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Rijksmuseum to Stage the Largest Vermeer Exhibition in 2023

198 points by Kaibeezy 5y ago

d--b 5y ago
If you can read French, I recommend reading Daniel Arasse's L'ambition de Vermeer. It's a detailed analysis of most paintings which aims at showing how deeply conceptual the paintings were. Sadly not translated into English.
- gpvos 5y ago
  From a quick web search, it seems that "Vermeer: Faith in painting"[0] is an English translation of this book, and there are at least German and Italian translations as well. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2080511.Vermeer https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2080511.Vermeer
cafard 5y ago
A fine reason to visit Amsterdam. I'm sure KLM will be telling us all about this soon. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, had a big Vermeer exhibition 25 years ago. It unfortunately overlapped with a government shutdown, which made it inaccessible for some days, until a private foundation came up with the money to reopen it. My recollection is that we visited the exhibition while it was running on donated money, meaning that it was the only part of the National Gallery that was open. But it has been a while.
- technothrasher 5y ago
  I was just thinking of that weekend 25 years ago when a group of us drove down to DC from Boston to see the exhibit only to get there right when they closed the government and locked the doors. Ah well, I have been to the Rijksmuseum to see the Vermeers they have on permanent display and it is well worth the visit even without this planned big exhibit.
the_biot 5y ago
If you're a basic techie with little appreciation for the fine arts, watch a film called "Tim's Vermeer". It will make you want to go to this exhibition.
- alangibson 5y ago
  Tim's Vermeer was directed and produced by Penn and Teller. While I loved it, I can't shake the feeling the whole thing was a hoax.
  - willhinsa 5y ago
    This article [0] would seem to agree with that feeling you can't shake; not that it's a "hoax" per se, but that it's bullshit ;) > So what does it lack? The film implies anyone can make a beautiful work of art with the right application of science. There is no need for mystical ideas like genius. > But the mysterious genius of Vermeer is exactly what's missing from Tim's Vermeer. It is arrogant to deny the enigmatic nature of Vermeer's art. If this art looks "optical", it can also look abstract. It is an act of seeing nature, not a work of copying it. Whether or not he made use of optical instruments, Vermeer looked at the world with a uniquely penetrating eye. He was able to paint what he saw with a delicate hand. If you can't see the astonishing nature of his talent when you are standing in front of his paintings you should walk away from them – not make a film about how easy they are to replicate. > Tim's Vermeer is the equivalent of someone hanging a painting-by-numbers version of a masterpiece over the mantelpiece and claiming it's as good as the real thing. At last, an art film for philistines. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/jan/28/tims-vermeer-fails https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2...
    - mlyle 5y ago
      I think the article and this comment misses the point. As far as "just use the right optical tricks and you can be Vermeer" -- sure, this is bullshit. As far as showing that an optical method was a real possibility for how Vermeer created his work-- sure! A layman using the tricks was able to get very close, but lacked the artistry himself to put in Vermeer's unique magic in: this establishes that the optical techniques were a plausible way for the works to be created.
pvaldes 5y ago
Taking in mind that he painted like thirty oils in their entire career, that will deserve a visit if you are near, for sure. The man was the Aardman studio of his age.
- yitchelle 5y ago
  That is an incredible level of perseverance. Was he working on these 30 oils continuously?
  - mtts 5y ago
    No, he died really early
MomoXenosaga 5y ago
Interestingly Vermeer died penniless and nobody liked his paintings until they were rediscovered in the 19th century. A common theme in the Netherlands. I always joke that it's better to be an artist in Iran. Culture is a waste of time and artists are just lazy bastards who need to get a real job. A merchant Republic like Venice but it never lost its focus on money for fashion.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Someone 5y ago
