{"id":245691,"date":"2025-09-22T06:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T06:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/245691\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T06:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T06:24:11","slug":"hidden-portrait-may-be-vermeers-earliest-known-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/245691\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Portrait May Be Vermeer’s Earliest Known Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDuring the pandemic, the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., investigated four paintings attributed to\u00a0Johannes Vermeer<\/a>. During that time, it was discovered<\/a> that the underpainting below the surface of one of those paintings, Girl with the Red Hat\u00a0(ca.1664\u201369), was a portrait of a man.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe museum\u2019s conservation studio used advanced imaging techniques to virtually penetrate layers of paint in combination with a microscopic examination of the paintings\u2019 surfaces to analyze Vermeer\u2019s process. This earlier research suggested that the male figure, painting in uncharacteristically loose brushstrokes, was the work of an unidentified artist. <\/p>\n

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

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

\n\tFurther studies, however, indicate that Vermeer\u2019s underpaintings were consistently looser and completed more quickly, before the master went back in to refine the work\u2014a process that is taught in art schools today and is considered fairly typical for most (though, not all) artists.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the underpainting, the man\u2019s wide-brimmed hat and collar with a tassel tie can be dated to 1650-55, when such a costume would have been worn. If it is, in fact, a Vermeer, this would make the painting among the artist\u2019s earliest known works, with that current standing belonging to\u00a0Christ in the House of Mary and Martha\u00a0(1654-55).<\/p>\n

\n\tIt would also be considered his only known male portrait, as The Astronomer<\/a>\u00a0(1668) and\u00a0The Geographer<\/a> (1668) are not regarded as such, and it would provide greater context to the artist\u2019s process and early career.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpecialists at the NGA are now arguing that the male portrait could belong to Vermeer. However, this theory \u201chas not yet been proven or denied\u201d, the Art Newspaper<\/a> reported Thursday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis research additionally opens the door to the possibility of other unidentified works.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn inventory compiled after Vermeer\u2019s death in 1676 indicates that he owned two male portraits by fellow Delft artist Carel Fabritius. It has been suggested that the hidden work could have, instead, been painted by Fabritius, with Vermeer painting overtop of it.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Fabritius\u2019s part, there are only about a dozen known works by the artist. If the hidden portrait was painted by him, that would be an impactful finding for his work as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the pandemic, the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., investigated four paintings attributed to\u00a0Johannes Vermeer.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":245692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,1033,171,107082,130595,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-245691","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-johannes-vermeer","13":"tag-national-gallery-of-art-washington-d-c","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}