Theft of the century - paintings that were stolen. Paintings by Jan Vermeer

Baroque painting
Painting by the Dutch master of painting Johannes Vermeer of Delft “Concert”. Painting size 69 x 63 cm, oil on canvas. The action in this painting is distant from the viewer, it is located in the depths of the room, on the back wall of which hang two paintings - a pastoral landscape and Vermeer’s often-quoted “Gawd” by Caravaggist Dirk van Baburen. There is a harpsichord against the wall with an Arcadian landscape on its open lid. Harpsichord (French clavecin), a stringed keyboard-plucked musical instrument, the predecessor of the piano. Known since the 16th century. There were harpsichords of various shapes, types and varieties, including the harpsichord, virginal, spinet, and clavicytherium. It is played by a young girl sitting in profile.

The man, turning his back to the viewer, sits on an obliquely placed chair and accompanies on the lute (only part of the neck with the pegs is visible). The woman leads the voice part. Unused musical instruments, like an exquisite still life, appear to the left on the heavy oak table and floor. Vermeer gives preference to the string ensemble (the clavichord also belongs here), which has long been considered a symbol of musical consonances and harmonies. Music studies in the works of Vermeer's contemporaries always have a certain subtext. Music is associated with love, and in the works of Metsu, Steen, and Van Meertz one can see the figure of Cupid or some other hint of the characters' romantic relationships. If a music lesson was depicted, it was implied that the teacher was showing more than just a professional interest in the student. Vermeer's works lack such an unambiguous interpretation.

The characters' surroundings indicate the erotic subtext of the picture, but the characters themselves remain detached and neutral. Baburen’s painting “The Pimp” hanging on the wall also unites three figures, but the difference in the mood of the characters is striking. Baburin's painting and peaceful landscapes on the wall and lid of the harpsichord, combined with characters immersed in music, rather lead the viewer to the judgment, very widespread at that time, that music pacifies passions and creates spiritual harmony. Vermeer's own musical preferences are unknown, but his contemporaries were fond of French and Italian poetry, collections of ballads based on Petrarch's poems were published, and love lyrics were extremely popular. In its content, the picture is close to the painting “The Lady at the Virginal and the Cavalier, or The Music Lesson,” painted at the same time. But in this work, Vermeer paints the foreground less carefully; the table, covered with a carpet, is almost completely immersed in shadow; only the girl’s dress at the harpsichord, her white skirt and the yellow jacket with black trim, already familiar from other works, stand out as a bright accent.

Jan Vermeer of Delft (1632-1675) - Dutch artist-painter, master of everyday painting and genre portrait. Along with Rembrandt and Frans Hals, he is one of the greatest painters of the golden age of Dutch art.

In the Russian art historical tradition, the more common spelling of the artist's name is Vermeer of Delft. Other options - Johannis van der Meer, Johannis ver Meer, Wermeer of Delft
Almost none of his remaining works can be guaranteed to be found in place - they travel from museum to museum, attracting thousands of spectators even with a solo performance.

"Procuress" (1656). It is believed that the character standing on the left is the author himself.

Johannes Vermeer of Delft - Glass of wine

Jan (Johannes) Vermeer: ​​The Art of Painting

Jan (Johannes) Vermeer: ​​Vermeer The letter, 1669-70

Vermeer Lady writing a letter with her maid

The Lacemaker, Jan Vermeer

Jan Vermeer (Delft) "Concert" (1658-1660)
The only painting by Vermeer that is currently impossible to see is “The Concert,” painted in the period 1663-1666

The Concerto, part of the collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, was stolen on the night of March 18, 1990. This crime is still considered one of the most notorious and daring robberies of the twentieth century, the investigation of which has never been completed. The criminals, pretending to be police officers, took 13 exhibits from the museum, including a painting by Vermeer. The Concert is now valued at at least $100 million. The investigation into this case has been carried out for more than 20 years by the museum security service together with the Boston FBI office. A reward of $5 million has been offered for information leading to the return of the stolen property.

