The rijksmuseum presents
Vermeer
The rijksmuseum presents
Vermeer
GET READY FOR THE
VERMEER EXHIBITION AT THE RIJKSMUSEUM
Vermeer
Exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
February 10 to June 4, 2023
Can you believe that Jan Vermeer van Delft painted a grand total of 37 paintings in his lifetime?
That’s not many at all compared to his contemporaries and other artists. But that’s what makes his work so special.
Well, it goes without saying that Vermeer’s SUBJECTS and STYLE also make him an exceptionally talented artist worth celebrating.
The centenary exhibition at the Rijksmuseum is your chance to see 28 of those 37 works of art in ONE place.
That’s a first!
Now that we’ve been to the exhibition, we’ve written all about the experience just for you!
IMPORTANT NOTE
Unfortunately, all the tickets are sold out again. All new tickets were gone within 4.5 days…
If anything else comes up, I’ll let you know.
Yours, Celine
rijksmuseum vermeer exhibition tickets
Your chance to see it!
2 MINUTES VIDEO
VERMEER EXHIBITION AMSTERDAM
A look inside the Vermeer exhibition!
Here is the video of our visit to the Vermeer exhibition: A foretaste for some or a consolation for those who unfortunately do not (yet) have a ticket for the exhibition.
Enjoy the pictures!
Your Celine
WHAT is
ON DISPLAY?
Museums around the world have teamed up to put on this special exhibition and are lending their Vermeer paintings to the Rijksmuseum.
The museums involved include…
- The National Gallery, London
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Mauritshuis, Den Haag
- The Frick Collection, New York
- Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
- National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
Here are just some of the highlights:
- The Milkmaid
- Girl with a pearl earring (unfortunately, she will only be part of the exhibition until March 30th)
- The Geographer
- The Lacemaker
- Woman reading a letter
The details
at a glance
Opening hours:
New Opening Hours for Vermeer:
Monday – Sunday: 9.00 a.m. – 10.00 p.m
Permanent collection closes at 5.00 p.m.
Prices:
EUR 30 for adults
free entry for under 18s
free entry for ICOM members
Two things you need to know:
- You need to have a special Vermeer ticket. A standard ticket for the Rijksmuseum does NOT include entry to the Vermeer exhibition.
- Unfortunately, it costs EUR 2 more to buy a ticket through Tiqets this time. But you will be supporting what I’m doing here on my website. So let me say a huge thank you for your support right now! 😀
Directions:
Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The exhibition is in the “Philips Wing”
Entrance: There is a separate entrance for the exhibition in the passage under the museum.
Audio guide:
Unfortunately, no
Guided tours:
Sadly not.
And you can’t even arrange for your own (external) guide to take you round the exhibition.
School trips are not permitted either.
Handy hints and top tips:
- Photos can be taken, but the flash must be off.
- You can explore the collection with your exhibition ticket too – just make sure you time it right.
- The exhibition is suitable for children.
- There is an official catalogue and plenty of other materials to accompany this exhibition.
Table of
content
what is there to see?
find out more
WHO WAS Vermeer?
find out more
A FEW PAINTINGS to keep you going
find out more
Our visit of the exhibition!
find out more
WHAT IS THERE
TO SEE?
28 paintings by Vermeer in one place – how exciting! The types of paintings vary from historical depictions, paintings with a moral or scientific message, images of women, cityscapes and allegories.
Most of Vermeer’s works are genre pieces, depicting everyday life in Delft during the 17th century. It’s absolutely fascinating to be able to gain an insight into the Netherlands at that time through these paintings.
So, why was the Rijksmuseum chosen as the venue for the exhibition? There’s an obvious answer to that… 4 of the 37 paintings are already at the Rijksmuseum. And Vermeer was a Dutch painter too, of course!
I’m planning to visit the exhibition myself at the start of February. And then I’ll be back to tell you all about it and share my photos with you all.
