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mahatmakanejeeves

(60,949 posts)
Sat Oct 8, 2022, 07:10 AM Oct 2022

National Gallery confirms one of its Vermeers is actually not a Vermeer

Last edited Sat Oct 8, 2022, 08:00 AM - Edit history (1)

I want my money back! Oh, wait ...

ART

National Gallery confirms one of its Vermeers is actually not a Vermeer

Experts had long wondered whether “Girl With a Flute” was really one of the world’s few paintings by the Dutch master. The pandemic gave the museum a chance to investigate.

By Sebastian Smee
October 7, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. EDT



“Girl With a Flute,” one of four paintings in the National Gallery's collection attributed to Vermeer, has been determined to have been painted by someone else. (National Gallery of Art)

It has long been designated as dubious. Now it’s official: Girl With a Flute,” one of the National Gallery of Art’s four paintings attributed to Johannes Vermeer, is not, in fact, by Vermeer. Four are now three, and thanks to new combinations of scientific analysis, art historical insight and informed looking, a vexing, long-standing problem has been resolved.

In a news conference Friday, the museum shared the finding that an interdisciplinary team of curators, conservators and scientists has determined that the painting was made “by an associate of Vermeer — not by the Dutch artist himself.”

[So Vermeer didn’t paint ‘Girl With a Flute.’ Why think less of it?]

Vermeer (1632-1675) is one of the world’s most beloved painters. In normal times, people come to the National Gallery expecting to see all its Vermeers on display. It’s hard to justify removing them to the conservation lab for more than a day or two. But the pandemic changed that.

{snip}



Imaging scientists Kathryn Dooley and John Delaney conducting tests on Vermeer’s “Girl With the Red Hat.” (National Gallery of Art)

{snip}

By Sebastian Smee
Sebastian Smee is a Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic at The Washington Post and the author of “The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals and Breakthroughs in Modern Art." He has worked at the Boston Globe, and in London and Sydney for the Daily Telegraph (U.K.), the Guardian, the Spectator, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Twitter https://twitter.com/SebastianSmee
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National Gallery confirms one of its Vermeers is actually not a Vermeer (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2022 OP
--- could'a fooled me. 3Hotdogs Oct 2022 #1
Biggest "Girl with a Flute" controversy since Llzzo! Tanuki Oct 2022 #2
DUzy. NT mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2022 #4
The picture is loading dialup speed, but I make out a monkey... TreasonousBastard Oct 2022 #3
Good. Genki Hikari Oct 2022 #5
Right, proportions do seem to be off; elleng Oct 2022 #6

TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)
3. The picture is loading dialup speed, but I make out a monkey...
Sat Oct 8, 2022, 07:58 AM
Oct 2022

climbing up her hat.

That gave them the first clue.

 

Genki Hikari

(1,766 posts)
5. Good.
Sat Oct 8, 2022, 11:40 AM
Oct 2022

I remember seeing something about this controversy in an art history class I took, and I came down on the side of it not being Vermeer. The proportions are off, especially her face and hands.

Vermeer had a more delicate touch with those things.

elleng

(136,071 posts)
6. Right, proportions do seem to be off;
Sat Oct 8, 2022, 12:17 PM
Oct 2022

I'll have to study further. Sorry I'm no longer 'working,' and not IN DC; used to visit National Gallery for afternoon/lunch breaks.

Have seen movie Girl with a Pearl Earring frequently; he was quite a character.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring_(film)

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