Jan Vermeer "Diana and her companions". Around 1653-1656
The plot of this work was taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses. In the foreground is the goddess Diana (Artemis), surrounded by four nymphs who help her wash her feet after the hunt. Diana herself was written unusually for that time. Most often, Diana and her companions were depicted naked or while bathing (this painting is often compared to the earlier work of Jacob van Loo). In Vermeer, all the characters are dressed, and the goddess is identified only by a crescent moon in her hair, and not the usual attributes of a huntress - a bow and arrows. As for the nymphs, historians were able to identify only one of them - Callisto. This is a woman in black with a red ribbon in her hair. According to Ovid, Callisto, like the goddess’s companions, and Diana herself, were supposed to remain virgins, but Zeus seduced her. In the painting, she stands in the shadows, her eyes downcast, out of fear that her pregnancy will be discovered by Diana. She is also distinguished by tightly closed clothing.
A small detail of the picture - a thistle flower in the foreground - still baffles scientists. It is difficult to interpret the symbolism of 17th century painting. Some researchers believe that the thistle symbolizes self-denial and the difficult but noble path of life, others believe that it is an allusion to the masculine principle, namely to the unborn son of Callisto - Arkad (Arkas), others consider the plant a symbol of earthly sadness and sorrow and interpret it from the point of view of Christianity, not mythology.

Jan Vermeer "Girl with a Pearl Earring". Around 1665-1667

This work of the artist belongs to the “tronie” genre (from Dutch “head”, “face”), popular in Holland in the 17th century; most often such paintings depict unknown people, sometimes with an unusual facial expression; Rembrandt also has a similar series of self-portraits . In 1969, it was sold at the same auction as "View of Delft", but its price was then only 17 guilders. There is no exact evidence of this; historians have established the fact that one of the tronie portraits was sold at auction for this amount, but whether it was “Girl with a Pearl Earring” is a moot point.
After that auction, the painting disappeared for almost 200 years, and was discovered in 1881. Collector Arnoldus Endries de Tombe purchased it at a public auction for the ridiculous price of 2 guilders, 30 cents. The painting was in a deplorable state, close to complete destruction (by the way, it underwent the last restoration relatively recently in 1994). After de Tombe's death in December 1902, according to his will, twelve paintings from his collection were transferred to the Mauritshuis Gallery. Among them was “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” and in 1903 the painting was recognized as the work of Vermeer. The signature "IVMeer" is in the upper left corner and is written in a slightly lighter tone on a dark background, so that it is almost impossible to see in the reproductions. And although the pigments of the signature are now impossible to analyze (the paint layer in this place has been greatly worn out), gallery experts insist on its authenticity.
The identity of the girl depicted in the portrait is also not completely clear. Let us remember that the plot of Webber's film, based on the novel of the same name, is fiction. Experts, for the most part, are inclined to believe that the painting depicts the artist’s eldest daughter Maria, who was 12-13 years old at the time the painting was painted.

News from the world of art

Jan Vermeer (1632-1675). Lady writing a letter with her maid, between 1670-1671. National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

On February 22, the long-awaited exhibition “Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting” opened at the Louvre in Paris. Preparation for the exhibition took about five years. Its unusualness lies in the fact that for the first time in many years, 12 works by the famous Dutchman are exhibited in Paris, and in total there are 34 of his masterpieces in different museums around the world with confirmed authorship! The exhibition will last until May 22, 2017.

The exhibition "Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting" at the Louvre became the largest retrospective of the Dutch painter in France.

Thrush, 1658. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The exhibition is organized in partnership with the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin and the National Gallery of Art in Washington (USA), and, in addition to paintings by Vermeer himself, presents works by his contemporaries, including Gerard Dou, Terborch, Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch.
In Vermeer's works, symbols and signs play a huge role; he often uses them to encrypt biblical allegories, issues of morality, choice and love. So, for example, the scales in the hands of the heroine of the painting “Woman with Scales” symbolize the upcoming Judgment of God at the end of life, at which all thoughts and actions will be “weighed”.

Woman holding scales, between 1662-1665. National Gallery of Art, Washington

Among the master’s works are “Astronomer”, “Lacemaker”, “Woman with a Pearl Necklace”. Like other Dutch painters of that time, the heroes of the paintings are ordinary people. In each story, great attention is paid to detail.

