Extensive research has been completed by the National Gallery de Washington on four paintings from his collection attributed to Johannes Vermeer. The results will be the subject of an exhibition next October. Under the title ‘The secrets of Vermeer’, the exhibition will present, from October 8 to January 8, 2023, two works from the museum’s collection whose authenticity has been questioned (‘Girl with a red hat’, h. 1666-67 , and ‘Girl with a Flute’, c. 1665-75) and two others that have been accepted as works by Vermeer. Two 20th-century forgeries were also examined. According to Marjorie Wieseman, the art gallery’s curator and head of the Northern European Paintings department, the exhibition aims to discover “what makes a Vermeer a Vermeer.”
In 2020, the National Gallery in Washington took advantage of its closure due to the Covid-19 to transfer the four works, which are rarely taken out of the rooms, to the restoration workshop. There, thanks to advanced imaging techniques, they were able to virtually penetrate the layers of paint. In addition, the surfaces of the paintings were examined under a microscope to analyze Vermeer’s working process.
‘Lady writing’, by Vermeer. Detail
The researchers discovered that ‘Girl with red hat’ once had a different composition. They reveal that when Vermeer began work on the oak panel he had painted a bust portrait of a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat, which he later transformed into a girl. This is surprising, given that few of the Flemish artist’s paintings are considered true portraiture, and he preferred to depict women in moments of movement or contemplation.
‘Girl with a flute’, attributed to Vermeer. Detail
It has been suggested that ‘Girl with flute’ It is an original Vermeer painting. It was discovered in 1906 and donated to the National Gallery by Joseph Widener in 1942. The authenticity of the work was disputed by the influential Vermeer scholar Pieter Swillens in 1950, and successive experts accepted his position. In the 1990s, museum curator and Vermeer specialist Arthur Wheelock even questioned the painting, leading to its designation as “attributed to Vermeer.” After his retirement in 2018, Wheelock changed his stance: “I have come to the conclusion that removing ‘Girl with a Flute’ from Vermeer’s work was too extreme, given the complex conservation issues surrounding this image,” he wrote. in the museum’s online catalog. He will share a final decision on the authenticity of the painting before the opening of the exhibition on October 8.
‘Woman holding a balance’, by Vermeer. Detail
Two works by Vermeer accepted by specialists will also be in the exhibition: ‘Woman holding a balance’ (ca. 1664) and ‘Lady writing’ (ca. 1665). Chemical analyzes of the lower layers of the painting revealed quick, spontaneous brushstrokes strikingly different from the final composition, where individual brushstrokes blend into a smooth surface. “This discovery calls into question the common assumption that the artist was very perfectionist and thorough and that is why he worked so slowly, ”warns the museum in a statement. They only survive around 35 frames of his 22-year career.
Of the fakes Obvious ones will be shown alongside the four Vermeers in the exhibition: ‘The Lacemaker’, an interpretation of the original from 1669-1970, which is in the Louvre in Paris, and ‘Smiling Girl’. Both forgeries are believed to have been created around 1925 and bequeathed to the museum by Andrew Mellon in 1937. They were considered knockoffs in the 1980s. All four paintings will travel to the Rijksmuseum de Amsterdam for the largest Vermeer retrospective in history, which will open from February 10 to June 4, 2023. It will be quite an event.
The exhibition, a collaboration between the Rijksmuseum and the Mauritshuis in The Hague, will include such masterpieces as ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ (Mauritshuis, The Hague), ‘The Geographer’ (Städel Museum, Frankfurt), ‘Woman Writing a Letter’ (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin) and ‘Woman with the Scales’ (National Gallery, Washington). In addition, works that have never before been shown to the public in the Netherlands will be exhibited, including ‘Woman reading a letter at the window’, recently restored, from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. The restoration revealed the presence of a Cupid on the wall that was hidden.