Vermeer

Young Woman at the Virginals

Read this first During the initial decades following its first publication in 1904, this picture was universally accepted and published as an autograph work by Vermeer. Then, following the dramatic events of the affair of the Van Meegeren forgeries of Vermeer, De Vries, the Director of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the recognized leading scholar on Vermeer, expressed doubts about the authenticity of the picture. Walter Liedtke, who curated the comprehensive Vermeer and the Delft School show in New York and London in 2001, decided at the very last minute to include in that exhibition although it was not included in the catalogue. Only during the last decade, since the picture was brought back into contact with the scholarly community, has it been examined seriously. After more than 10 years of extensive research by a team of leading scholars, the painting has now been proposed as a secure addition to Vermeer's limited oeuvre. Not all scholars, however, agree. from ESSENTIAL VERMEER by Jonathan Janson