Vermeer

 This morning the CBS Sunday morning show did a story about a new Vermeer show that is going on in Amsterdam I believe.  These days Vermeer is quite a big deal, featured in all the art history textbooks, and a prize for any museum fortunate enough to have any of his paintings in their collection.  I learned about him in detail taking a course on Baroque Art as an undergrad, and he is a famous part of the Dutch Baroque.  In his lifetime, not so successful, which is typical of artists unfortunately.  At the time of his relatively early death (in his early 40's) he had completed maybe 3 dozen paintings, left behind a large family, and sold very little.  His widow traded his works for things to keep the family afloat.  His work is now in major collections and not on the open market, but one might expect hundreds of millions of dollars if they did ever get offered for sale.  

There are several in museum collections in New York City, but I was very excited by the opportunity to see 17 of them gathered in one place for a major traveling show in Washington DC, which opened in 1995 I believe.  I had a friend in Virginia within walking distance of the DC Metro, the train/subway system that serves the city and brings in people from the suburbs.  (signs in the parking lot directed drivers to the Park and Ride lots or the Kiss and Ride approach, the former for those commute and park there, the latter for those who get dropped off by loved ones- I walked up to the Kiss and Ride and walked in that way) My friend didn't mind letting me crash there to go see the show, but there was one problem- the government was shut down for months in a monetary dispute, which also meant the shutting down of things like national parks and museums, and this Vermeer show was in the National Gallery.  Finally this was ended, and I went down in early 1996.  The show was free, but you had to get a ticket that day.  So I got up early, dressed like a businessman, and took the walk and train into the city.  It was still winter weather, so in a cold rain (with London Fog raincoat and umbrella) I waited on a line that started around the back of the large building, and continued halfway around the building and into the front door, then up a stairway to a desk.  Got my ticket and an entry time in the afternoon.   To kill time I went to the other building that makes up the National Gallery and saw a nice show of Winslow Homer, not a bad way to spend a few hours.  This was a long day, but this was the most of his work seen in one place since the estate sale following his death, about 400 years earlier.  

I was there at the proper entry time to see the show.  Entry times were a common thing back then, to try to space out the attendance.  Problem was that there is no exit times in this case, so no one had left and the gallery was full.  I sometimes compare it to being on a subway at rush hour, people packed in shoulder to shoulder.  We gradually squirmed our way close enough to see each painting, but you only got a small time to see it up close, before someone shoved you out of the way so they could see it.  Still worth it.  As good as Vermeer's paintings look in reproductions, they look even better in person.  If I were still a painter, I would have been too intimidated by his skills to continue, but by then I was a woodcut printmaker, with enough painting background that I could appreciate what he did.  

There are those who say he benefited from the use of a camera obscura, a simple ancient device that would project images on a wall, allowing artists to trace shapes and get the perspective right.  Maybe so, but one still has make and mix paints and apply them to a surface, no simple feat.  X-rays done now show he often made changes as he went, so he was probably making use of artistic knowledge, not just tracing a projection.  One thing that was valued in the Baroque period was the use of values, light and dark, whether it be Italian, Spanish, or Dutch, and there were masters in each culture.  Vermeer was among the best, and I often showed slides of his paintings to my students as examples of what value could do in two dimensional art.  

Amsterdam is a long way from here, but it doesn't matter, because the show has been sold out for its full duration.  It's even bigger, with works by Vermeer numbering something in the upper 20's.  However, if it was much closer and I could get a ticket, I'd probably go see it.  It's worth it.