Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with the Pearl Earring (detail), 1665, Mauritshuis, The Hague.

Less than two weeks after the long-awaited Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseumit opened, tickets are already sold out. In contrast to Rembrandt, Vermeer (1632-75) left a remarkably small oeuvre of only about 35 paintings. As they are amongst the most prized treasures of every museum collection, his paintings are rarely lent out. To have assembled so many in one show is a coup, and follows a research project with the Mauritshuis in which curators, restorers and natural scientists looked in depth at a number of paintings to learn more about his choice of compositions and creative process.

Works never before shown to the public in the Netherlands include the newly restored Girl Reading a Letter at the Open Window from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, The Girl with a Pearl Earring (Mauritshuis, The Hague), The Geographer (Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main), Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid (The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin) and Woman Holding a Balance (The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC).