On Vermeer | S8,E4 | DIALOGUES

Was Vermeer really the artist behind some of his most well-known works? The question has lingered at the margins of art history for years and resurfaced during the Dutch master’s blockbuster retrospective at the Rijksmuseum in 2023. In this episode of Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast, Helen Molesworth invites writer Lawrence Weschler and art historian Claudia Swan to interrogate what is at stake-politically, financially, and art historically-in reattributing works by the old master.
Work featured in this video: Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft, c. 1660-61, Mauritshuis
#Dialogues #JohannesVermeer #Baroque #DutchGoldenAge

[@davidhunternyc1]

I saw "Revisiting Vermeer" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. in 1995. I was stumped by the later, lesser quality work in the last gallery, for instance, 'Young Woman Seated at a Virginal.' My "assumption" was that the later work was painted by Vermeer in his later years when his faculties were failing, but then again, he died when he was only 43 years old. Could these later works have been painted by Maria Vermeer? Both, 'Officer and Laughing Girl' and 'Girl Interrupted at Her Music' are of lesser quality too. The 'Girl With a Flute' and the 'Girl With a Red Hat' appear to be the same sitter. I simply do not see, however, how the 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' is the same sitter too. Also, how could they be self-portraits painted in front of a mirror and, at the same time, be painted with a camera obscura? So little is known about Johannes Vermeer's practice. Even less is known about Maria Vermeer. Every painter has a unique fingerprint. The brushstrokes in these paintings, from left to right, up to down, thick to thin, must be studied with advanced scientific methods. Surely, differences and discoveries will be made if Vermeer's oeuvre were painted by different hands. The dialogue here deepens the mystery and asks important questions but we must proceed deliberately and soberly in our search for answers. We must not impose our conception to fit a preferred model of interpretation.