PROGRAMME NOTES VERMEER a Note from Executive Producer and Director Phil Grabsky We Have Filmed at the National Gallery in London Many Times

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

PROGRAMME NOTES VERMEER a Note from Executive Producer and Director Phil Grabsky We Have Filmed at the National Gallery in London Many Times PROGRAMME NOTES VERMEER A note from Executive Producer and Director Phil Grabsky We have filmed at the National Gallery in London many times. It is a wonderful location right in the heart of Welcome to this screening of VERMEER. There may only the city. I love to pop by and look at a painting or two be around 34-36 of his paintings that have survived while on the way from one meeting to another. That, but I’d be surprised if a number of those don’t crop of course, is the great advantage of a free museum. up in many of our lists of top 20 artworks. Would it be Among those paintings that visitors are drawn to are ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, ‘ The Concert’, ‘View of Delft’, their two Vermeers – ‘A Young Woman Seated at a ‘The Art of Painting’, ‘Woman in Blue Reading a Letter’, Virginal’ and ‘A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal’. ‘The Milkmaid’, ‘The Geographer’?...So many to choose A Virginal is a type of harpsichord popular at the time from. Indeed, as named paintings, Vermeer’s are some of Vermeer (who lived 1632-1675) and the fact that of the most famous in the world. And deservedly so – both the National Gallery paintings depict a musical they are extraordinary. instrument partially led to their exhibition ‘Vermeer and Music – the Art of Love and Leisure’. As soon as I The Guitar Player, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1672 c. Vermeer, Johannes The Guitar Player, heard about this show I thought it would make a great platform for a film both about the exhibition itself and, more broadly, this somewhat enigmatic artist. What I love about making such films is that it allows me and my team to meet and interview global experts. In this case that meant not only the National Gallery curator Betsy Weiseman but also Arthur Wheelock at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and Walter Liedtke at the Met in New York. We also sought insight from Tracy Chevalier, whose best-selling novel, inspired by Vermeer, was made into the blockbuster movie ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’. We blended their biographical expertise with the show itself to reveal a narrative about the art of Vermeer and his contemporaries. The highly respected and knowledgeable Tim Marlow – art historian and broadcaster – is our presenter for this film. We rarely use presenters but each project is different and I felt Tim was ideal for this one. Visit: http://bit.do/eossubscribe RECOMMENDED READING #EOS Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure facebook.com/exhibitiononscreen by Marjorie E. Wieseman Traces of Vermeer twitter.com/artonscreen by Jane Jelley instagram.com/exhibitiononscreen Vermeer: The Complete Paintings by Walter Liedtke www.exhibitiononscreenblog.com EOS Vermeer_Filming Vermeer at the NationalVermeer Gallery - 22Vermeer_Filming June © EOS EXHIBITION ON SCREEN FEATURED WORKS Christ in the House The Music Lesson, View of Delft, 1660-61 of Martha and Mary, 1662-65, Girl with a Pearl C.1655 Woman with a Earring, c. 1665 The Procuress, 1656 Balance, c.1663-4 EXHIBITION ON SCREEN is produced and distributed by award-winning documentary film-makers Seventh Art Productions. It has been making films on art, music and history for over 35 years and in that time it has produced almost 200 titles. Most are available to download or purchase on DVD from its website: www.seventh-art.com/shop .
Recommended publications
  • Interiors and Interiority in Vermeer: Empiricism, Subjectivity, Modernism
    ARTICLE Received 20 Feb 2017 | Accepted 11 May 2017 | Published 12 Jul 2017 DOI: 10.1057/palcomms.2017.68 OPEN Interiors and interiority in Vermeer: empiricism, subjectivity, modernism Benjamin Binstock1 ABSTRACT Johannes Vermeer may well be the foremost painter of interiors and interiority in the history of art, yet we have not necessarily understood his achievement in either domain, or their relation within his complex development. This essay explains how Vermeer based his interiors on rooms in his house and used his family members as models, combining empiricism and subjectivity. Vermeer was exceptionally self-conscious and sophisticated about his artistic task, which we are still laboring to understand and articulate. He eschewed anecdotal narratives and presented his models as models in “studio” settings, in paintings about paintings, or art about art, a form of modernism. In contrast to the prevailing con- ception in scholarship of Dutch Golden Age paintings as providing didactic or moralizing messages for their pre-modern audiences, we glimpse in Vermeer’s paintings an anticipation of our own modern understanding of art. This article is published as part of a collection on interiorities. 1 School of History and Social Sciences, Cooper Union, New York, NY, USA Correspondence: (e-mail: [email protected]) PALGRAVE COMMUNICATIONS | 3:17068 | DOI: 10.1057/palcomms.2017.68 | www.palgrave-journals.com/palcomms 1 ARTICLE PALGRAVE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1057/palcomms.2017.68 ‘All the beautifully furnished rooms, carefully designed within his complex development. This essay explains how interiors, everything so controlled; There wasn’t any room Vermeer based his interiors on rooms in his house and his for any real feelings between any of us’.
