Johannes Vermeer, Mistress and Maid, c. 1666-1667. Oil on canvas, 35 1/2” x 31” (90.2 x 78.7 cm) The Frick Collection, New York. (Frick Madison, 2nd floor, Rm 6)
This fall is your last chance to see the Frick Collection’s Vermeer paintings for a while, unless you are planning a trip to the Netherlands, where the Rijsksmuseum is holding what is being hailed as the largest Vermeer show ever, running from February 10 - June 4, 2023. This will undoubtedly be a once-in-a-lifetime event, bringing together loans from all over the world with groundbreaking recent research from curators, conservators, and scientists, who have dedicated themselves to this topic for several years.
A standout even among the best Golden Age Dutch painters, Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) is best known for painting remarkable interior scenes, intimate genre scenes capturing absorbed or conversing figures in telling detail and stunning light effects. His exquisite touch and sensitivity, revealed in the highlighting on a pearl in his Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665), the candid expressions of two people relating, or the shadow cast across a black and white-tiled floor remain mesmerizing for viewers centuries later, connecting us with aspects what it means to be human, and allowing us to seemingly share in a moment frozen in time
The artist was not a prolific painter however, with an output of some where around 37 officially attributed paintings, making those ones extant all the more beloved and treasured. The Frick owns three of these: Girl Interrupted at her Music (1659-61), Mistress and her Maid (1665-67), and Officer and Laughing Girl (1657-58) , with this last one having already departed for Europe.
Don’t miss out on seeing the remaining two works, before they leave the Frick Madison. Or better yet, plan a trip to see them, along with Officer and Laughing Girl and many other 17th century “old friends,” which will be given incredible context within the Rijksmuseum exhibition in the spring!