For now, here’s a list of all the paintings that’ll be on display:
Historical depictions
- Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, 1654–55, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
- Diana and her Nymphs, 1655–56, Mauritshuis, The Hague
- Saint Praxedis, 1655, Kufu Company Inc., The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
Cityscapes
- View of Delft, 1660-61, Mauritshuis, The Hague
- View of Houses in Delft, known as ‘The Little Street’, 1658-59, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Images of women
- A Lady Writing, 1664–67, National Gallery of Art, Washington
- A Young Woman seated at a Virginal, c. 1670–72, The National Gallery, London
- A Young Woman standing at a Virginal, 1670–72, The National Gallery, London
- Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, 1657-58, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
- Girl with a Flute, 1664–67, National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1664–67, Mauritshuis, The Hague
- Girl with the Red Hat, 1664–67, National Gallery of Art, Washington
- The Lacemaker, 1666–68, Musée du Louvre, Paris
- The Milkmaid, 1658-59, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- Woman Holding a Balance, ca. 1662–64, National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Woman in blue Reading a Letter, 1662-64, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, c. 1670‐72, The Leiden Collection, New York
- Young Woman with a Lute, 1662–64, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Paintings with a moral message
- Girl Interrupted at Her Music, c. 1659–61, The Frick Collection, New York
- Mistress and Maid, c. 1665–67, The Frick Collection, New York
- Officer and Laughing Girl, 1657-58, The Frick Collection, New York
- The Glass of Wine, c. 1659-61, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
- The Love Letter, 1669-70, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- The Procuress, 1656, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
- Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid, 1670–72, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
- Woman with a Pearl Necklace, c. 1662-64, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
Painting with a scientific message
- The Geographer, 1669, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Allegories
- Allegory of the Catholic Faith, 1670–74, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
WHO WAS
VERMEER?
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque painter who lived during the 17th century. He’s known for his realistic and intricately detailed paintings, many of which portray domestic scenes and aspects of everyday life. Vermeer wasn’t all that well known during his lifetime. That might come down to the fact that he only painted 37 paintings, which were mostly sold to his small fan base and people he knew.
His most famous paintings have to be ‘Girl with the Pearl Earring’ and ‘The Milkmaid’.
Johannes Vermeer was born in 1632 in the Dutch city of Delft. He married Catharina Bolnes in 1653 and the couple went on to have 15 children together. With a large family to look after, Vermeer managed to find success in his career as a painter from the beginning and still maintained a secondary revenue stream. He was a member of the Guild of Saint Luke, a trade association for painters and other artists.
Counting the 37 paintings we know about and the few that have gone astray over the years (with archive records telling us they did indeed exist), he produced two paintings a year on average. That’s really not many compared to the likes of Rembrandt and Rubens.
His limited output and the Franco-Dutch War of 1672–1678 meant that his family struggled financially during the final years of his life.
In 1675, Vermeer became ill and died within a matter of days. His wife was left without any inheritance due to their outstanding debts.
Fast-forward to the modern day and Vermeer’s paintings fetch a high price at auctions. He’s an acclaimed artist worthy of having a whole exhibition on this scale dedicated to him and him alone.
Despite all that, he’s still a bit of an enigma… We don’t actually know everything there is to know about him. Can you believe that we don’t even know what he looked like? With no self-portrait or other pictures of him, we don’t have anything to go on. I hope that we can get to know him a little better through the exhibition!
Jan Vermeer was ahead of his time when it came to the composition of his paintings. They were perfectly balanced and complex in their structure, lighting and colours. But they were also unusually… quiet. When you see Vermeer’s paintings, it soon becomes obvious how much he valued silence. Perhaps that was because he needed a break from the chaos at home. It can’t have ever been quiet there with 15 kids around! 😉
Not to mention that life was pretty busy in Delft and the Netherlands in general during the 17th century, when the city was thriving and trade was booming. There was a lot going on, with trade goods constantly coming and going on land and water. The people living in the city always had something to do.
This is particularly evident in the two Cityscapes (there were probably three at one time).
The “View of Delft” shows the calm before the storm in the morning, so to speak… The tower clock shows 7 a.m. and the city still seems to be asleep… Only Vermeer’s milkmaid (looks like her) and a few other people are already on the move…
A FEW PAINTINGS
TO KEEP YOU GOING...
Vermeer was trying to almost cancel all of that out by focusing on peace and quiet. His paintings really do seem to press pause on all the chaos of the time.
The girl paintings and other genre pieces are set in a safe space, with the subjects portrayed within their own four walls.
