New Vermeer discoveries
September 8 2022
Video: Rijksmuseum
Ahead of two new exhibitions on Vermeer, there have been a number of news stories about new technical analysis done on his paintings.
The first (which I missed a few weeks ago) concerns four paintings in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, summarised by Martin Baily in The Art Newspaper here, and settling some doubts about two of their paintings, Girl with a Red Hat and Girl with a Flute. The latter painting is only deemed to be 'attributed' to Vermeer. Further discoveries about these two paintings will be revealed when the NGA's exhibition, Vermeer's Secrets, opens on 8th October. (And what's the betting Girl with a Flute will be upgraded to Vermeer in full.)
The second relates to the forthcoming mega exhibition on Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum next year (10th Feb - 4th June), which will feature 27 out of his known 35 works. For this show, the Rijksmuseum have been infra-reding and x-raying their Vermeers as never before (as shown in the video above), and found previously unknown details and pentimenti, as reported by Bruno Waterfield in The Times here.
