Johannes Vermeer and the Rhoon Castle
Johannes Vermeer and the Rhoon Castle
H.G.Slager
2022
In this new paper, Hans Slager submits a hitherto unrecorded location where Vermeer may have created some of his paintings, based on visual evidence and events from his Catholic circle in Delft. Previously unconnected to Vermeer, Slager’s findings indicate that the artist may have painted in Rhoon castle, situated a few kilometers south of Rotterdam. He argues that the heraldic motif in two of Vermeer's paintings, The Glass of Wine (Berlin) and The Girl with a Wine Glass (Brunswick), is likely linked to the name Wendelnesse, a fourteenth-century castle lady. A further inference is that a Delft Jesuit named Isaac van de Mije may have been Vermeer’s teacher. As so often in Vermeer-related studies nothing is ironclad, but Slager's scenario makes good sense and fills in various unknowns in Vermeer’s career.
Click here to access PDF file of the paper.
Vermeer's Astronomer on Loan to Louvre Abu Dhabi for One Year
Vermeer’s Astronomer has been lent to the Louvre Abu Dhabi along with 59 other paintings of the Louvre Paris, perhaps for a year. No other information is currently available.
Online Seminar
Girl with a Pearl Earring: Vermeer’s Mid-Career Masterpiece, Technique & Illusion
Jørgen Wadum
April 7, 2022 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm BST
Price: £25.00
Places Available: 80
Platform: Zoom
In this seminar, Jørgen Wadum will examine the painting techniques of Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) and take as its starting point the restoration and examinations of the Girl with a Pearl Earring. The artist’s understanding of light and perspective, the use of a traditional, yet effectful way of creating convincing spatial illusions will be set against his proposed use of a camera obscura. Debateable attributions will be presented and placed within the techniques of the master both early and late in his career.
Jørgen Wadum is Special Advisor of Dutch & Flemish art at the Nivaagaard Collection, Nivå, Denmark.
Until 2020 Wadum was director of the Centre for Art Technological Studies and Conservation (CATS), Copenhagen, and 2012-2016 he held the position as full Professor in Conservation & Restoration at the University of Amsterdam. From 1990 through 2004 he was Chief Conservator at the Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands. He has published and lectured extensively internationally on a multitude of subjects related to technical art history and other issues of importance for the understanding and keeping of our cultural heritage.
There will be a 55min presentation followed by 15min of discussion.
Click here to enquire about this event.
Dutch Painting Exhibition in Tokyo with Vermeer's Recently Restored Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window Reopens
Johannes Vermeer and 17th-Century Dutch Paintings
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
February 10–April 3, 2022
After a brief closure due to the COVID oandemic, exhibiton of Dutch painting in Japan with Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window has been reopened on February 10, 2022.
After a thorough restoration of the masterpiece revealed a "picture-within-a-picture" showing a Cupid, which had been painted over by another artist years after the painting had left Vermeer's studio. Also featured will be some sixty seventeenth-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.
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/vermeerten/
Tel: 03-3823-6921
Fax: 03-3823-6920
Dutch Painting Exhibition with Vermeer's Recently Restored Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window Cancelled for Covid.
Johannes Vermeer and 17th-Century Dutch Paintings
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
January 22 – April 3, 2022
The exhibiton of Dutch painting with Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window in Japan has been cancelled due to the latest Covid 19 outbreak. The new opening date and ticket reservation start date will be announced on the official exhibition website.
After a thorough restoration of the masterpiece revealed a "picture-within-a-picture" showing a Cupid, which had been painted over by another artist years after the painting had left Vermeer's studio. 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.
Tel: 03-3823-6921
Fax: 03-3823-6920
Vermeer Dresden Exhibition with Ten Vermeer Paintings in Old Masters Pictures Gallery Suspended Due to Anti-COVID-19 Measures
Vermeer: On Reflection
Old Master Pictures Gallery, Dresden
September 10, 2021 - Januarury 2, 2022
The exhibiton has been temporarily closed until further notice due to recent anti-COVID-19 restrictions.
On the occasion of the newly-restored Girl Reading a Letter at an Open WIndow, the Dresden Gemäldegalerie has inaurgurated a special exhibition Vermeer, which is to be shown in the special exhibition rooms of the Semper building on the Zwinger in only one exhibition station.
At the heart of the exhibition are the Girl Reading a Letter at the Open Window and another 9 paintings by Vermeer that are closely related to the picture. Moreover, 40–50 works of Dutch genre painting from the second half of the 17th century, including major works by Pieter de Hooch, Frans van Mieris, Gerard Ter Borch, Gabriel Metsu, Gerard Dou, Emanuel de Witte and Jan Steen, also present Vermeer's artistic environment with whom he was in close contact. Selected examples from other art forms such as sculptures, graphic prints, porcelain, and historical furniture will enrich the exhibition in a meaningful relationship to individual paintings.
The restored masterpiece will be shown in an historically-accurate ebony frame.
Vermeer paintings on display: The Procuress, Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, The Little Street, The Girl with a Wine Glass, Girl Interrupted in her Music, Woman with a Pearl Necklace, Woman Holding a Balance, The Geographer and A Lady Standing at the Virginal.
For further information contact: besucherservice@skd.museum, or visit:
https://gemaeldegalerie.skd.museum/ausstellungen/vermeer-johannes-vermeers-dresdner-briefleserin-am-offenen-fenster-und-die-hollaendische-genremalerei-des-17-jahrhunderts/
The Restoration
From the Gemäldegalerie website:
After a full restoration, and for the first time in over two and a half centuries, Johannes Vermeer’s well-known and loved painting Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window has been returned to its original condition when it left the artist’s studio. The famous work will be presented to the public as the focal point and highlight of the Johannes Vermeer. On Reflection exhibition starting on 10 September 2021 in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.
The canvas, painted around 1657-1659, was acquired in Paris in 1742 for the collection of Saxon Prince Elector Friedrich Augustus II, and has been one of the principal works in Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie ever since. An X-ray taken of the painting in 1979 showed that there was a fully overpainted picture-within-a-picture of a nude Cupid that adorned the room’s rear wall in the background. Annaliese Mayer-Meintschel first published this fascinating finding in 1982, and it has been cited in many works on the subject. Since then, academics have assumed that Vermeer rejected the Cupid painting as he was unhappy with the composition, and painted over the room’s rear wall himself.
During a restoration and research project that began in 2017 and was supported by a panel of international experts, the team made or re-evaluated X-rays, infrared reflectance spectroscopies and microscopies of the oil painting in the past few years. The backing canvas was also analyzed in detail and research was conducted into the painting’s restoration history. Multiple color samples were taken from Vermeer’s painting and the layers and consistency were analyzed in Dresden Academy of Fine Arts’ Laboratory of Archaeometry (HfBK). These studies played a decisive role in reassessing the extensive overpainting of the Cupid figure in the Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. We can now safely state that it was not Vermeer himself who painted over the background, and that the retrospective change was applied at least several decades after the painting was made, and significantly after the artist’s death. A full-surface X-ray fluorescence scan of the painting, conducted with the support of the Rijksmuseum in 2017, confirmed our new findings on the overpainting.
Given the strong evidence that a third party had painted over the Cupid retroactively, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD), endorsed by the panel of experts, made the decision in early 2018 to remove the overpainted layer. Christoph Schölzel, a conservator at the SKD Paintings Conservation Workshop, took on overall responsibility for restoration of the painting.
Following completion of the restoration process in early 2021, the painting now has an entirely new look. A standing Cupid with a bow, arrows, and two masks has been revealed in the background, enriching the room’s rear wall as a picture-within-a-picture. The figure is treading on the masks of pretence lying on the ground before him – a sign of sincere love overcoming deception and hypocrisy. The presence of Cupid in the composition is a meaningful ‘comment’ that adds greatly to the painting’s message.
Stephan Koja, Director of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister und Skulpturensammlung bis 1800: "It is in Girl Reading a Letter that Vermeer discovers his own, distinct style. It marks the beginning of a series of paintings in which individuals, generally women, pause during an activity to find a moment of calm, and to reflect. In this series, Vermeer examines fundamental existential questions, in particular in this piece: Restoring the Cupid in the background shows us the master from Delft’s true intention. Beyond the superficial romantic context, it makes a fundamental statement on the nature of true love. Until now, we could only see this as a fragment. Now we know what a key role it plays in his oeuvre."
Uta Neidhardt, Head Conservator and Exhibition Curator: "The changed appearance of the Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, including the overpainting removed at the borders of the canvas, gives us an opportunity to reconsider the painting’s composition and how it works visually. The borders appear curiously unfinished—perhaps Vermeer covered it with an actual wooden frame, which is why he left them in such an "open" condition. If we assume that he had planned to use such a construction, we immediately recall the experimental works by church interior painters from Delft, with their trompe-l’oeil curtains, or Pieter de Hooch’s intricate interiors."
Exhibition Catalogue
Johannes Vermeer: On Reflection
Stephan Koja, Uta Neidhardt; Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. et al.,
264 pages, 252 color illus.
2021
On the occasion of the ground breaking Vermeer exhibition, Vermeer : On Reflection in Dresden, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden has published a sumptuously illustrated catalogue that will illustrate the relationships and interactions in the work of the Delft painter and his fellow artists. The catalogue brings together texts by renowned authors who address both the restored work and fundamental questions about the style and essence of Vermeer's painting, his optical realism, his love symbolism and the world of women in the so-called Golden Age.
Purchase here:
https://amzn.to/3W19UEo
Thumb Through the Catalogue at:
https://verlag.sandstein.de/reader/98-611_Vermeer-engl/
Essays:
STEPHAN KOJA - From the Inner Support of the World: Vermeer's Painting as Spaces for Reflection
ARTHUR K. WHEELOCK JR. - Johannes Vermeer: A Classicist among Genre Painters
MARJORIE E. WIESEMAN - Women in the Republic of United Netherlands: Genre Painting and Society in the Second Half of the 17th 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 the Open Window in a New Shape
CHRISTOPH SCHÖLZEL - The Restoration and Painting Technique of the Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window by Johannes Vermeer
An extensive accompanying program, which includes film documentation and a digitorial, as well as special tours, a series of lectures and a reading series, serves to convey the ambitious exhibition project. A catalog and a children's guide will be published for the special exhibition.
Below are the ten Vermeer paintings that will be part of the exhibition.
First Image of Newly-Restored Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window Just Released
The Dresden Gemäldegalerie has just posted the first image of the newly restored early masterpiece Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window by Vermeer that has undergone a major restoration initiated in May 2017. The picture exhibits a brilliant color scheme that is quite in line with Vermeer's other early works (e.g., The Procuress, The Milkmaid, Officer and Laughing Girl), all very distant from the previous comfortable but false Rembrandtesque glow caused by aged varnish.
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window Johannes Vermeer
c. 1657–1659
Oil on canvas, 83 x 64.5 cm.
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
© Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden,photo: Wolfgang Kreische
From the Gemäldegalerie website:
After a full restoration, and for the first time in over two and a half centuries, Johannes Vermeer’s well-known and loved painting Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window has been returned to its original condition when it left the artist’s studio. The famous work will be presented to the public as the focal point and highlight of the Johannes Vermeer. On Reflection exhibition starting on 10 September 2021 in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.
The canvas, painted around 1657-1659, was acquired in Paris in 1742 for the collection of Saxon Prince Elector Friedrich Augustus II, and has been one of the principal works in Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie ever since. An X-ray taken of the painting in 1979 showed that there was a fully overpainted picture-within-a-picture of a nude Cupid that adorned the room’s rear wall in the background. Annaliese Mayer-Meintschel first published this fascinating finding in 1982, and it has been cited in many works on the subject. Since then, academics have assumed that Vermeer rejected the Cupid painting as he was unhappy with the composition, and painted over the room’s rear wall himself.
During a restoration and research project that began in 2017 and was supported by a panel of international experts, the team made or re-evaluated X-rays, infrared reflectance spectroscopies and microscopies of the oil painting in the past few years. The backing canvas was also analyzed in detail and research was conducted into the painting’s restoration history. Multiple color samples were taken from Vermeer’s painting and the layers and consistency were analyzed in Dresden Academy of Fine Arts’ Laboratory of Archaeometry (HfBK). These studies played a decisive role in reassessing the extensive overpainting of the Cupid figure in the Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. We can now safely state that it was not Vermeer himself who painted over the background, and that the retrospective change was applied at least several decades after the painting was made, and significantly after the artist’s death. A full-surface X-ray fluorescence scan of the painting, conducted with the support of the Rijksmuseum in 2017, confirmed our new findings on the overpainting.
Given the strong evidence that a third party had painted over the Cupid retroactively, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD), endorsed by the panel of experts, made the decision in early 2018 to remove the overpainted layer. Christoph Schölzel, a conservator at the SKD Paintings Conservation Workshop, took on overall responsibility for restoration of the painting.
Following completion of the restoration process in early 2021, the painting now has an entirely new look. A standing Cupid with a bow, arrows, and two masks has been revealed in the background, enriching the room’s rear wall as a picture-within-a-picture. The figure is treading on the masks of pretence lying on the ground before him—a sign of sincere love overcoming deception and hypocrisy. The presence of Cupid in the composition is a meaningful ‘comment’ that adds greatly to the painting’s message.
