The Mona Lisa of the North
by Lisa Michaux, Tastemaker in Residence
Image: Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665-66) by Johannes Vermeer (Mauritshuis, The Hague)
Tastemaker and Art Historian Lisa Michaux introduces Spirited Table patrons to another art-centric podcast, this time focused on Vermeer’s famous painting.
Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is often called the “Mona Lisa of the North,” and this captivating and mysterious painting is the subject of our podcast this month. In 1999, Tracy Chevalier published her historical novel that imagined the relationship between the artist Vermeer and the mysterious girl in the painting. Her book has sold more than 5 million copies and was the subject of an Oscar-nominated film starring a then 17-year-old Scarlett Johanssen. Dr. Janina Ramirez’s Art Detective Podcast is a lively interview with Chevalier in which we learn a bit more about Vermeer as well as her writing process.
Image: Exterior View of the Mauritshuis
I must confess that I am a bit obsessed by Vermeer, and especially this painting. One of my most cherished museum experiences was a visit to the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague where I was able to see Girl with a Pearl Earring as well as Vermeer’s gorgeous View of Delft. The galleries were uncrowded and a welcome relief after the hoards at the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum in nearby Amsterdam. The Mauritshuis is a jewel box of a museum where masterpiece after masterpiece hangs on silk-covered walls lit by glittering chandeliers in a lovingly restored 17th-century building. In addition to the Vermeers, one can also see Rembrandt’s monumental Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp and Carel Fabritius’s small but powerful The Goldfinch. An easy train ride from Amsterdam, I highly recommend a day trip to The Hague once we can start traveling to Europe again.
Image: The Dutch royal Picture Gallery at the Mauritshuis
https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/
Before listening to this podcast, a brief background on Vermeer and his famous painting. There are currently only 36 known paintings by the 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. Although he was highly considered in his day, his art was forgotten for nearly 200 years after his death in 1675 in his early 40s. It wasn't until the late 19th century when French art critic Thoré-Bürger saw Vermeer’s View of Delft and made it his life’s work to find all the artist’s works and bring Vermeer’s art to greater acclaim. Girl with a Pearl Earring disappeared for years until it was sold at auction in The Hague in 1881 for 2 guilders (about $1.00) and was given to the Mauritshuis in 1902. Since Vermeer’s rediscovery, there have been over 250 special exhibitions dedicated to his small but choice oeuvre.
Image: View of Delft (c. 1660) by Johannes Vermeer (Maruitshuis, The Hague)
Next month we will listen to the Last Seen podcast which explores the largest unsolved art heist in America—the 13 works of art stolen from the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum in Boston on March 17, 1990, including one of the only 36 paintings done by Vermeer.