{"id":18811,"date":"2025-04-14T09:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T09:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/18811\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T09:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T09:04:13","slug":"new-conservation-sheds-light-on-rare-vermeer-in-private-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/18811\/","title":{"rendered":"New Conservation Sheds Light on Rare Vermeer in Private Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA little dust never hurt anyone\u2014unless, perhaps, you\u2019re trying to date a Vermeer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tConservation work on\u00a0Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, the only Vermeer still in private hands, has uncovered a layer of 17th-century air pollution between layers of paint that helped date the rare Old Master picture, according to\u00a0The Art Newspaper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpecifically, feldspar particles\u2014byproducts of the booming Delftware ceramics industry in Vermeer\u2019s hometown\u2014were trapped in the composition, likely after it was first set aside. Their presence suggests Vermeer returned to the canvas years later to add the yellow shawl draped over the sitter\u2019s bodice. That final touch may make\u00a0Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, his last painting.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\tNow on view in Amsterdam\u2019s H\u2019ART Museum as part of\u00a0From Rembrandt to Vermeer<\/a>, the painting sits in the collection of Thomas Kaplan<\/a>, the American billionaire and self-styled custodian of Dutch Golden Age masterpieces. His Leiden Collection exhibition includes 75 works, 18 of which are Rembrandts. The Vermeer is the showstopper\u2014and for good reason.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe painting has had a tangled provenance. Its attribution was in doubt for decades, but by the time it re-emerged at Sotheby\u2019s in 2004, expert consensus had tilted in its favor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKaplan, who opened the bidding but lost out to casino magnate Steve Wynn, ultimately acquired it four years later when Wynn decided to sell. He bought it along with a Rembrandt<\/a> self-portrait.<\/p>\n

\n\tKaplan recently had the Vermeer examined and conserved by David Bull (who died in December 2024), with strict instructions to keep the intervention subtle, according to\u00a0The Art Newspaper\u00a0 \u201cI want to see the artist, not the restorer,\u201d he reportedly said. The result: a more legible modelling of folds in the sitter\u2019s white satin gown, softer shadows, and a friendlier face\u2014thanks to the removal of later retouching on the lips and eyebrows. Vermeer, it turns out, had a lighter hand than some of his fans.<\/p>\n

\n\tArthur Wheelock, former National Gallery of Art curator and now Kaplan\u2019s in-house expert, believes the painting was begun around 1670\u201372 and revisited in 1675\u2014Vermeer\u2019s final year. The shawl, he told\u00a0The Art Newspaper, may reflect a shift in fashion following the French invasion of the Dutch Republic in 1672. Or perhaps the change was simply commercial\u2014done at the request of a buyer. The original owner remains unknown, though speculation centers on Vermeer\u2019s patrons Pieter van Ruijven and Maria de Knuijt.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe painting has also received a more fitting frame. Gone is the gaudy gilt affair from the Sotheby\u2019s sale. In its place, a sober Dutch ebony frame, more in keeping with the picture\u2019s quiet poise. The painting, travels next to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach this autumn, just in time for to join the flock for snowbird season.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso on view as part of the\u00a0Rembrandt to Vermeer\u00a0exhibition is Kaplan\u2019s first purchase by Rembrandt, a work on paper,\u00a0Young Lion Resting\u00a0(1638\u201342). Kaplan hinted that the\u00a0Young Lion\u00a0will be up for sale next year<\/a>\u00a0and hopes that it could become the most expensive work on paper to sell at auction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A little dust never hurt anyone\u2014unless, perhaps, you\u2019re trying to date a Vermeer. Conservation work on\u00a0Young Woman Seated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,12440,12441,12442,16,15,12443],"class_list":{"0":"post-18811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hart-museum","13":"tag-rembrandt","14":"tag-thomas-kaplan","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-vermeer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114335519582597479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}