  His paintings were more overlooked than “not liked”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer#Legacy: “Originally, Vermeer's works were largely overlooked by art historians for two centuries after his death. A select number of connoisseurs in the Netherlands did appreciate his work, yet even so, many of his works were attributed to better-known artists such as Metsu or Mieris“ His financial problems also were at least in part because he was unlucky. As an art dealer, he sat on paintings he couldn’t sell because of the Franco-Dutch War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Dutch_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Dutch_War). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer#Wars_and_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer#Wars_and_deat...: “In a petition to her creditors, his wife later described his death as follows: ...during the ruinous war with France he not only was unable to sell any of his art but also, to his great detriment, was left sitting with the paintings of other masters that he was dealing in. As a result and owing to the great burden of his children having no means of his own, he lapsed into such decay and decadence, which he had so taken to heart that, as if he had fallen into a frenzy, in a day and a half he went from being healthy to being dead.” (That wife gave him 15 children, 11 of which lived long enough to be baptized, so yes, that might have been an expensive family to run)
- pvaldes 5y ago
  Too much fun making babies leads to money vanishing fast. With a family of 14 living only from their income as artist he was reasonably paid for the time, probably.
finnchemo 5y ago
<a href="https://waficars.com">Visited https://waficars.com">Visited by Hundreds of Car Buyers Every Month! Waficars is here to assist you to sell and buy new or used cars online and offline with the specialization in new and second hand automotive sales, including cars sold by private sellers and trade dealers aiming to strengthen the trust between the dealers and clients based on fair deals.</a>
robin_reala 5y ago
Parens with a year after the title is HN style for “written in this year”, which momentarily threw me. Anyway, much love to the Rijksmusuem for the amount of CC0 content they have. It’s a staple for covers for my productions for Standard Ebooks.
- dwighttk 5y ago
  You woke up and it is 2024! Welcome back.
- Kaibeezy 5y ago
  When do you really ever get the chance? So satisfying. I'm taking the rest of the day off ;)
- blacksmith_tb 5y ago
  Hear, hear - I like to pop into Rijkstudio to download images to use for QAing uploads in webapps - but it always seems to take an hour or two to find the right aspect ratio, for some reason...
Freak_NL 5y ago
If you wish to visit this exhibition, try to plan your visit well outside of the tourist season. The exhibition runs from February 10th 2023 to June 4th 2023, so my advice would be to aim for February, March, or early April at the latest. The Rijksmuseum is situated on a square in Amsterdam alongside the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk and draws a crowd for its special exhibitions and top pieces. (Edit: Forgot to mention the Stedelijk Museum!)
- Kaibeezy 5y ago
  Go to the RM for the Vermeers, stay for the gigantic-piles-of-fruit-with-a-lobster-in-the-corner paintings.
- tinus_hn 5y ago
  Given the state of Dutch COVID politics I’d suggest saving yourself the effort and planning a visit to an attraction in another country instead.
  - FutureZeitgeist 5y ago
    Can you elaborate?
  - Fnoord 5y ago
    For those who don't know: other European countries have a similar state of COVID-19 policies, or worse (more discrimination between vaccinated and unvaccinated than The Netherlands). If you're properly vaccinated, it isn't a big nuisance to enter The Netherlands (or European Union for that matter) but ensure you do some research before you book (IMO you should get informed via your travel agency; it is their moral obligation to safely sent you in the right direction). If you're not vaccinated, get vaccinated, and ensure you read up on your limitations. If I were not vaccinated I would not even want to travel to a foreign country. Unless if I am sure I am immune due to recent infection.
    - tinus_hn 5y ago
      Until of course a random member of the fun police decides to put out a poll that somehow it is an insult to hospital workers to have fun and your planned activity gets cancelled by the authorities. Surely it isn’t a big hassle to enter the Netherlands. But if you want to visit that museum, better make sure it’s before 5 o’clock, otherwise it’s closed due to lockdown. Or whatever rule happens to be active by the time you visit. I’d instead just plan a visit to a country where the population when faced with a failing government isn’t cheering it on to take away even more rights and implement even more rules. Remember a majority in the Netherlands still believes the ‘15 days to stop the spread’ theory, so whatever you plan in the Netherlands, it could be canceled at any moment and you have no recourse.
Moosdijk 5y ago
Be sure to check out the excellent restaurant in the rijksmuseum while you're there.
- alamortsubite 5y ago
  Right now it's likely also the most COVID-safe restaurant in Amsterdam.
  - laegooose 5y ago
    Can you elaborate?
    - alamortsubite 5y ago
