Rijksmuseum shows ‘Girl with the flute’ as real Vermeer

The painting Girl with the flute is still a real Vermeer, according to researchers at the Rijksmuseum. Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits stated this at a press meeting in New York on Tuesday.

Last month the painting became world news because, according to a team of curators and researchers from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the owner of the seventeenth-century painting, it was made by “someone close to Vermeer, not by the Dutch artist.” yourself”.

The American researchers came to that conclusion after extensive research with modern techniques. They made it clear that the paint from Girl with the flute applied in a very different way than on other works by Vermeer.

biggest ever

Dibbits and Pieter Roelofs, head of painting and sculpture at the Rijksmuseum, announced in New York on Tuesday which paintings the museum will show from February 10 at the Johannes Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam, the largest ever organized.

In the temporary home of the Frick Collection, which will lend its three Vermeers for the first time, the Rijksmuseum presented a list of 28 paintings. It shows three Vermeers about which art historians argue: next to Girl with the flutealso Saint Praxedis and Young woman at the virginal. Including these paintings, Vermeer’s preserved oeuvre would consist of 37 paintings.

The Rijksmuseum is convinced that these three paintings are genuine Vermeers. When asked, Dibbits praises The National Gallery’s research. But in the run-up to the Vermeer exhibition, the Rijksmuseum has conducted extensive technical and art historical research into the artist’s life and work. Dibbits: “This research has yielded new insights, which means that we are currently drawing a different conclusion.”

Also read: Research in Washington: ‘Girl with the flute’ is not Vermeer’s