The Astronomer, 1668. Louvre, Paris

Lacemaker, 1664. Louvre. Paris

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Woman with a Pearl Necklace, 1662-1665. Berlin Art Gallery, Berlin

"Girl with a Pearl Earring" is one of the most famous paintings by Johannes Vermeer. She is often called the Northern or Dutch Mona Lisa. The first title of the painting was “Girl in a Turban.”

Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665. Royal Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague

The exhibition also presents such paintings by Vermeer as “The Guitarist”, “The Geographer”, and “The Girl Sitting at the Virginal”.

Guitarist, 1600s. National Gallery of Art, Washington

Geographer, 1669. Städel Institute of Arts, Frankfurt am Main

Girl sitting at a virginal, 1670-1672. London National Gallery

The works of other Dutch artists, in particular Gerrit Dou, Gerard Terborch, Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch and Gabriel Metsu show Vermeer's place among the masters of genre painting. They all lived and worked in different cities of the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, but in their paintings there is a noticeable similarity in style, theme, composition and technique.

Jan Vermeer. Woman holding scales, 1664. Pieter de Hooch, Woman Holding Scales, 1664

Jan Vermeer. Lady writing a letter, 1670. Gabriel Metsu. Woman reading a letter, 1664-1666.

Jan Vermeer. Lady Seated at a Virginal, 1670-1672. Franz van Mieris. Blowing, 1658

Mysterious Vermeer of Delft

Vermeer was born in Delft on October 31, 1632, lived only 43 years and died under strange circumstances. Contemporaries believed that the cause of his quick and early death was the artist’s nervous exhaustion associated with family problems and poverty. Jan Vermeer and his wife Katharina had 15 children, while Katharina had even more pregnancies, sometimes the children died as newborns. Katarina can be seen in Vermeer's works, although not as often as, for example, Rembrandt's Saskia. Vermeer was his follower and, indirectly, through Carel Fabricius, his student. We see pregnant Katharina in the painting “Woman with Scales.”
Vermeer's mother-in-law, the tough and strong-willed Maria Bolnes, gave her consent to her daughter's marriage to the artist only after Jan, born in a Protestant family, converted to Catholicism. Maria insisted that her daughter's family live in her house. All his life, Vermeer suffered from the difficult character of Maria, who influenced her daughter and did not like her son-in-law for his inability to earn money. Maria was especially displeased with her son-in-law's slowness.

At the Procuress, 1656. Dresden Art Gallery, Dresden

It is believed that the character in the painting “At the Procuress” standing on the left is a self-portrait of the artist.
Vermeer died on the verge of poverty. The war that began in 1672 changed the market for paintings; people stopped buying them. Artists practically stopped receiving orders. To support his family, Jan was forced to take out loans and sell almost all of his remaining works. In 1675, Vermeer died suddenly and without obvious reasons.

Alleged self-portrait of Johannes Vermeer, 1656

After Mary's death, Vermeer's widow Katharina was forced to renounce her inheritance and pay off debts to creditors. Katharina will write in her diaries that “Jan died because he was ashamed of ruin.” In the surviving inventory of objects you can find many things used in the works of Jan Vermeer. Including Katarina's famous yellow jacket with ermine trim. It was Katarina's holiday jacket, which the artist loved and requested for his models.

Lady Writing a Letter, 1665. National Gallery of Art, Washington

Until the mid-19th century, Vermeer's works were considered third-rate, collecting dust in storage rooms and ordinary private collections. The artist was "discovered" by art historians Gustav Waagen and Theophilus Thor-Bürger, who mentioned a possible 66 works. It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that Jan Vermeer was recognized as the greatest artist of the Dutch Golden Age.

The Music Lesson, 1662-1665

Vermeer was the most talented in the Guild of St. Luke, the largest association of artists in Delft. Throughout his life, he painted no more than 40 - 45 works (some of them have been lost), while his colleagues made money from portraits, drawing several of them a month. Merchants respected and loved Vermeer, often gave him orders, but were not happy with the pace. At the same time, Vermeer’s work was paid extremely highly by customers.
In total, 34 works by the artist are known to date, and there are at least three more, the authorship of which is attributed to Vermeer, among them “Girl with a Flute.”