      Capacity is heavily reduced in the cafe. There's also a protocol for the servers to deliver your food to an empty table near to you, which you then fetch yourself, so the servers aren't in close contact with the diners. Obviously, you order via QR code and the museum website, and everyone in the place has shown an EU COVID pass and valid ID to get in. The cafe is also very open and airy, though it is still indoors. I guess swallowing a herring standing outside overlooking a gracht is even safer, so it's fair to say I exaggerated, but it's also easy to find a packed bar in town, and similarly a kebab shop with indoor dining where they don't give a rat's ass about your COVID certificate.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
rocmcd 5y ago
I can’t hear about the Rijksmuseum without thinking of the presentation Rob Erdmann did at Pycon on how they imaged Rembrandt’s Night Watch: https://youtu.be/z_hm5oX7ZlE https://youtu.be/z_hm5oX7ZlE Incredible work being done there. I’m glad to see they’re continuing to make headlines.
stefanvdw1 5y ago
If you are curious to see some of their art, I’ve made a website which will show you a random object from their collection per button click: https://randomrijks.com https://randomrijks.com
jmkd 5y ago
For a while I worked at Kenwood House in Hampstead, London. Home of Vermeer's The Guitar Player. As you may know, Vermeers are so few and far between that it's entirely possible to see every one (~36) if you're able to travel the world. So, there exists a subculture of (often) wealthy Vermeer completeists who travel the world doing exactly that. Every month or so at Kenwood, we would be instructed to come in early to host such collectors who had made arrangements for a private viewing of this Vermeer. An entourage would roll up around 6-7am to whisk a high-flyer into the room the Vermeer was displayed. More often than not the individual - who was so determined to see this painting they'd paid English Heritage who knows how much - took a momentary glance and was off again. I'm talking all that trouble for 1-2 minutes in front of the Vermeer so they could check it off their list. And then they were off. I'd happily spend the next 8 hours in front of it observing public responses and daydreaming of how to prevent elaborate art thefts (the painting was stolen by the IRA in 1974 and IMHO could certainly be stolen again).
- pradn 5y ago
  There's 9 Vermeers just within a few blocks in New York: 4 at the Frick Collection and 5 at the Metropolitan Museum.
  - senortumnus 5y ago
    Second this! Go see these Vermeers and then decide if you should follow it up with a trip to the 2023 show!
- bschne 5y ago
  > As you may know, Vermeers are so few and far between that it's entirely possible to see every one (~36) if you're able to travel the world. As someone has actually done and made a website about: https://jlord.us/vermeer/about.html https://jlord.us/vermeer/about.html
  - lisper 5y ago
    According to the movie "Tim's Vermeer", at least one Vermeer (The Music Lesson) is in Buckingham palace and not generally accessible to the public. How do you get to see that one?
Vinnl 5y ago
The Mauritshuis, the regular home of The Girl with a Pearl Earring, is also well worth your while. It's a lot smaller than the Rijksmuseum, so you don't need to set aside as much time, but additionally has The Goldfinch by Fabritius (recommended companion read: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt) and The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt.
- legitster 5y ago
  Came here to say this. If anyone feels compelled to visit Amsterdam because of the Vermeer exhibit, I certainly hope they make the trip to The Hague which has some amazing museums and far less of the drunk tourists.
alamortsubite 5y ago
The 2014 documentary The New Rijksmuseum is also worth a watch before you go. Not a ton of Vermeer content but a fascinating look at the beleaguered decade-long gutting and rebuilding of the museum leading to its reopening in 2013.
kmstout 5y ago
If you like Vermeer, you might also appreciate the works of Han van Meegeren (and it's possible that you unwittingly do). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_van_Meegeren https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_van_Meegeren
maratc 5y ago
A rather big collection of 10 Vermeer paintings was gathered in Gemaldergalerie Alte Meister in Dresden but it was "temporarily" closed due to coronavirus outbreak, and possibly won't reopen. https://gemaeldegalerie.skd.museum/en/exhibitions/vermeer-johannes-ermeers-girl-reading-a-letter-at-an-open-window-and-17th-century-dutch-genre-painting/ https://gemaeldegalerie.skd.museum/en/exhibitions/vermeer-jo...
phgn 5y ago
Interesting to see an article written in the future ;)
- Kaibeezy 5y ago
  I knew you’d say that.
abruzzi 5y ago
I think the exhibition should include the Van Meegerens. The fake Vermeers are famous enough that seeing them alongside real Vermeers would be fascinating.
mudil 5y ago
Tim's Vermeer is an excellent documentary that looks at the possibility that Vermeer used optical technology to produce his paintings. Pretty convincing documentary, imo. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3089388/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3089388/

