Vermeer's Secrets

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with the Red Hat, ca. 1666/1667, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.53

Only about 35 paintings by Johannes Vermeer are known today. The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. owns four works by or attributed to this beloved 17th-century Dutch artist: Woman Holding a Balance, A Lady Writing, Girl with the Red Hat, and Girl with a Flute.

For decades, their conservators, scientists, and curators have conducted research into this quartet of paintings as well as two enigmatic works that are now considered to be 20th-century forgeries. Vermeer’s Secrets draws on 50 years of imaging technology and microscopic examination to illuminate—and sometimes revolutionize—our understanding of how Vermeer achieved the compelling effects of his paintings’ light-filled moments of quiet solitude.