Stephan Koja, Director of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister und Skulpturensammlung bis 1800: "It is in Girl Reading a Letter that Vermeer discovers his own, distinct style. It marks the beginning of a series of paintings in which individuals, generally women, pause during an activity to find a moment of calm, and to reflect. In this series, Vermeer examines fundamental existential questions, in particular in this piece: Restoring the Cupid in the background shows us the master from Delft’s true intention. Beyond the superficial romantic context, it makes a fundamental statement on the nature of true love. Until now, we could only see this as a fragment. Now we know what a key role it plays in his oeuvre."
Uta Neidhardt, Head Conservator and Exhibition Curator: "The changed appearance of the Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, including the overpainting removed at the borders of the canvas, gives us an opportunity to reconsider the painting’s composition and how it works visually. The borders appear curiously unfinished—perhaps Vermeer covered it with an actual wooden frame, which is why he left them in such an "open" condition. If we assume that he had planned to use such a construction, we immediately recall the experimental works by church interior painters from Delft, with their trompe-l’oeil curtains, or Pieter de Hooch’s intricate interiors."
On the occasion, the Gemäldegalerie is planning the exhibition Vermeer, which is to be shown in the special exhibition rooms of the Semper building on the Zwinger in only one exhibition station.
At the heart of the exhibition are the Girl Reading a Letter at the Open Window and another 9 paintings by Vermeer that are closely related to the picture. Moreover, 40–50 works of Dutch genre painting from the second half of the 17th century, including major works by Pieter de Hooch, Frans van Mieris, Gerard Ter Borch, Gabriel Metsu, Gerard Dou, Emanuel de Witte and Jan Steen, also present Vermeer's artistic environment with whom he was in close contact. Selected examples from other art forms such as sculptures, graphic prints, porcelain, and historical furniture will enrich the exhibition in a meaningful relationship to individual paintings.
The restored masterpiece will be shown in an historically-accurate ebony frame in the Johannes Vermeer. On Reflection exhibition (10 September 2021 until 2 January 2022).
As a result of the research project, the painting technique and restoration of the Girl Reading a Letter at the Open Window will be devoted to a separate exhibition segment to illustrate the comple, experimental process used in creating the painting.
For further information contact: besucherservice@skd.museum, or visit:
https://gemaeldegalerie.skd.museum/ausstellungen/vermeer-johannes-vermeers-dresdner-briefleserin-am-offenen-fenster-und-die-hollaendische-genremalerei-des-17-jahrhunderts/
Essential Vermeer Facebook
Special Exhibition with Three Vermeers in The Hague
Facelifts & Makeovers
Mauritshuis, The Hague
October 7, 2021–January 9, 2022
https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/what-s-on/exhibitions/
From the Mauritshuis website:
Very few people know that there is a conservation studio in the Mauritshuis attic. A team of in-house conservators works there, dedicating their time to conservation, restoration, and research and ensuring that the collection remains in top condition. In 2021 it will be some 25 years since the studio was installed in the attic. In Facelift & Make-overs the most intriguing restorations of the past twenty years will be unveiled, including paintings by Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Hals, Steen, and Rubens, but also by some lesser-known artists such as Cornelis de Heem and Jacob Ochtervelt. Restoring centuries-old paintings appeals to the imagination. What does it involve? What can we learn from conservation treatment? What do paintings look like "before" and "after"? And what have been the most surprising findings?
How is it possible that centuries-old paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Rubens still look so good today? This is partly thanks to conservators, who ensure that paintings are preserved in the best possible way.
The exhibition Facelift & Make-overs shines a light on what usually remains out of sight, namely the conservation of paintings. What is conservation? Why is it necessary? And what secrets do conservators uncover above and below the layers of paint? Welcome to the hidden world of conservation!
Vermeer's Allegory of Faith Travels to Australia
European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
June 12, 2021–October 17, 2021
Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art will be the exclusive Australian venue for a major exhibition which will feature many of the most important works of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the majority of which rarely leave permanent display in New York. European Masterpieces’ will include portraiture, still-life, landscape, and figure studies and will be a must-see for art-lovers and anyone with an interest in history, society or art.
Vermeer's late-career Allegory of Faith will be among the paintings exhibited. Other works include Titian’s Venus and Adonis,"Caravaggio’s The Musicia, Rembrandt’s Flora and Vincent van Gogh’s The Flowering Orchard.
Vermeer's Music Lesson on Continous Display at Buckingham Palace
Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace
The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London
Friday, 11 December 2020 - Monday, 31 January 2022
The exhibition brings together some of the most important paintings in the Royal Collection from the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Normally on public view for a limited time during the annual Summer Opening of the Palace, the paintings will be shown in The Queen’s Gallery while reservicing works are carried out to protect the historic building for future generations. The Picture Gallery was originally designed by the architect John Nash for George IV to display his collection of Dutch, Flemish, and Italian Old Master paintings.
Artists represented in the exhibition include Titian, Guercino, Guido Reni, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens, Jan Steen, Claude, Canaletto, and Vermeer with his late-career masterpiece, The Music Lesson. All events at the Queen's Gallery Buckingham Palace will be managed in line with COVID-secure procedures.
New Essential Vermeer Article about the House Where Vermeer Grew Up
Mechelen: 1625–1885
curated by Jonathan Janson
Mechelen
In 1641, the young Vermeer and his family moved into a large building on the corner of Market Place and Old Men's Ally in Delft called Mechelen. Here his father would conduct his business as an innkeeper, art dealer and caffa worker, and, perhaps, Vermeer made his first paintings. Little is know about the building except that it had four fireplaces and was demolished in 1885. In mainstream Vermeer-related literature Mechelen has been traditionally illustrated with a print of the Market Place published in c. 1730 by Leonard Schenk. However, only a few of today's Vermeer devotees are aware that a number of images of Mechelen have survived.
This brand-new, richly illustrated EV article traces the life of the building from 1625, when the first known effigy was made, to 1885, when plans were drawn up to widen the narrow Old Men's Ally by demolishing the historic building.
The article features an in-depth analysis of rarely considered period engravings, lithographs, maps, diagrams, and pre-1885 photographs. Moreover, two 3-D virtual reconstructions help us to picture what Mechelen may have looked like in 1625 and in its final days. In-depth research was done in collaboration with the painter and Vermeer lover Peter Jochems. 3-D reconstructions by Timothy De Paepe, curator of the Museum Vleeshuis.
New Book on Vermeer Thief
The Woman Who Stole Vermeer: The True Story of Rose Dugdale and the Russborough House Art Heist
Anthony M. Amore
Available at Amazon.com: November 10, 2020
https://amzn.to/3BWj7ac
The extraordinary life and crimes of heiress-turned-revolutionary Rose Dugdale, who in 1974 became the only woman to pull off a major art heist.
In the world of crime, there exists an unusual commonality between those who steal art and those who repeatedly kill: they are almost exclusively male. But, as with all things, there is always an outlier—someone who bucks the trend, defying the reliable profiles and leaving investigators and researchers scratching their heads. In the history of major art heists, that outlier is Rose Dugdale.
Dugdale’s life is singularly notorious. Born into extreme wealth, she abandoned her life as an Oxford-trained PhD and heiress to join the cause of Irish Republicanism. While on the surface she appears to be the British version of Patricia Hearst, she is anything but.
Dugdale ran head-first towards the action, spearheading the first aerial terrorist attack in British history and pulling off the biggest art theft of her time. In 1974, she led a gang into the opulent Russborough House in Ireland and made off with millions in prized paintings, including works by Goya, Gainsborough, and Rubens, as well as Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid by the mysterious master Johannes Vermeer. Dugdale thus became—to this day—the only woman to pull off a major art heist. And as Anthony Amore explores in The Woman Who Stole Vermeer, it’s likely that this was not her only such heist.
The Woman Who Stole Vermeer is Rose Dugdale’s story, from her idyllic upbringing in Devonshire and her presentation to Elizabeth II as a debutante to her university years and her eventual radical lifestyle. Her life of crime and activism is at turns unbelievable and awe-inspiring, and sure to engross readers.
"Minor" Dutch Painter Reevaluated: First Venue (Munich) Canceled.
Who was Jacobus Vrel? Looking for Clues of an Enigmatic Painter
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
October 19, 2021 - January 23, 2022
As a result of the Covid pandemic, the first venue (Munich) of the exhibition has been canceled.
Jacobus Vrel’s works seemingly reflect everyday life in a small Dutch town in the 17th century while creating enigmatic worlds at the same time in which the viewer is not addressed in any way at all. The figures turn away from us, show only their backs or appear lost in thought. The depictions even exude, in part, an oppressive stillness. Not without reason a close affinity to the well-known Dane Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916) has repeatedly been construed, whose atmospheric compositions, however, were created two centuries later.
Equally unusual are Vrel’s street scenes. The spatial arrangement of the buildings shown is reminiscent of film or theater sets. It is difficult to find comparable examples from the painter’s own time. There are neither plausible paradigms nor are there any clear similarities to the works of better-known fellow artists. Always in vertical format, the compositions show multi-storeyed but slender brick houses, mostly with pointed gabled roofs, lined up close to one another. Only a few figures populate the narrow alleyways paved with cobblestones. Are these real places that Vrel has rendered here or are they the painter’s invention, bearing no semblance to his immediate surroundings?
Together with the Fondation Custodia in Paris and the Mauritshuis in The Hague, the Alte Pinakothek in Munich is staging the first monographic exhibition on the mysterious painter Jacobus Vrel and, with 35 paintings by Vrel, focuses on this harbinger of modernism whose secret is only revealed at second glance. The new findings of the international project do away with the preconceived notion of a "Vermeer du pauvre"—the poor-man’s Vermeer—and show that Vrel is to be seen much more as a precursor of Pieter de Hooch and Vermeer and not as their successor.
Related Publication:
A comprehensive monograph with a catalogue of all the artist’s works will be published in German, English, and French to accompany the exhibition.
All Venues:
Alte Pinakothek, Munich (13 October 2020 – 10 January 2021)
Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris (2003?)
Mauritshuis, The Hague (2003?)
Essential Vermeer Article on the Maps in Vermeer's Painting
"Vermeer's Maps"
Curated by Jonathan Janson
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/maps/vermeers-maps.html
In half a dozen of Vermeer's paintings, five maps can be seen hanging on the white-washed walls of his interior (another map, a large wall map, had originally been included Woman with a Pearl Necklace but was subsequently eliminated by the artist). Other than being interesting compositional elements and a technical challenge of the first order, maps provided Vermeer and many other Dutch painters a type of theoretical window to the greater world outside of the quiet intimacy of household environment. This lushly illustrated article provides historic information about each of the maps as well as a technical analysis of how they were painted.
Vermeer's Music Lesson on Dispay at Buckingham Palace for Two Years
Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace
The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London
Friday, 11 Dec 2020 - Monday, 31 Jan 2022
https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/masterpieces-from-buckingham-palace/the-queens-gallery-buckingham
The exhibition brings together some of the most important paintings in the Royal Collection from the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Usually on public view during the annual Summer Opening of the Palace, the paintings will be shown in The Queen’s Gallery while Reservicing works are carried out to protect the historic building for future generations. The Picture Gallery was originally designed by the architect John Nash for George IV to display his collection of Dutch, Flemish, and Italian Old Master paintings.
Artists represented in the exhibition include Titian, Guercino, Guido Reni, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens, Jan Steen, Claude, Canaletto, and Vermeer with his masteriece, The Music Lesson
Be Alone with a Vermeer Masterpiece
Alone with Vermeer
Exhibition:
September 26, 2020–3 January 2021
The renowned French novelist Marcel Proust visited the Mauritshuis in 1902 and was deeply impressed by Vermeer’s masterpiece. Many years later he wrote in a letter: "From the moment that I saw View of Delft in the museum in The Hague, I knew that I had seen the most beautiful painting in the world."
This exhibition consists solely of the View of Delft. During a pre-booked slot, visitors will have the opportunity–either alone or in a very small group–to experience in silence the effect that this very special artwork has on them. An ideal viewing experience is being created to support this: subtle design, perfect lighting and no external sounds or distractions. Alone with Vermeer. For many this display offers the opportunity to (re)discover their favorite painting, with which they sometimes already have a strong bond, in a unique environment.
Find more information and book your time slot alone with View of Delft via the museum website:
https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/ticketshop/alleenvermeer/selecteer/
New Film about Vermeer Forger, Han van Meegeren
The Last Vermeer
Director: Dan Friedkin
Writers: Jonathan Lopez (based on the book The Man Who Made Vermeers)
Stars: Guy Pearce, Claes Bang, Vicky Krieps
2019
The Last Vermeer (originally titled Lyrebird) is an American drama film directed by Dan Friedkin from a screenplay by John Orloff, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby. It is based on the 2008 book The Man Who Made Vermeers by Jonathan Lopez, and tells the story of Han van Meegeren (played by Guy Pearce), an art forger who forged Vermer paintings and swindled millions of dollars from the Nazis, alongside Dutch Resistance fighter Joseph Piller (Claes Bang).