198 points by Kaibeezy 5y ago

d--b 5y ago

If you can read French, I recommend reading Daniel Arasse's L'ambition de Vermeer. It's a detailed analysis of most paintings which aims at showing how deeply conceptual the paintings were. Sadly not translated into English.

gpvos 5y ago
From a quick web search, it seems that "Vermeer: Faith in painting"[0] is an English translation of this book, and there are at least German and Italian translations as well. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2080511.Vermeer https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2080511.Vermeer

cafard 5y ago

A fine reason to visit Amsterdam. I'm sure KLM will be telling us all about this soon. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, had a big Vermeer exhibition 25 years ago. It unfortunately overlapped with a government shutdown, which made it inaccessible for some days, until a private foundation came up with the money to reopen it. My recollection is that we visited the exhibition while it was running on donated money, meaning that it was the only part of the National Gallery that was open. But it has been a while.

technothrasher 5y ago
I was just thinking of that weekend 25 years ago when a group of us drove down to DC from Boston to see the exhibit only to get there right when they closed the government and locked the doors. Ah well, I have been to the Rijksmuseum to see the Vermeers they have on permanent display and it is well worth the visit even without this planned big exhibit.

the_biot 5y ago

If you're a basic techie with little appreciation for the fine arts, watch a film called "Tim's Vermeer". It will make you want to go to this exhibition.

alangibson 5y ago
Tim's Vermeer was directed and produced by Penn and Teller. While I loved it, I can't shake the feeling the whole thing was a hoax.
- willhinsa 5y ago
  This article [0] would seem to agree with that feeling you can't shake; not that it's a "hoax" per se, but that it's bullshit ;) > So what does it lack? The film implies anyone can make a beautiful work of art with the right application of science. There is no need for mystical ideas like genius. > But the mysterious genius of Vermeer is exactly what's missing from Tim's Vermeer. It is arrogant to deny the enigmatic nature of Vermeer's art. If this art looks "optical", it can also look abstract. It is an act of seeing nature, not a work of copying it. Whether or not he made use of optical instruments, Vermeer looked at the world with a uniquely penetrating eye. He was able to paint what he saw with a delicate hand. If you can't see the astonishing nature of his talent when you are standing in front of his paintings you should walk away from them – not make a film about how easy they are to replicate. > Tim's Vermeer is the equivalent of someone hanging a painting-by-numbers version of a masterpiece over the mantelpiece and claiming it's as good as the real thing. At last, an art film for philistines. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/jan/28/tims-vermeer-fails https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2...
  - mlyle 5y ago
    I think the article and this comment misses the point. As far as "just use the right optical tricks and you can be Vermeer" -- sure, this is bullshit. As far as showing that an optical method was a real possibility for how Vermeer created his work-- sure! A layman using the tricks was able to get very close, but lacked the artistry himself to put in Vermeer's unique magic in: this establishes that the optical techniques were a plausible way for the works to be created.

pvaldes 5y ago

Taking in mind that he painted like thirty oils in their entire career, that will deserve a visit if you are near, for sure. The man was the Aardman studio of his age.

yitchelle 5y ago
That is an incredible level of perseverance. Was he working on these 30 oils continuously?
- mtts 5y ago
  No, he died really early

MomoXenosaga 5y ago

Interestingly Vermeer died penniless and nobody liked his paintings until they were rediscovered in the 19th century. A common theme in the Netherlands. I always joke that it's better to be an artist in Iran. Culture is a waste of time and artists are just lazy bastards who need to get a real job. A merchant Republic like Venice but it never lost its focus on money for fashion.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Someone 5y ago
His paintings were more overlooked than “not liked”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer#Legacy: “Originally, Vermeer's works were largely overlooked by art historians for two centuries after his death. A select number of connoisseurs in the Netherlands did appreciate his work, yet even so, many of his works were attributed to better-known artists such as Metsu or Mieris“ His financial problems also were at least in part because he was unlucky. As an art dealer, he sat on paintings he couldn’t sell because of the Franco-Dutch War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Dutch_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Dutch_War). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer#Wars_and_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer#Wars_and_deat...: “In a petition to her creditors, his wife later described his death as follows: ...during the ruinous war with France he not only was unable to sell any of his art but also, to his great detriment, was left sitting with the paintings of other masters that he was dealing in. As a result and owing to the great burden of his children having no means of his own, he lapsed into such decay and decadence, which he had so taken to heart that, as if he had fallen into a frenzy, in a day and a half he went from being healthy to being dead.” (That wife gave him 15 children, 11 of which lived long enough to be baptized, so yes, that might have been an expensive family to run)
pvaldes 5y ago
Too much fun making babies leads to money vanishing fast. With a family of 14 living only from their income as artist he was reasonably paid for the time, probably.

