Enlarge image
National Gallery of Art in Washington: One less Vermeer
Photo:
ALMOND NGAN/ AFP
For decades, the US National Gallery of Art in Washington proudly presented four paintings by the famous Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.
But now it is clear: There are really only three.
One of the pictures, the »Girl with a Flute«, is not a Vermeer at all.
An analysis of the painting showed this, the art museum reported at a press conference.
A team of curators, restorers and scientists found that the painting was painted "by an employee of Vermeer and not by the Dutch artist himself," the Washington Post quoted from the press conference as saying.
Vermeer lived between 1632 and 1675, the »Girl with a Flute« is said to have been created between 1665 and 1670.
Around 1940 it is said to have passed into the possession of the National Gallery of Art.
Poorly copied Vermeer's technique
Microscopic pigment analysis and advanced imaging techniques have provided evidence that the image is not Vermeer's, reports the New York Times.
Similar materials were used in similar ways, said Kathryn A. Dooley, a researcher at the National Gallery who worked on the project, according to the newspaper.
However, the color was used differently.
According to the newspaper, the artist copied Vermeer's working methods poorly, and his picture had a different surface structure than the famous painter's originals.
According to the museum, the investigation was only made possible by the corona pandemic.
Because the gallery had to close permanently, the paintings could be taken down from the wall and examined.
The three other Vermeer paintings in the gallery were also examined, it is said.
But they were rated as real Vermeers.
There have been doubts for a long time
For decades there had been doubts that the Baroque artist Vermeer had painted the »Girl with a Flute« himself.
It's just one of two paintings he was supposed to have painted on wooden panels - and according to experts, it just didn't look good enough.
Now the Gallery of Art assumes that the picture may have been painted by a student of Vermeer who understood his technique but did not have the necessary skills to do so himself.
By Johann Vermeer, who painted in the so-called Golden Age of the Netherlands, only about 35 pictures are known worldwide.
His most famous picture is probably »The Girl with the Pearl Earring«.
ptz