Girl with a Flute, 1665-1670, believed to be by Johannes Vermeer

Vermeer's painting "The Concert" was stolen on March 18, 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Nothing is still known about her fate.

Some of the artist's interior works were originally painted for "boxes", a popular way of presenting paintings in Delft. The work was placed in a special box with candles, and holes were made in the box. Looking at the picture through them, one could see some three-dimensionality of space. One of these boxes has been preserved and is on display in the National Gallery in London.

Jan Vermeer. View of Delft. 1661. Mauritshuis, The Hague

John Vermeer is considered an unsurpassed master of working with light; no one else has ever been able to repeat such a subtle rendering of light and shadow. It is unknown what exactly allowed the artist to achieve such results: talent, technical devices, special paints that he made himself from very expensive pigments, or a unique combination of all these factors.

Little Street, 1657. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jan Vermeer was one of the first artists to use a camera obscura in his paintings. Traces of camera use can be seen, for example, in the unnatural shine of metal objects and the whiteness of some parts. A careful study of Vermeer's paintings has shown that almost two-thirds of them were painted in the same room, probably in the attic of his house.

Woman with a Red Hat, 1665-1666. National Gallery, Washington

There have been numerous attempts to forge Vermeer's works. The loudest was the scandal that erupted in the 30s of the last century, when it was discovered that several works at once (one of them, the undoubtedly talented “Christ at Emmaus”) were not written by Vermeer, but were painted by the artist Han van Meegeren. By the time of exposure, Meegeren had managed to sell several works worth about $30 million in modern terms. At the same time, the “authenticity” of the works was recognized by many authoritative art critics and appraisers.

Han van Meegeren's painting "Christ at Emmaus", which was passed off as the work of Johannes Vermeer.

John Vermeer of Delft did not live long, wrote little, was discovered late, but is now very popular. Almost none of his remaining works can be guaranteed to be found in situ. They travel from museum to museum, attracting thousands of spectators. Vermeer’s most “touring” work, “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” belongs to the Hague Museum. Sometimes her tours, for example in Japan and America, drag on for years.
Most of Vermeer's paintings belong to museums and private collectors in the United States. There is not a single work by this Dutch artist in Russia.

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Have you always watched films about high-profile robberies with interest?! The music of the First will tell you about paintings that were stolen and have not yet been found!

1. Jan Vermeer "Concert"

This painting was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston back in the early 90s. Thieves disguised as police entered the museum, allegedly with a search warrant. Despite the fact that they were captured by security cameras and detected by motion sensors, the criminals stayed at the crime scene for 81 minutes and no one stopped them. The painting "The Concert", painted in the second half of the 17th century and worth 200 million dollars, has not yet been found.

2. Pablo Picasso “Dove with Green Peas”

In 2010, from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, a burglar carried out the painting “Pigeon with Green Peas,” worth $28 million, through a window grille. After a year and a half, the police managed to find the thief and even the customer. However, neither of them had the Picasso painting in their hands. The robbers claimed that they got rid of the painting when they learned that an investigation had begun. At the moment, the painting is still not found.

3. Van Gogh “Exit from the Protestant Church in Nuenen”

It seems that soon there will be nothing to see at Van Gogh exhibitions. Since this is the artist’s paintings that robbers love the most. In 2002, a painting worth $30 million, “Exit from the Protestant Church in Nuenen,” was stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It is known that the thieves did not particularly plan the crime and entered the museum through the roof. Fortunately, the robbers were detained a year later, but no paintings were found on them.

4. Rembrandt Harmenes van Rijn “Storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee”

At the end of the 20th century, Rembrandt’s “Storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee” disappeared without a trace from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. This picture is worth, for a minute, 500 million dollars! It is known that this painting was stolen by the same thieves who stole the “Concert” by Johannes Vermeer. But this is of little use, since the canvas has not yet been found.

5. Paul Cézanne “View of Auvers-sur-Oise”

This is one of the most daring and easy robberies in the world! The painting was stolen from the Oxford Museum on New Year's Eve. It is clear that the employees, the security, and indeed the whole world celebrated the millennium. But the painting, worth 5 million dollars, has been celebrating the New Year for many years now in some unknown place. They are still trying to find the painting.

