Grijzenhout's analysis of the Jesuit church's location on the Oude Langendijk is also challenged. Slager contends that Grijzenhout misinterprets historical documents and overlooks key archival data. Grijzenhout suggests the church was located in the second and third houses east of the Molenpoort, while Slager maintains that it was in the fourth and fifth house, supported by schematic reconstructions and archival data.
If you prefer, you can click here to view the PDF in a new tab.
A Pulldown Database of Johannes Vermeer's Artistic, Social, and Personal Interactions
This interactive study is an exploration of the diverse and interconnected relationships that Johannes Vermeer maintained throughout his life with his professional, private mileau, and broader cultural setting. To illustrate these relationships, a list has been developed of individuals who may have come into contact, influenced, or been influenced by Vermeer, whether directly, or indirectly. This includes painters, clients, relatives, amateur scientists, writers, men of culture, as well as civic and religious officials.
Each entry is accompanied by an essential discourse on the individual's contributions or relevance in their respective fields, followed by their specific interactions or connections with Vermeer. The latter is indicated by an icon of Vermeer's signature.
Frans Grijzenhout revises the location of Vermeer's house
"Finding Vermeer"
by Frans Grijzenhout
Art historians, historiographers, and archive researchers have long debated the precise location where Vermeer resided with his family in a house rented by his mother-in-law, Maria Thins, in the Papenhoek (Papists’ Corner) area of Delft, where Vermeer presumably painted for most of his career. Was it the house called Groot Serpent on the eastern corner of Oude Langendijk and Molenpoort, or Trapmolen, on the western corner?
Over the past several decades, art history literature, following the archivist A.J.J.M. van Peer’s lead, has virtually without exception asserted that it was the large Groot Serpent. However, archival researcher Hans Slager has recently submitted that Vermeer and his family family actually lived in the smaller Trapmolen. This location was embraced by Pieter Roelefs in the catalogue of the Rijksmuseum Vermeer retrospective of 2023.
However, Frans Grijzenhout, art historian of the Early Modern Period, now presents an archival source that has not yet been included in the debate on the location of Vermeer's house, overturning Slager's claim. Moreover, Grijzenhout brings forward arguments to establish the exact location on Oude Langendijk of the Jesuit church, a significnat landmark for Delft's Catholic community as well as for Vermeer and his family.
Essential Vermeer goes YouTube! (sort of)
After months of struggling to squash the formidable learning curve of producing video content, I've launched my latest intuitive: YouTube channel called My Take!: Vermeer’s Paintings One by One.
So why on earth did it ever come to this?
Well, in the last twenty years I’ve done my very best to present the most thorough and balanced view of Vermeer’s art on the Essential Vermeer capitalizing on the immense and largely unexplored potential of the internet in regards to art historical issues. One of my top priorities has been objectivity.
However, in recent years I've felt a growing need to communicate my own thoughts and feelings tempered by years of experience as a painter and ordinary person in front of extraordinary art.
The most efficient and effective means to communicate highly personalized content of this type is, I believe, via the video. It has the added advantage of allowing me to express myself with absolute freedom while maintaining the boundaries between the contents Essential Vermeer website and my videos clearly demarked.
I’ve just uploaded the first two videos: one on the Girl with a Flute, which the National Gallery of Art has officially demoted, and the other, A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals in the New York Leiden Collection.
Both presented quite a few thorns.
Have a look and let me know your reactions in the comments.
- My Take: Girl with a Pearl Earring
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oU6FCr6K34> - My Take: Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window
<https://youtu.be/15PJ_5WQECo> - My Take: Young Woman Seated at the Virginals
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otelenp40oA> - My Take: Girl with a Flute
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67DFAYyvOE8>