And all these works of art have other common threads, portraying a calm and quiet pause alone. But we’re allowed to observe the people in these paintings as they go about their days, experience joy and ponder their intimate thoughts.
‘The Milkmaid’ is an excellent example of this. The tangible silence is broken only by the sound of the milk being poured. Seriously – if you really concentrate hard on this painting, you can actually hear the milk flowing. There’s nothing there to distract us from the maid and her milk.
Vermeer loved to experiment and he loved this level of intimacy. Sometimes he even dared to take his observations of everyday life a step further and into a more personal space. You can get a good sense of this in ‘Woman Reading a Letter’.
The woman in this painting is still wearing her nightgown, so we can assume she’s just got out of bed and hasn’t yet got dressed for the day. We’re watching her read a letter, which we can assume is important and very private!
Again, there’s nothing to distract us from this woman. Quite the opposite, in fact. The blue and orange of her nightgown draw us in and direct our attention to the letter. Is it a love letter? Or something else? We’ll never know…
The last painting we’re going to look at for now is ‘The Lacemaker’ from Paris.
We’re right up close to the girl this time. So close, in fact, that we can see the threads she’s working with. It almost feels like we’re watching closely to learn from her. We can hear her hands moving and her breathing as she concentrates on what she’s doing. Absolutely incredible.
He has focused on the girl and her work, but the fabrics and threads in the foreground are all out of focus – as if in a photograph. He was one of the first artists to ever use this technique.
‘The Lacemaker’ is also Vermeer’s smallest painting – and he only ever painted on a small scale anyway. This one is just 24 x 21 cm – that really is small!
OUR VISIT TO THE
VERMEER EXHIBITION IN AMSTERDAM
The exhibition officially opened its doors on Friday,10 February.
By Sunday, 12 February, it was completely sold out.
450,000 tickets gone just like that! They’d been selling advance tickets for ages, but there was another surge after the exhibition opened. We couldn’t believe it!
Note: The Rijksmuseum is now trying to work out the best way of extending the opening times to give more people the chance to enjoy Vermeer’s work.
But, for now, I can take you on a tour through the exhibition…
ROOM 1 & 2
The exhibition starts with some text on the wall in the first room. But that’s not all. There’s a simulation of a window with light shining through it and reflecting onto the floor. A homage to Vermeer himself, since almost every one of his paintings has a window in it.
The exhibition gets going properly in the next room… And this is where the crowds start to form. 😉
Vermeer’s two cityscapes – ‘The Little Street’ and ‘View of Delft’ – are on display in the second room.
And these first two masterpieces, selected by the Rijksmuseum and Mauritshuis, kick off the Dutch museums’ exhibition dedicated to Vermeer, one of their country’s greatest painters.
ROOM 3
Moving to the third room, we find four paintings known as historical depictions. ‘Diana and her Companions’, ‘Saint Praxedis’ and ‘Christ in the House of Martha and Mary’ are waiting for us in here.
And so is ‘The Procuress’ – a painting that is all about morality, if you ask me. The rich yellow and red colours of the clothing immediately jump out at you. Then you spot where the man’s hand is and notice the look on the old woman’s face in the background. It’s all very intense and kind of plump (I’m thinking of that man’s hand) and yet somehow subtle and delicate. When you pick up on the glass and carafe, you can really appreciate the extent of Vermeer’s talent as a painter.
ROOM 4
The fourth room is dedicated to one painting and one painting alone… ‘Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window’.
The room the girl is standing in is half-hidden by a curtain, so your eyes are drawn straight to her. The girl is standing at an open window with a letter in her hand that she’s almost finished reading. It’s impossible to tell whether she’s happy or sad. But we can assume that she’s reading a love letter since Cupid himself makes an appearance in the painting on the wall behind the girl. That part of the painting was only revealed more recently as part of a restoration project.
ROOM 5
The next highlight is ‘The Milkmaid’ – another painting displayed in room of its own. As you might have guessed, you can expect a huge crowd of people gathered in this room (and in the room before too). You can read more about this particular painting further up in the blog from when I wrote about it before visiting the exhibition.
After this, you have to head out of the exhibition rooms briefly. But don’t worry – the exhibition carries on in another part of the museum.