Jan Vermeer is considered today the most outstanding Dutch painter, but during his lifetime he was much less revered. The French aristocrat Balthasar de Monconi wrote in his diary in 1663: “I was introduced to the artist Vermeer in Delft, but he did not have a single painting of his own in his house. We, however, found one from a baker who bought this work for a hundred livres "I think that even six pistoles would be too high a price." Nowadays, the epithet “priceless” is increasingly being added to most of his works.

Until the end of the 19th century, the name of Vermeer was relatively little known, a fact that experts associate with a small number of works by the artist. With just over thirty attributed works, 36 (37) works are now attributed to him, but disputes regarding the attribution of some of them continue. In 2007, “Saint Praskeda”, dated 1655, was sold at Christie’s auction; its estimate then was $12 million; however, not everyone is sure that this work belongs to Vermeer.

The only painting by Vermeer that is currently impossible to see is “The Concert,” painted in the period 1663-1666. Even two works that are in private collections - "Young Woman at the Virginal (harpsichord)", dated 1670-1672, and "Saint Praxeda" - are available to the public until mid-January 2013 at an exhibition in the Roman arena Quirinale.

© Photo: Private collectionWorks by John Vermeer "Saint Praxeda" (1655) and "Young Woman at the Virginal (Harpsichord)" (Circa 1670-1672)

The Concerto, part of the collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, was stolen on the night of March 18, 1990. This crime is still considered one of the most notorious and daring robberies of the twentieth century, the investigation of which has never been completed. The criminals, pretending to be police officers, took 13 exhibits from the museum, including a painting by Vermeer. The Concert is now valued at at least $100 million. The investigation into this case has been carried out for more than 20 years by the museum security service together with the Boston FBI office. A reward of $5 million has been offered for information leading to the return of the stolen property.

Jan Vermeer (Delft) "Concert" (1658-1660)

Vermeer, about whose life, as experts like to repeat, “very little is known,” has been the subject of multi-volume research works, and his work is shrouded in many fictitious legends and real facts that are hard to believe, especially now, almost 400 years after his birth artist (October 31, 1632). In the artist’s homeland, however, there are only 7 of his works, which can be seen in Amsterdam and The Hague. Here are the earliest of his works - "Diana with her companions (nymphs)", dated 1653-56, and the most famous - "Girl with a Pearl Earring".

"Diana with her companions"
Around 1653-1656

As already mentioned, there is very little documentary evidence about the artist’s life. It is known that he was the second child and only son of Reynier Jansz, a hotel owner in Delft who was engaged in the painting trade. Since 1632, he bears the name Vermeer, under which his son Jan was baptized on October 31, 1632.

It is also not entirely known who Vermeer studied with. Documents dating back to 1640 confirm that Vermeer's father maintained business relationships with artists such as Balthasar van der Ast and Pieter Steenwijk. And many believe that they could have taught young Ian his first lessons in painting. Another confirmed fact is that on December 29, 1653 (at the age of 21), Vermeer was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke (a workshop that since the 15th century has united artists, sculptors and printers). The condition for admission to the guild was a six-year apprenticeship with one of the painters recommended by the guild members. There are two alternative theories, according to one of which Leonart Bramer was the teacher of young Vermeer, and according to the other, Rembrandt’s student Carel Fabritius. Moreover, there are an order of magnitude more supporters of the second theory among art critics.

Also in 1653, Vermeer married Katharina Bolnes. The artist had to look for his future wife. At first, the girl’s mother, Maria Thins, opposed the marriage. Firstly, Vermeer was not as rich as the girl’s family, and secondly, the obstacle to marriage was the difference in the religion of the future spouses: Vermeer was a Calvinist, and Katharina was a Catholic. As a result, the artist accepted the Catholic faith, and, in the end, the mother-in-law changed her anger to mercy: after some time, the whole large family settled under one roof. By the way, the family was really large (and by modern standards simply huge): the Vermeers had 11 children. The artist could not maintain the house only with money from the sale of paintings, so in subsequent years he continued to manage the hotel that he inherited from his father and sell paintings.