The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2019, and is scheduled to be theatrically released on November 20, 2020, by Tristar Pictures.
Read an exclusive interveiw with Lopez at:
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/interviews_newsletter/lopez_interview.html
The Frick Collections Upgrades Web Presence and Adds a New Page on Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer
https://www.frick.org/art/artists/vermeer
The Frick recently upped their digital presence with an elegant, user-friendly web study dedicated exclusively to their three paintings by Vermeer: Officer and Laughing Girl, Girl Interrupted in her Music and Mistress and Maid. their three Vermeers. The page offers access to the paintings, articles, podcasest, and a few vidoes, as well links to as the Frick's rich collection of Photoarchive images, scanned books and archival documents.
Frick Curator Aimee Ng Pulls Back the Curtain on Vermeer's Mistress and Maid in Video
Cocktails with a Curator: Vermeer's Mistress and Maid
Friday, December 11, 2020, 5 p.m. EST
In an initiative to bring the public closer to its fabulous collection, the Frick is "concocting the perfect mix of cocktails and art." Every Friday at 5:00 p.m., join the Frick for happy hour (remotely) while a museum insider offers insights on a work of art with a complementary cocktail (sorry, the Frick will provide the happiness but you have to mix you own beverage).
This Friday's Cocktails with a Curator video (available at link below from 5 p.m. NYC time) will feature Vermeer's luxurious Mistress and Maid. Curator Aimee Ng will pull back the curtain on hidden details in the painting, the largest of the Frick’s three Vermeers. Take a closer look at the rumpled tablecloth, the lady’s wispy curls, and the dark background to understand how this mysterious work has changed since Vermeer applied paint to canvas in the mid-17th century.
Youtube Cocktails with a Curator playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNVeJpU2DHHR_0y_Zvgn3MgZQQFcFx2eI
Cocktail:
Genever Brulée: 2 oz. genever, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, few dashes of classic bitters, dash of orange bitters, a splash of sparkling water, garnished with a caramelized orange slice.
Suggested image:
In order to get the most out of the talk you might wish to pull up a good image of the Mistress and Maid and set it side by side on your monitor as the video plays. The largest image is at the Google Art Project:
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/mistress-and-maid-johannes-vermeer/xwFyx_AQGT2Y-w?hl=en\
But the colors are far superior on the Frick website, although it is a bit more tricky to maneuver the painting in the zoom box.
https://collections.frick.org/objects/274/mistress-and-maid
Video Episode from the Frick Collection, New York:v
Cocktails with a Curator: Vermeer's 'Officer and Laughing Girl'
Frick curator Aimee Ng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zol1VWHPKdU&list=PLNVeJpU2DHHR_0y_Zvgn3MgZQQFcFx2eI&index=1
Have you heard about the weekly Cocktails with a Curator video premieres yet? Friday at 5 p.m. NYC time....a curator of the Frick Collection speaks in a fresh way about a work from the renowned New York collection collection, often with reference to the moment we're in... and there is a cocktail (and mocktail) accompaniment as well.
In this week’s episode of Cocktails with a Curator, get up close to one of the Frick’s three beloved Vermeer paintings, Officer and Laughing Girl, with Curator Aimee Ng. While enjoying your Kopstootje—a shot of jenever (a traditional Dutch liquor) paired with a pint of beer—join Aimee in examining the artist’s masterful skill at portraying light and exploring the complex histories behind a seemingly simple hat.
(See the playlist of all published Cocktails with a Curator on the icon with "1/15" of the video below)
Vermeer-Related Talk by David G. Stork
David G. Stork, PhD Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, special online LASER Talk at the UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences entitled "Did Tim paint a Vermeer?"
Lecture Given: October 13, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8MTFw8bG-o&list=PLRYckK179c3R2IVbSkOFXNIicfde7YYEU&index=1
Scientist Attempts to Refine Dating of Vermeer’s View of Delft
Dating Vermeer’s View of Delft
Sky & Telescope (25–20)
Donald Olson, Regents Professor Emeritus
2020
https://skyandtelescope.org/magazine_categories/sky-and-telescope-magazine/
Known as the "celestial sleuth" for his work in so-called "forensic astronomy," Donald Olson, an astronomer at Texas State University, and a few colleagues, were able to determine the precise time of day that Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt took iconic photograph: a sailor and a woman in a white nurse's uniform kissing in the young lady. More recently Olson turned his attention to Vermeer's View of Delft. After lengthy investigation which entailed making precise measurements of the painting's architectural features, traveling to Delft to make on-site measurements, including topographical surveys and taking photographs roughly in line with what would have been Vermeer's viewpoint, he claims that he ia able to give a more accurate date of the painting. He states "If Vermeer intended to portray a morning scene consistent with the time shown by the clock in the painting, then the combined evidence—the hour hand of the Schiedam Gate clock, the empty bell tower, and the Sun’s position in the sky—indicates that the painting dates from 1659 or an earlier year and matches the view that the artist could have observed from his window at the inn at 8:00 a.m. on a date near September." Although Olson grants the painting could have taken weeks, months or even years to paint, he maintains that "the remarkably accurate depiction of the distinctive and fleeting pattern of light and shadows on the Nieuwe Kerk suggests that at least this detail was inspired by direct observation of the sunlit tower rising above the wall and roofs of Delft."
Review:
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-celestial-sleuth-vermeer-masterpiece-view.html
Vermeer's The Concert to be Recovered?
The Billion Dollar Art Hunt
BBC
On October 19
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000nnzl/the-billion-dollar-art-hunt
On October 19, the BBC Four broadcast a documentary called The Billion Dollar Art Hunt.
As most of us will remember, on 18 March 1990, $1bn-worth of paintings were stolen from the walls of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum including Vermeer's The Concert. 29 years later, journalist John Wilson received a tipoff that the works WERE ABOUT TO BE RECOVERED—not in Boston, as the FBI had assumed, but in west Dublin.
Wilson’s source is Charley Hill, a former detective in the Metropolitan Police Art Squad with a record of recovering famous paintings estimated at $100 million, including Munch’s The Scream and a Vermeer stolen from an Irish stately home. Hill, works privately now but is convinced that his intelligence about the Boston art theft is solid. A notorious Dublin gangster, Martin "The Viper " Foley, who was cultivated by Hill for years says he knows where the art can be found and wants to claim the $10 million reward. Foley is currently on he run but is 99% sure of the painting’s location.
The documentary recounts Wilson’s investigative journey into the hidden economy.