finnchemo 5y ago

<a href="https://waficars.com">Visited https://waficars.com">Visited by Hundreds of Car Buyers Every Month! Waficars is here to assist you to sell and buy new or used cars online and offline with the specialization in new and second hand automotive sales, including cars sold by private sellers and trade dealers aiming to strengthen the trust between the dealers and clients based on fair deals.</a>

robin_reala 5y ago

Parens with a year after the title is HN style for “written in this year”, which momentarily threw me. Anyway, much love to the Rijksmusuem for the amount of CC0 content they have. It’s a staple for covers for my productions for Standard Ebooks.

dwighttk 5y ago
You woke up and it is 2024! Welcome back.
Kaibeezy 5y ago
When do you really ever get the chance? So satisfying. I'm taking the rest of the day off ;)
blacksmith_tb 5y ago
Hear, hear - I like to pop into Rijkstudio to download images to use for QAing uploads in webapps - but it always seems to take an hour or two to find the right aspect ratio, for some reason...

Freak_NL 5y ago

If you wish to visit this exhibition, try to plan your visit well outside of the tourist season. The exhibition runs from February 10th 2023 to June 4th 2023, so my advice would be to aim for February, March, or early April at the latest. The Rijksmuseum is situated on a square in Amsterdam alongside the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk and draws a crowd for its special exhibitions and top pieces. (Edit: Forgot to mention the Stedelijk Museum!)

Kaibeezy 5y ago
Go to the RM for the Vermeers, stay for the gigantic-piles-of-fruit-with-a-lobster-in-the-corner paintings.
tinus_hn 5y ago
Given the state of Dutch COVID politics I’d suggest saving yourself the effort and planning a visit to an attraction in another country instead.
- FutureZeitgeist 5y ago
  Can you elaborate?
- Fnoord 5y ago
  For those who don't know: other European countries have a similar state of COVID-19 policies, or worse (more discrimination between vaccinated and unvaccinated than The Netherlands). If you're properly vaccinated, it isn't a big nuisance to enter The Netherlands (or European Union for that matter) but ensure you do some research before you book (IMO you should get informed via your travel agency; it is their moral obligation to safely sent you in the right direction). If you're not vaccinated, get vaccinated, and ensure you read up on your limitations. If I were not vaccinated I would not even want to travel to a foreign country. Unless if I am sure I am immune due to recent infection.
  - tinus_hn 5y ago
    Until of course a random member of the fun police decides to put out a poll that somehow it is an insult to hospital workers to have fun and your planned activity gets cancelled by the authorities. Surely it isn’t a big hassle to enter the Netherlands. But if you want to visit that museum, better make sure it’s before 5 o’clock, otherwise it’s closed due to lockdown. Or whatever rule happens to be active by the time you visit. I’d instead just plan a visit to a country where the population when faced with a failing government isn’t cheering it on to take away even more rights and implement even more rules. Remember a majority in the Netherlands still believes the ‘15 days to stop the spread’ theory, so whatever you plan in the Netherlands, it could be canceled at any moment and you have no recourse.

Moosdijk 5y ago

Be sure to check out the excellent restaurant in the rijksmuseum while you're there.

alamortsubite 5y ago
Right now it's likely also the most COVID-safe restaurant in Amsterdam.
- laegooose 5y ago
  Can you elaborate?
  - alamortsubite 5y ago
    Capacity is heavily reduced in the cafe. There's also a protocol for the servers to deliver your food to an empty table near to you, which you then fetch yourself, so the servers aren't in close contact with the diners. Obviously, you order via QR code and the museum website, and everyone in the place has shown an EU COVID pass and valid ID to get in. The cafe is also very open and airy, though it is still indoors. I guess swallowing a herring standing outside overlooking a gracht is even safer, so it's fair to say I exaggerated, but it's also easy to find a packed bar in town, and similarly a kebab shop with indoor dining where they don't give a rat's ass about your COVID certificate.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]

rocmcd 5y ago

I can’t hear about the Rijksmuseum without thinking of the presentation Rob Erdmann did at Pycon on how they imaged Rembrandt’s Night Watch: https://youtu.be/z_hm5oX7ZlE https://youtu.be/z_hm5oX7ZlE Incredible work being done there. I’m glad to see they’re continuing to make headlines.