At an early stage of his work, Vermeer turned to mythological or Christian subjects, to which he later never returned. The artist’s signature on the painting is now, after several restorations, practically invisible, but the authenticity of the work is confirmed by the museum’s catalog from 1895.

Jan Vermeer "Diana and her companions". Around 1653-1656

© Photo: Royal Gallery Mauritshuis

The plot of this work was taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses. In the foreground is the goddess Diana (Artemis), surrounded by four nymphs who help her wash her feet after the hunt. Diana herself was written unusually for that time. Most often, Diana and her companions were depicted naked or while bathing (this painting is often compared to the earlier work of Jacob van Loo). In Vermeer, all the characters are dressed, and the goddess is identified only by a crescent moon in her hair, and not by the usual attributes of a huntress - a bow and arrows. As for the nymphs, historians were able to identify only one of them - Callisto. This is a woman in black with a red ribbon in her hair. According to Ovid, Callisto, like the goddess’s companions, and Diana herself, were supposed to remain virgins, but Zeus seduced her. In the painting, she stands in the shadows, her eyes downcast, out of fear that her pregnancy will be discovered by Diana. She is also distinguished by tightly closed clothing.

A small detail of the picture - a thistle flower in the foreground - still baffles scientists. It is difficult to interpret the symbolism of 17th century painting. Some researchers believe that the thistle symbolizes self-denial and the difficult but noble path of life, others believe that it is an allusion to the masculine principle, namely to the unborn son of Callisto - Arkad (Arkas), others consider the plant a symbol of earthly sadness and sorrow and interpret it from the point of view of Christianity, not mythology.

"Little Street"
Around 1657-1661
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Among Vermeer's works, two landscapes stand out - not the most typical subjects for his work - both times he painted his hometown. These are "Little Street", kept in the Rijksmuseum, and "View of Delft" from the collection of the Royal Gallery Maruritshuis.

The clear geometry of the lines of the brick facade of the building and the pavement and the quiet restraint of the figures in the picture give the impression of a lack of movement, and this is what seems to draw the viewer in.

The left side of the picture shows a neighboring house in the thicket of grapes. Now the foliage has a bluish tint, this is explained by the fact that the artist created the green color by applying strokes of yellow glaze over ultramarine blue; over time, the glaze faded, and the blue tint of the foliage appeared. This “defect” is typical for most works of that time. This work is also signed by the artist: on the left on the white background of the wall of the building entwined with grapes, directly above the bench you can see “i VMeer”. This work is often compared to the works of Pieter de Hooch; art historians still argue which artist imitated the other.

© Photo: Rijksmuseum, AmsterdamJan Vermeer "Little Street". Around 1657-1661

According to researchers, the painting depicts an ordinary middle-class house, built in the second half of the 15th - early 16th centuries. The house was apparently located in that part of the city that was not damaged by the fire in 1536, but traces of numerous cracks, in their opinion, are the consequences of the explosion of a gunpowder warehouse in 1654. This is one of the most naturalistic cityscapes of its time, a “portrait of 17th century Holland”. The artist himself lived in a similar house.

Historians have been trying for quite some time to figure out where exactly the painting was painted. And according to their research, the most likely candidate is the Voldersgracht area, where Johannes Vermeer is believed to have been born. Some believe that he painted this view while looking out of the second floor window of the Mechelen Hotel, which belonged to his father.

"View of Delft"
Around 1660-1661
Royal Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague

Dutch artists rarely painted city views for sale; most of these paintings were official or private commissions. And their cost was not so great: in 1651, Jan van Goyen sold his “View of The Hague” to city elders for 650 guilders. This can be considered a high price; 500 guilders in the mid-17th century could buy a small house.

"View of Delft" was in the Vermeer house until the artist's death. The catalog of the auction for the sale of things and paintings left after Vermeer's death, dated May 16, 1696, has been preserved. At number 32 in the catalog is this very view of the city, which is valued at 200 guilders, but the collapse of the Dutch economy at the end of the 17th century and inflation significantly devalued this amount. There was another work called "House in Delft", mentioned in the same auction catalogue, it is now considered lost.

