No exhibition has ever shown so many paintings by Jan Vermeer. The baroque painter thrilled a huge audience in Amsterdam. There are no more cards, but there is an online show.
A record exhibition: Vermeer in the Rijksmuseum
“Nothing works anymore”, is the motto in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum: The large exhibition with works by the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) is completely sold out. Until until June 4th, the house is showing 28 of the approximately 37 existing works by the painter from Delft.
Never before have so many Vermeer paintings been exhibited at the same time, which is why the show is considered a sensation and triggered a huge rush of visitors. Shortly after the opening on February 10, all 450,000 tickets were sold. The museum extended its opening hours in order to be able to offer more tickets, but these are now sold out. The museum's website was temporarily blocked. One consolation: For those who couldn't get a ticket, the museum is now offering an online exhibition entitled: “Closer to Vermeer”. It shows many pictures in close-up.
Jan Vermeer: Master of the moment
Two houses in frontal view. In the courtyard gate a maid bends over a barrel. She has scrubbed, the water in the gutter is still shimmering. Two children are playing on the sidewalk. A woman sits in the doorway, doing needlework. The scenery lasts just a moment and yet an eternity, a snapshot of bourgeois Delft in the 17th century. She was captured by the most famous painter of his time, next to Rembrandt (1606-1669), Jan Vermeer (1632-1675), whose real name was Johannes Vermeer.
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He has masterfully brought the different materials to the canvas: the rough brick, the smooth, leaded windows, the wooden shutters, the white plastered piece of wall. Everything looks real, almost photographed: the play of light and dark, the perspectives, the serene calm.
28 masterpieces from all over the world
“The Little Road” is a masterpiece, as are all of Vermeer's other paintings that have survived. There aren't many. When he died in December 1675 at the age of just 43, his oeuvre comprised 37 paintings. 28 have now come together in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, eight more than 26 years ago in the Mauritshuis in The Hague. The works of art were borrowed from the major international museums, from private collections in Europe and the USA. Private sponsors dig deep into their wallets. The result was the largest pure Vermeer show to date – a sensation!
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam presents Vermeer's masterpieces in a large exhibition
It is difficult to describe what attracts Vermeer fans: Vermeer's handling of brush and paint, his technical skill, the virtuoso play with light effects, the composition, the faithfulness to perspective. “Vermeer was a master of light,” says Gregor Weber, co-curator of the Amsterdam show. No artist has painted light like Vermeer, on the one hand realistic and yet full of enigmatic calm.
The master never left Delft
Diana, the goddess of the hunt, surrounded by companions, one washes Diana's feet. A scene from ancient mythology. The story of the chaste goddess was a popular subject in Dutch painting. The young Vermeer also idealized the characters. Italian influences are visible. And that despite the fact that the son of a Delft bourgeois never left his hometown.
Largest Vermeer exhibition ever opens in Amsterdam
From biblical stories to everyday scenes
At 21, Vermeer enrolled in the Delft Guild of Saint Luke, as a master painter. He first took up historical themes: scenes from the Bible, from ancient history, legends of saints. His brushwork appears bold, creating large areas of color whose strong light-dark contrasts are reminiscent of Italian models, such as Caravaggio (1571-1610). Science is still puzzling as to why Vermeer changed his subject from 1656.
A break? No, a leap in development is Vermeer's switch to genre paintings. He now brought everyday scenes into the picture: a maid pouring milk into a jug. A young girl writing a letter; a daughter from a good family in the music lesson on the virginal, a kind of mini-harpsichord. All interiors – with the exception of those two famous city views, the “Street in Delft” and the “View of Delft”.
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They are imaginary interiors and yet they give intimate insights into everyday life in the 17th century. Time seems to stand still. “Vermeer's paintings aren't narrative in the sense that there's a lot going on, there's running around, there's horses galloping or something falling and people fighting or anything,” says Vermeer expert Weber. “His Pictures are always very still, very introverted.” Vermeer's paintings hide a secret. It is precisely this stillness that fascinates today's audience.
Jan Vermeer, the master of light
Was it Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684) who influenced Vermeer? Science is still looking for answers. Vermeer's painting technique refined over the years. With small dabs of color he created the illusion of light dancing on the surface, things become plastic. The pearl of the girl with the pearl earring, for example, a reflection of light, no more, but also no less!
Beguiling: “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” is probably Vermeer's most famous painting
Vermeer was famous for his pointillism. In 1664 and 1665 he painted interiors that stylistically belong together: it is always the young woman, sometimes with scales, sometimes with a water jug by the window, with a pearl necklace or as a “letter-writer in yellow”. Idealized scenes from everyday life, each well composed.
Contrary to what was previously assumed, the Master of Delft did not use the camera obscura to find his perspective. He handed him a nail, which he stuck into the wood to draw his lines of perspective with the thread. Other painters also used this technique. The small hole at the vanishing point: conservators discovered it using X-rays in many of the Vermeer paintings examined.
That's not all. They also brought to light the painter's original intentions: A lute, for example, in the picture “Young Lady with a Pearl Necklace”, a naked youth in the picture “Girl Reading a Letter at the Open Window”, which Vermeer or an artist painted over after him, because this was regarded as a erotic allusion would have been understood.
“The Lacemaker” was created around 1670/71 and is a picture from Vermeer's late phase
Vermeer's late paintings are characterized by strong incidence of light, the painting technique appears simplified. It is possible that the Delft Master painted his last picture in 1675: “Seated Virginal Player”. In the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, unlike in The Hague, the works hang in spacious rooms where heavy curtains create an atmosphere. All paintings are protected with a glass pane. With good reason: climate activists only treated the world-famous “Girl with a Pearl Earring” with glue and red liquid in October. It remained undamaged.
In 1675 Jan Vermeer died impoverished. He left behind a wife and ten underage children. Soon after his death, the artist was forgotten. Art historians only rediscovered his work in the 19th century. Today, Vermeer ranks among the greats, largely because of the quality and originality of each painting – all masterpieces.
This is a newly updated version of the article dated February 9, 2023.