See:
Vermeer's A Lady Seated at a Virginals Travels to Japan (Tokyo-Osaka) and Australia (Canberra) in 2020/2021
Masterpieces from the National Gallery
Kufu Company Inc., on long-term loan to the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
June 18–October 18, 2020
https://www.nmwa.go.jp/jp/exhibitions/pdf/2020london_gallery_new.pdf
Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London is a largest exhibition ever drawn from the collection of the National Gallery, London. It will include a total of 61 never-before-shown works. Viewers can look forward to world-renowned masterpieces such as Vermeer's A Lady Seated at a Virginal and Vincent van Gogh's, Sunflowers (1888). Originally scheduled to open on 3rd March, the exhibition will begin its four-month stint at the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo on 18th June, followed by two other venues.
Second Venue:
National Museum of Art, Osaka
November 3, 2020–January 31, 2021
Third Venue:
Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery
March 5–June 14, 2021
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/botticelli-to-van-gogh/
Critical Review of Tim Jenison's Claim that Vermeer used a Hitherto Unknown Optical Apparatus to Create his Paintings
Did Tim Paint a Vermeer?
by David G. Stork, Christopher W. Tyler, and Sara J. Schechner
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/StorkTylerSchechner21.pdf
Tim’s Vermeer is a 2013 documentary feature-film following engineer and self-described non-artist Tim Jenison’s extensive efforts to "paint a Vermeer," (The Music Lesson) by means of a novel optical telescope and mirror-comparator procedure. In this article David Stork, Christopher Tyler and Sara Schechner examine Jenison’s proposed telescope optics in historical perspective, the difficulty and efficacy of the mirror comparator procedure and the particular visual evidence adduced in support of the comparator hypothesis. The authors contend some of Jenison key claims, including that the luminescence gradient along the rear wall of Vermeer's painting was impossible to achieve without the use of an optical instrument, as well as the fact that a slight bowing of a few straight lines of the virginals can be explained without the use of a mirror, which is part of Jenison's device. The study emphasizes not only that Jenison's apparatus would have been one of the most complicated optical systems of its time, but that it has thus far been proven particularly difficult to operate in a practical studio setting.
(Accepted for publication)
David G. Stork — scientist and author, who has made contributions to machine learning, pattern recognition, computer vision, artificial intelligence, computational optics, image analysis of fine art, and related fields.
Christopher W. Tyler — Head, Smith-Kettlewell Brain Imaging Center, Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute
Sara J. Schechner — David P. Wheatland Curator Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University
Presentation of a Hitherto Unknown Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting
About Johannes Vermeer: A Case Study
June 17–July 17, 2020
Keizerskapel, Keizerstraat 21-23, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium
The CODART website has just released the announcement of an upcoming presentation called "About Johannes Vermeer: A Case Study." Dr. Jean-Pierre Désiré De Bruyn will present a previously unknown Dutch painting entitled A Young Woman with Wine Glass and Musician Playing a Tenor Recorder (oil on canvas, 47 x 47 cm.) at the Keizerskapel, in Antwerp from June 17 to July 17, 2020.
While stopping short of attributing the painting directly to Vermeer, De Bruyn draws a number of analogies to his authentic works claiming that among the painting's Vermeer ingredients are the background chair with lion-head finials, the gray-wall, the carpet (see that of Vermeer's The Music Lesson), the white faience jug with a silver cap and lady's dress (almost identical to that of Vermeer's The Glass of Wine). He further writes that although "further comparisons can be made with works by Pieter de Hooch, Gabriel Metsu... it seems justifiable that our painting refers to an unknown composition by Johannes Vermeer, dating from the beginning of the 1660's."
Drawn from:
About Johannes Vermeer: A Case Study: Keizerskapel, Antwerp CODART
Latest Results of the Technical Study of Vermeer's Mistress and Maid
Johannes Vermeer’s 'Mistress and Maid': New Discoveries Cast Light on Changes to the Composition and the Discoloration of Some Paint Passages
Dorothy Mahon, Silvia A. Centeno, Margaret Iacono, Federico Carό, Heike Stege & Andrea Obermeier
https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-020-00375-2
Since the nineteenth century, with the growth in the number of studies focusing on Vermeer’s paintings, critics and scholars have struggled to understand the visual peculiarities presented by Mistress and Maid. Recent advances in imaging techniques coupled with the improvement in the sensitivity of microanalytical methods have allowed a team of specialists to address the long-standing questions as well as to resolve some persistent misunderstandings. Among the discovers made while examining this unusually large-scale composition are that a tapestry or painting with multiple figures originally filled up background and that previous speculation that the painting was left in an unfinished state can be definitively put to rest. Discoveries pertaining to a few of the work's original color, which have degraded after the painting left the artist's easel, are also reported.
Latest Results of the Technical Study of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring
The Girl in the Spotlight: Vermeer at Work, his Materials and Techniques in Girl with a Pearl Earring
Abbie Vandivere, Jørgen Wadum & Emilien Leonhardt
Heritage Science volume 8, Article number: 20 (2020)
https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-020-0359-6
The 2018 technical examination project The Girl in the Spotlight aimed to characterize the materials and techniques that Johannes Vermeer used to paint Girl with a Pearl Earring. Five research questions guided the micro- and macro-scale analyses: What can we find out about layers beneath the surface? What steps did Vermeer take to create the painting? Which materials did Vermeer use and where did they come from? Which techniques did Vermeer use to create subtle optical effects? What did the painting look like originally, and how has it changed? This paper concludes the special issue of Heritage Science by summarizing the results and putting them in an art-historical and materials history context.
Six New Technical Investigations of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring
The Girl in the Spotlight: A technical re-examination of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring
edited by Abbie Vandivere (Mauritshuis, The Hague)
https://www.springeropen.com/collections/gits
In 2018, Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring underwent a technical examination within the research project The Girl in the Spotlight. The painting was examined in front of the museum public with state-of-the-art non-invasive imaging techniques. Samples taken during the 1990s were re-analysed. The goal was to document the current condition of the painting, and to find out more about the materials, techniques that Vermeer used to create this masterpiece. This special collection of articles in Heritage Science is devoted to the results of the technical examination.
The research project The Girl in the Spotlight is a Mauritshuis initiative and involves a team of internationally recognized specialists associated with the Netherlands Institute for Conservation+Art+Science+ (NICAS)+, and scientists from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA. It has thus far yielded seven technical reports, which are listed below.
1.
Mapping the pigment distribution of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring
As part of the 2018 Girl in the Spotlight project, reflectance and molecular fluorescence imaging spectroscopy (RIS, FIS), and macroscale X-ray fluorescence scanning (MA-XRF) were performed on Johannes Vermeer's...
authors: John K. Delaney, Kathryn A. Dooley, Annelies van Loon and Abbie Vandivere
2.
Beauty is skin deep: the skin tones of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring
The soft modeling of the skin tones in Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring has been remarked upon by art historians, and is their main argument to date this painting to c. 1665. This paper describe...
authors: Annelies van Loon, Abbie Vandivere, John K. Delaney, Kathryn A. Dooley, Steven De Meyer, Frederik Vanmeert, Victor Gonzalez, Koen Janssens, Emilien Leonhardt, Ralph Haswell, Suzan de Groot, Paolo D'Imporzano and Gareth R. Davies
3.
Comparison of three 3D scanning techniques for paintings, as applied to Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring
A seventeenth-century canvas painting is usually comprised of varnish and (translucent) paint layers on a substrate. A viewer's perception of a work of art can be affected by changes in and damages to these...
authors: Willemijn S. Elkhuizen, Tom W. J. Callewaert, Emilien Leonhardt, Abbie Vandivere, Yu Song, Sylvia C. Pont, Jo M. P. Geraedts and Joris Dik
4.
Fading into the background: the dark space surrounding Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring
The background of Vermeer'’s Girl with a Pearl Earring has, until recently, been interpreted as a flat dark space. The painting was examined in 2018 as part of the research project The Girl.
authors: Abbie Vandivere, Annelies van Loon, Tom Callewaert, Ralph Haswell, Art Ness Proaño Gaibor, Henk van Keulen, Emilien Leonhardt and Joris Dik
5.
Imaging secondary reaction products at the surface of Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring by means of macroscopic X-ray powder diffraction scanning
The use of non-invasive macroscopic imaging techniques is becoming more prevalent in the field of cultural heritage, especially to avoid invasive procedures that damage valuable artworks. For this purpose, and…
authors: Steven De Meyer, Frederik Vanmeert, Rani Vertongen, Annelies van Loon, Victor Gonzalez, Geert van der Snickt, Abbie Vandivere and Koen Janssens
6.
Revealing the painterly technique beneath the surface of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring using macro- and microscale imaging
The initial steps that Johannes Vermeer took to create Girl with a Pearl Earring are, partially or completely, hidden beneath the painted surface. Vermeer’s painting technique involved applying underlay...
authors: Abbie Vandivere, Annelies van Loon, Kathryn A. Dooley, Ralph Haswell, Robert G. Erdmann, Emilien Leonhardt and John K. Delaney
7.
From "Vermeer Illuminated" to "The Girl in the Spotlight": approaches and methodologies for the scientific (re-)examination of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer is the most beloved painting in the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague, The Netherlands. The Girl was last examined during a 1994 restoration.
authors: Abbie Vandivere, Jørgen Wadum, Klaas Jan van den Berg and Annelies van Loon
The Origins of Vermeer's Glass of Wine and the Girl with a Wineglass: A New Hypothesis
A New Theory on the Origin of Two Paintings by Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) of Delft
June 18–October 18, 2020
Click here to access the article.
In a recent paper, Huib Zuidervaart, of the History of Science Department of the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands, has advanced an interesting theory on the origin of Vermeer's Glass of Wine and The Girl with a Wine Glass. Zuidervaart asserts that the two works, which represent an open window that features an identical coat of arms, were commissioned as wedding presents for two of the grandchildren of Moijses van Nederveen and Janetge de Vogel. Moijses van Nederveen came from of a prominent Delft family which was one of the four local producers of gunpowder, delivered to the Dutch army. Although historians had previously identified the families to which the coat or arms belonged—the heraldic emblem is a combination of those belonging to the Van Nederveen and De Vogel families—no one had as of yet explained why Vermeer would have chose to include such a conspicuous elements into two ambitious compositions. Zuidervaart points out that dates given to both paintings by Vermeer experts coincide with the dates of the weddings in question. Moreover, the symbolic implications of the coat of arms (figure of female virtue holding a crest) would appear in agreement with the idea as a wedding gift as well as being consistent with the background of Vermeer's presumed clients. Given that both paintings present not only the same window but the same set of ceramic tiles, which Vermeer never painted again, it is also possible that the Delft master executed both works on the premises of the Van Nederveen/De Vogel residence in Delft.
Mr. Zuidervaart's paper, "Een nieuwe theorie over twee schilderijen van Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675)" published in Jaarboek Delfia Batavorum 28 (2018). He has kindly permitted Essemtial Vermeer to publish an English translation of it accessible by clicking here.
Upcoming Exhibiton of Idiosyncratic Dutch Painter
Who was Jacobus Vrel? Looking for clues of an enigmatic painter (Postponed to 2021)
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
From the CODART website:
His pictures are idiosyncratic, his figures odd and his street scenes stage-like. The works of Jacobus Vrel have frequently been mistaken for those by Johannes Vermeer. His street scenes and interiors are included in the holdings of the best-known museums in the world and are, at the same time, much sought-after rarities among collectors. However, to this day, Jacobus Vrel has remained virtually unknown—and, despite extensive archival research work since his discovery in the 19th century, it has not been possible to find any details about his person or where he worked.
Jacobus Vrel's works seemingly reflect everyday life in a small Dutch town in the 17th century while creating enigmatic worlds at the same time in which the viewer is not addressed in any way at all. The figures turn away from us, show only their backs or appear lost in thought. The depictions even exude, in part, an oppressive stillness. Not without reason a close affinity to the well-known Dane Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916) has repeatedly been construed, whose atmospheric compositions, however, were created two centuries later.
Equally unusual are Vrel's street scenes. The spatial arrangement of the buildings shown is reminiscent of film or theatre sets. It is difficult to find comparable examples from the painter's own time. There are neither plausible paradigms nor are there any clear similarities to the works of better-known fellow artists. Always in vertical format, the compositions show multi-storeyed but slender brick houses, mostly with pointed gabled roofs, lined up close to one another. Only a few figures populate the narrow alleyways paved with cobblestones. Are these real places that Vrel has rendered here or are they the painter's invention, bearing no semblance to his immediate surroundings?
Exhibit Dedicated to Vermeer' Contemporary Nicolaes Maes
Nicolaes Maes: Dutch Master of the Golden Age
February 22 –May, 31 2020
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/nicolaes-maes-dutch-master-of-the-golden-age
Share a knowing look with mischievous eavesdroppers and peer behind the doors of 17th-century Dutch households...From illicit goings-on in servants’ quarters to portraits of high society, Nicolaes Maes captured life upstairs and downstairs in the Dutch Golden Age.
Starting his career as one of Rembrandt’s most talented pupils, this exhibition – the first in the UK devoted to Maes – charts the artist’s rise to fame. Through nearly 50 paintings and drawings, it follows Maes’s move away from paintings of historical and biblical scenes, where Rembrandt’s influence is most clear, to the scenes of everyday life and portraits that made him one of the most sought-after artists of his time. Maes was an astute businessman, and produced over 900 portraits, adapting his style to reflect the high fashion and decoration of the second half of the Seventeenth century. But it is his ‘genre’ scenes – which often feature the central character eavesdropping and breaking the fourth wall to interact directly with the viewer – which best reveal Maes’s inventive and distinct style.