© Photo: Royal Gallery Mauritshuis

On the right side of the picture you can see the gates of the city wall (two pointed turrets on which the shadow of the clouds falls): this is the so-called Rotterdam Gate. The city wall of Delft has not survived to this day, and the only thing that can now be seen is the East Gate, which tourists often mistake for those depicted in Vermeer’s painting due to its resemblance.

In the center of the picture you can see the bell tower of the New Church (Nieuwe Kerk) and the Schiedam Gate, which also have not survived to this day. Next to this gate was the house of Vermeer's mother-in-law Maria Thins, where the artist's family lived at that time.

It is a widely known fact that Vermeer used a camera obscura when working on this painting, i.e. this landscape can be called photographic. By the way, X-ray studies showed that the artist first depicted the same turrets of the Rotterdam Gate as flooded with sunlight, but later changed his mind. Dutch researcher Kees Kaldenbach was able to establish that the landscape depicts the city in early May. In the foreground you can see two women, and a little further away next to the boat there are three more figures. The same radiography helped establish that next to the women there was also a man in a wide-brimmed hat, whom Vermeer later painted over.

The painting is signed with the IVM monogram on the boat on the left side. Almost half of Vermeer's works during his life and after his death were bought by local collector Pieter van Ruijven. "View of Delft" was in his collection from 1674, then passed from one Dutch collector to another, until in 1822 it was acquired by the state for the collection of the Royal Gallery Mauritshuis, where the painting can be seen to this day.

"Girl with a Pearl Earring"
Around 1665-1667
Royal Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague

Thanks to Peter Webber's film starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson, this painting can be considered Vermeer's most famous work. However, the “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, or “Northern Mona Lisa” as she is sometimes called, has acquired legends since the end of the 19th century. The main highlight of this work is the earring, which is the focus of attention. In the 17th century, pearls were an important symbol of social status.

Royal Gallery Mauritshuis

Jan Vermeer "Girl with a Pearl Earring". Around 1665-1667

This work of the artist belongs to the “tronie” genre (from Dutch “head”, “face”), popular in Holland in the 17th century; most often such paintings depict unknown people, sometimes with an unusual facial expression; Rembrandt also has a similar series of self-portraits . In 1969, it was sold at the same auction as "View of Delft", but its price was then only 17 guilders. There is no exact evidence of this; historians have established the fact that one of the tronie portraits was sold at auction for this amount, but whether it was “Girl with a Pearl Earring” is a moot point.

After that auction, the painting disappeared for almost 200 years, and was discovered in 1881. Collector Arnoldus Endries de Tombe purchased it at a public auction for the ridiculous price of 2 guilders, 30 cents. The painting was in a deplorable state, close to complete destruction (by the way, it underwent the last restoration relatively recently in 1994). After de Tombe's death in December 1902, according to his will, twelve paintings from his collection were transferred to the Mauritshuis Gallery. Among them was “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” and in 1903 the painting was recognized as the work of Vermeer. The signature "IVMeer" is in the upper left corner and is written in a slightly lighter tone on a dark background, so that it is almost impossible to see in the reproductions. And although the pigments of the signature are now impossible to analyze (the paint layer in this place has been greatly worn out), gallery experts insist on its authenticity.

The identity of the girl depicted in the portrait is also not completely clear. Let us remember that the plot of Webber's film, based on the novel of the same name, is fiction. Experts, for the most part, are inclined to believe that the painting depicts the artist’s eldest daughter Maria, who was 12-13 years old at the time the painting was painted.

One of the “mysteries” of this painting is that its heroine is depicted in a turban, which is quite unusual: Dutch girls of the 17th century did not wear such headdresses. Researchers of the artist’s work believe that he drew inspiration for this work not from life, but from art, drawing parallels with another painting - “Boy in a Turban” by Michael Swerts was painted ten years before “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, and it is quite possible that this work was familiar to Vermeer. Yellow clothes, like the jacket worn by the girl, are often found in the artist’s paintings. As some art historians suggest, this jacket belonged to Vermeer's wife and his models, including his wife and his daughters, often wore it.

Prepared by Natalya Popova