stefanvdw1 5y ago

If you are curious to see some of their art, I’ve made a website which will show you a random object from their collection per button click: https://randomrijks.com https://randomrijks.com

jmkd 5y ago

For a while I worked at Kenwood House in Hampstead, London. Home of Vermeer's The Guitar Player. As you may know, Vermeers are so few and far between that it's entirely possible to see every one (~36) if you're able to travel the world. So, there exists a subculture of (often) wealthy Vermeer completeists who travel the world doing exactly that. Every month or so at Kenwood, we would be instructed to come in early to host such collectors who had made arrangements for a private viewing of this Vermeer. An entourage would roll up around 6-7am to whisk a high-flyer into the room the Vermeer was displayed. More often than not the individual - who was so determined to see this painting they'd paid English Heritage who knows how much - took a momentary glance and was off again. I'm talking all that trouble for 1-2 minutes in front of the Vermeer so they could check it off their list. And then they were off. I'd happily spend the next 8 hours in front of it observing public responses and daydreaming of how to prevent elaborate art thefts (the painting was stolen by the IRA in 1974 and IMHO could certainly be stolen again).

pradn 5y ago
There's 9 Vermeers just within a few blocks in New York: 4 at the Frick Collection and 5 at the Metropolitan Museum.
- senortumnus 5y ago
  Second this! Go see these Vermeers and then decide if you should follow it up with a trip to the 2023 show!
bschne 5y ago
> As you may know, Vermeers are so few and far between that it's entirely possible to see every one (~36) if you're able to travel the world. As someone has actually done and made a website about: https://jlord.us/vermeer/about.html https://jlord.us/vermeer/about.html
- lisper 5y ago
  According to the movie "Tim's Vermeer", at least one Vermeer (The Music Lesson) is in Buckingham palace and not generally accessible to the public. How do you get to see that one?

Vinnl 5y ago

The Mauritshuis, the regular home of The Girl with a Pearl Earring, is also well worth your while. It's a lot smaller than the Rijksmuseum, so you don't need to set aside as much time, but additionally has The Goldfinch by Fabritius (recommended companion read: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt) and The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt.

legitster 5y ago
Came here to say this. If anyone feels compelled to visit Amsterdam because of the Vermeer exhibit, I certainly hope they make the trip to The Hague which has some amazing museums and far less of the drunk tourists.

alamortsubite 5y ago

The 2014 documentary The New Rijksmuseum is also worth a watch before you go. Not a ton of Vermeer content but a fascinating look at the beleaguered decade-long gutting and rebuilding of the museum leading to its reopening in 2013.

kmstout 5y ago

If you like Vermeer, you might also appreciate the works of Han van Meegeren (and it's possible that you unwittingly do). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_van_Meegeren https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_van_Meegeren

maratc 5y ago

A rather big collection of 10 Vermeer paintings was gathered in Gemaldergalerie Alte Meister in Dresden but it was "temporarily" closed due to coronavirus outbreak, and possibly won't reopen. https://gemaeldegalerie.skd.museum/en/exhibitions/vermeer-johannes-ermeers-girl-reading-a-letter-at-an-open-window-and-17th-century-dutch-genre-painting/ https://gemaeldegalerie.skd.museum/en/exhibitions/vermeer-jo...

phgn 5y ago

Interesting to see an article written in the future ;)

Kaibeezy 5y ago
I knew you’d say that.

abruzzi 5y ago

I think the exhibition should include the Van Meegerens. The fake Vermeers are famous enough that seeing them alongside real Vermeers would be fascinating.

mudil 5y ago

Tim's Vermeer is an excellent documentary that looks at the possibility that Vermeer used optical technology to produce his paintings. Pretty convincing documentary, imo. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3089388/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3089388/