Exhibition organized by the National Gallery, London and the Mauritshuis, The Hague.
Admission: free
Location: Ground Floor Galleries
Rrelated Events:
Portraiture
Saturday, 22 February 2020 | 11 am - 1 pm
What can paintings and possessions tell us about self-presentation in 17th-century Holland? Thousands of 17th-century portraits by Dutch artists of Dutch sitters survive today. They give us enormous insight into the period, not just from what we see, but also what we don’t see. From portraits of the wealthy and the conscientious to children and young people aspiring to adulthood, we discuss what Maes’s portraits tell us about how his sitters wished to be seen.
Paintings of Everyday Life
Saturday, 29 February 2020 | 11 am - 1 pm (tickets necessary
What can Dutch genre paintings tell us about morality within and beyond the home? Dutch scenes of interiors tell us a great deal about Dutch values. They tell us about the importance of the role of the mother, the well-ordered household, and the attention that should be paid to religious matters. The largely female cast of characters in these paintings also presents us with a number of Dutch society stereotypes and gives an insight into Dutch ideals of good behavior, if not always the reality.
Success and Failure
Saturday, 7 March 2020 | 11 am - 1 pm (tickets necessary)
What were the career prospects for an artist in the competitive art world of 17th-century Holland? In this session, we consider the drivers for success in the changing decades of the 17th century. Why did some artists thrive but others like Vermeer, Hals and Rembrandt end up bankrupt? We will explore workshop arrangements and the relationship of masters and pupils in Rembrandt’s circle. And we will also consider why artists like Peter Lely, Gerrit van Honthorst and Mathias Stom moved abroad, taking their Dutch style with them. To what extent did they alter their practice to fit in outside of Holland?
Exhibiton of Pieter de Hooch
Pieter de Hooch in Delft: From the Shadow of Vermeer
Museum Prinsenh - Delft
11 October 2019–16 February 2020
https://prinsenhof-delft.nl/pieterdehooch/?lang=en
The exhibition is the first retrospective of the artist’s work in his own country. After Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch is widely considered to be the most celebrated Delft master of the seventeenth century. The paintings De Hooch produced in Delft (c. 1652–1660) will be at the heart of the exhibition: his most beautiful courtyards and interiors will return to the city where they were painted almost 400 years ago.
29 works will be coming to Delft on loan from leading museums in Europe and the United States. These include many famous paintings never before exhibited in the Netherlands such as the well-known Courtyard of a House in Delft from the National Gallery, London. Other Pieter de Hooch masterpieces will come from Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, the Kunsthaus Zürich and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. An extraordinary work on loan from the Royal Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the masterpiece Cardplayers in a Sunlit Room. In addition, the exhibition will comprise works on loan from the Mauritshuis, the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, the Amsterdam Museum and of course the Rijksmuseum, which holds one of the largest collections of De Hoochs in the world.
Restoration of Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window Reveals Spectacular Surprise
An x-ray photograph taken decades ago revealed that behind the solitary female figure in Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window the artist had originally incorporated a large ebony-framed "painting-within-a-painting" of a pot-belied Cupid. It was believed that the artist himself, unsatisfied with the results, presumably painted out the picture in order to nuance the painting's iconographic significance and/or improve the composition equilibrium.
However, the ongoing investigation and restoration of the painting Dresden Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister has been proven that the overpainting was not done by Vermeer himself but, unexpectedly, by a different hand some years after the completion of the work. It has not yet been possible to identify who or what point after the painting left Vermeer's studio time the alteration was performed, although Uta Neidhardt, the senior conservator at Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie, told The Art Newspaper:
There was even a layer of dirt above the original varnish on the Cupid, showing the painting had been in its original state for decades. [. . .] This is the most sensational experience of my career [. . .] It makes it a different painting.
In conformance with the new findings, the Gemäldegalerie decided to remove the layer of gray paint which obsures such a major background element and thus restore it the artist's original intention.
For a short period of about 5 weeks the painting can now be enjoyed in a special studio presentation at the Gemäldegalerie, from May 8 to June 16.
The restoration is taking place in the paintings conservation department at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and is being performed by paintings conservator Dr. Christoph Schölzel. Accompanying the restoration is a research project about the painting, carried out in cooperation with the archaeometry laboratory at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, the Doerner-Institut at the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and The National Gallery in London.
Time-lapse video of resoration process
At the outset of the restoration, a symposium was held in March 2017 with specialists from Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Vienna and Dresden, who have investigated and restored works by Vermeer in the past years. They were invited by the Dresden Gemäldegalerie and will continue to accompany the conservation project and provide their professional input.
After completing the restoration of Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, the painting is scheduled to be shown again to the visitors from March, 2020.
Video presenatation of the restoration
For videos, further information and images regarding on the restoration of the painting, visit the Gemäldegalerie dedicated webpage:
https://gemaeldegalerie.skd.museum/en/research/vermeer/
Exhibition of Nicolaes Maes
Nicolaes Maes - Rembrandt’s Versatile Pupil
Mauritshuis, The Hague
17 October 2019–19 January 2020
Concluding the Rembrandt & the Golden Age year the Mauritshuis will stage the first international retrospective exhibition about one of Rembrandt's most talented students, Nicolaes Maes.
With his original representations of everyday life, Nicolaes Maes was one of the most innovative painters of the Dutch Golden Age. His domestic scenes have been a source of inspiration for painters such as Pieter de Hooch and Johannes Vermeer. In his lifelike representation of emotions, Maes shows himself to be a fully fledged student of Rembrandt.
Maes began his career by painting Biblical stories, in which the influence of his teacher is clearly visible. Rembrandt was a dedicated teacher who challenged his pupils to be inventive and come up with new things. Maes was inspired by his teacher, but at the same time always looked for his own, new solutions. This can be clearly seen in The Sacrifice of Isaac (c. 1653). Maes gave this Biblical theme an explosive charge.
In the following years, Maes painted intimate scenes with women engaged in their household duties. The eavesdroppers are a favourite; representations of how the lady of the house catches her maid with a lover. Roguishly and conspiratorially, the woman looks at us; with her finger on her lips she draws the attention of the viewer and calls for silence. Some beautiful "eavesdroppers" will be on loan from the Dordrechts Museum, the Guildhall Art Gallery and the Wellington Museum (both London).
The second venue of the exhibition wil be held at:
National Gallery, London,
22 February – 31 May 2020.