ROOM 6
Next up is a slightly larger room containing three paintings. And all three involve the outside world coming into the domestic space.
‘Officer and Laughing Girl’ is first on the agenda. A man is visiting a young girl at her home. But he’s not the only hint at the outside world. The map on the wall is a reminder that there’s a whole world outside the girl’s own four walls.
‘Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid’ is another example. The lady in the painting is replying to a letter her maid has just handed her. The first draft of the reply has been screwed up and thrown onto the floor. We can assume that the maid is waiting to take the letter back right away. While her mistress is busy writing, the maid is lost in thought as she stares out of the window.
And that’s exactly what the young woman in ‘Young Woman with a Lute’ is doing too. She should surely be practising the lute instead of looking outside. Perhaps she’s waiting for someone to arrive?
ROOM 7
There are two exciting highlights in the next room… ‘The Girl with a Pearl Earring’ (only on display until the end of March) and ‘The Lacemaker’ from the Louvre.
This is a room with five portraits of women up close. Four of the women look right at you as you get a glimpse into their world. The lacemaker is the only one who’s busy at work. But we can get closer to her than we would if she were presented to us in a portrait.
The girl with a pearl earring looks at us more clearly than any of the others. Her grey eyes are captivating and her blue headscarf seems to jump out of the frame at us. It looks like she’s just turned her head to us spontaneously (do you think?) – there’s no other painting quite like it.
The other portraits in this room are… ‘Girl with a Red Hat’, ‘Girl with a Flute’ and ‘A Young Woman Seated at the Virginal’.
ROOM 8
Room 8 is divided into two. First of all, there are three paintings with musical instruments in them: ‘Lady Standing at a Virginal’, ‘Lady Seated at a Virginal’ and ‘The Love Letter’, which shows a maid interrupting her mistress playing the lute to hand her a letter.
This painting makes the link between music and the second theme in this room – letters. Letters being written, read or simply delivered to the intended recipient.
Examples include ‘Woman in Blue Reading a Letter’, ‘A Lady Writing’ and ‘Mistress and Maid’.
In that last painting, the mistress appears to be rather shocked. The maid is handing her a letter and seems to be revealing something unexpected in the process.
ROOM 9
One of the themes in the last room of the exhibition is gentlemen callers. ‘The Wine Glass’ and ‘Girl Interrupted at Her Music’ are two examples.
I find the first of those paintings fascinating. You can’t see much of the girl’s face because it’s covered up by the wine glass she’s drinking from so intently. The man looks on with interest and his hand on the carafe, ready to top up the glass.
Time to move onto the next topic, which we can roughly describe as ‘occupations’.
And here he is at last – the only male portrait in the entire exhibition and a personal highlight for me. ‘The Geographer’ has come from Frankfurt’s Städel Museum, where I worked for about six years.
The geographer is bent over a map with a compass in his hand. You get the impression he’s suddenly looked up from his work. But not because he’s been disturbed. Because he’s just had an idea.
‘Woman Holding a Balance’ is on display in this room too. A simple masterpiece in brown and grey. Except for the tiny piece of orange fabric poking out from under her coat. The balance she’s using to weight pearls is exquisitely painted.
Maybe this woman sold some of her pearls to the ‘Woman with a Pearl Necklace’ 😉
Last but not least, ‘The Allegory of Faith’ is located in this room too.
Summery
I was really impressed with the exhibition. It’s not every day you have the chance to see 28 Vermeer paintings in one place like this. And I know 28 paintings doesn’t sound like enough for a whole exhibition (especially given the price of the tickets), but my visit was by no means quick. Time flies by when you’re waiting to get a better look at the paintings and then admiring them up close. If I’m remembering rightly, I spent almost two hours at the exhibition.
If you’ve booked a ticket for any time before 4.00 p.m., you’ll be able to go on to enjoy the rest of the museum’s collection. Don’t miss Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’!
One last top tip… Why not have a photo taken of you as the milkmaid or the girl with a pearl earring as a souvenir to remind you of this special exhibition? Head to the Museumsfoto photo studio and get ready to dress up!
Yours,
Céline
Text and image rights: © Céline Mülich, 2023
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