A Love Letter to Vermeer at The Frick Collection
The Frick's painting forms a trio in the exhibition, with two special Vermeer loans: 'The Love Letter' from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and 'Lady Writing a Letter, With Her Maid' from the National Gallery of Ireland, in Dublin.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
03-07-2025
- New York Times
Secret Love Letters Remain Sealed in Vermeer Show
As a title for a museum exhibition, 'Vermeer's Love Letters' is a spicy choice. It promises a newly intimate, possibly amorous view of an artist whose life story is filled with question marks. Although Johannes Vermeer was one of the deities of 17th-century Dutch painting, decades of scholarship have failed to unearth even such routine facts as the name of his art teacher (presuming he had one) or the identity of his models. We could be looking at his wife, his daughters, or a good-natured neighbor when we gaze at the women in his paintings, those solitary figures in quiet rooms, making lace or pouring milk into a bowl with rapt concentration. The show brings together just three paintings, which is plenty in Vermeer's case, especially since they share the intriguing subject of a woman who is writing a letter or receiving one, with the help of a servant. At the center of the show is the Frick's own beloved painting, 'Mistress and Maid,' (ca. 1664-67), which has been moved from its usual spot in the grand, green-wallpapered West Gallery into the brand-new Special Exhibition Galleries. There it is joined by two other Vermeer masterworks, one visiting from Dublin, the other from Amsterdam. As its trumpet-blare of a title suggests, Vermeer's 'Love Letters' asks that we view the protagonists of the three paintings as sly correspondents caught up in romance, their maids aware of their feelings and consigned to the role of go-between. But this is a highly speculative and iffy premise. Consider 'Mistress and Maid,' one of Vermeer's larger and more overtly dramatic paintings. A blonde housewife clad in an attractive yellow jacket trimmed in spotted white fur, glances up from her writing table, quill in hand, appearing startled. Her maidservant has entered her room to hand her an envelope — a small but commanding object, a flat, white shape gleaming against a well of shadow. Who is the letter from? Perhaps it's from a cousin in Amsterdam sharing news of his family's ordeal in the bubonic plague of 1665. Or a local merchant informing the woman that her artist-husband has run up a catastrophic debt by splurging on lapis lazuli, the expensive stone that Vermeer used to achieve a radiant blue. Or perhaps the maid has jotted the note herself to announce that she is quitting her job. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
23-06-2025
- New York Times
The Best Art Shows of 2025, So Far
Art-wise, 2025 has already packed some hot events into a few short months. After being closed for several years, two monumental museum projects — an expanded Frick Collection and the Met's reimagined Rockefeller wing — splendiferously unfurled. Major exhibitions of European art, including ancient Roman sculptures and 19th-century German Romantic painting by Casper David Friedrich, landed with acclaim in Chicago and New York. Spring delivered a long-overdue tribute to the great under-sung contemporary artist Jack Whitten at MoMA. Solo surveys elsewhere brought significant midcareer figures — Lorna Simpson and Rashid Johnson — into rich focus, and offered a first full look at the much-noticed portraitist Amy Sherald. More good news: much of all this bounty is still on view right now. Holland Cotter 'Amy Sherald: American Sublime' Whitney Museum of American Art Amy Sherald is drawn to loud, retro-ish fabrics — to wide stripes and dresses imprinted with floral patterns or strewed with rows of strawberries or cherries or lemons. She excels at painting pleated skirts, their folds of fabric as stately and evenly spaced as ancient Greek columns. And note the exaggeratedly clean ambience. White shirts gleam with Tide-strength brightness, and khakis remain unblemished by mystery grease stains. You cannot find fresher clothing in the work of any contemporary painter, with the exception of Alex Katz, the pre-eminent realist who similarly garbs his figures in shirts and pants that look as if they were removed five minutes earlier from a J. Crew gift box. In the case of both artists, the squeaky-clean attire echoes in the formal neatness of their respective painting styles. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Wall Street Journal
21-06-2025
- Wall Street Journal
‘Vermeer's Love Letters' Review: Reading Between the Lines at the Frick Collection
New York Currently ensconced in the Frick Collection's new Ronald S. Lauder Exhibition Galleries, 'Vermeer's Love Letters' is an intimate installation of three staggeringly beautiful works by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (1632-75), and the first loan show to be presented in the recently restored museum, which reopened on April 17. Organized by guest curator Robert Fucci from the University of Amsterdam, it heralds the magnificent possibilities the Frick's reconfigured spaces allow.