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice
    Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice PUBLICATIONS COORDINATION: Dinah Berland EDITING & PRODUCTION COORDINATION: Corinne Lightweaver EDITORIAL CONSULTATION: Jo Hill COVER DESIGN: Jackie Gallagher-Lange PRODUCTION & PRINTING: Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZERS: Erma Hermens, Art History Institute of the University of Leiden Marja Peek, Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science, Amsterdam © 1995 by The J. Paul Getty Trust All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN 0-89236-322-3 The Getty Conservation Institute is committed to the preservation of cultural heritage worldwide. The Institute seeks to advance scientiRc knowledge and professional practice and to raise public awareness of conservation. Through research, training, documentation, exchange of information, and ReId projects, the Institute addresses issues related to the conservation of museum objects and archival collections, archaeological monuments and sites, and historic bUildings and cities. The Institute is an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. COVER ILLUSTRATION Gherardo Cibo, "Colchico," folio 17r of Herbarium, ca. 1570. Courtesy of the British Library. FRONTISPIECE Detail from Jan Baptiste Collaert, Color Olivi, 1566-1628. After Johannes Stradanus. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum-Stichting, Amsterdam. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Historical painting techniques, materials, and studio practice : preprints of a symposium [held at] University of Leiden, the Netherlands, 26-29 June 1995/ edited by Arie Wallert, Erma Hermens, and Marja Peek. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-89236-322-3 (pbk.) 1. Painting-Techniques-Congresses. 2. Artists' materials- -Congresses. 3. Polychromy-Congresses. I. Wallert, Arie, 1950- II. Hermens, Erma, 1958- . III. Peek, Marja, 1961- ND1500.H57 1995 751' .09-dc20 95-9805 CIP Second printing 1996 iv Contents vii Foreword viii Preface 1 Leslie A.
    [Show full text]
  • STEPHANIE S. DICKEY, Phd Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art, Queen’S University, Kingston, on K7L 3N6 Canada Tel
    STEPHANIE S. DICKEY, PhD Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 Canada Tel. 1-613-533-6000, ext. 78774 • Fax 1-613-533-6891 • Email: [email protected] EDUCATION Smith College, A.B. 1975, Magna cuM laude, Phi Beta Kappa Institute of Fine Arts, NeW York University, M.A. 1981, PhD 1994 ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art, 7/1/06-present. Associate Professor of Art History 2006-2015. Professor 2015-present University of Vienna (Austria), Visiting Professor (Non-EU Teaching Mobility Program), Institut für Kunstgeschichte, SuMMer Semester 2019 Herron School of Art and Design, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Associate Professor of Art History, 2001-2006; Assistant Professor, 1995-2001 Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT, Adjunct Instructor, Dept. of Fine Arts, 1991-93 PUBLICATIONS, EXHIBITIONS, CONFERENCES, PRESENTATIONS Exhibitions: Curatorship In developMent: Rembrandt in Amsterdam, Städel Museum, Frankfurt, and National Gallery of Canada, OttaWa, 2020-21; The Quest for Colour: Five Centuries of Innovation in Printmaking, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, 2020 Singular Figures: Portraits and Character Studies in Northern Baroque Painting, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada 1 Sept.–12 April 2016. Co-curator With Dr. Jacquelyn Coutré Rembrandt’s Circle: Making History, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, 1 February–7 DeceMber 2014 Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 26 October 2008–11 January 2009, MilWaukee Art MuseuM, 7 February–26 April, 2009, ReMbrandthuis, AMsterdam, 17 May–9 August 2009.
    [Show full text]
  • Dutch Art, 17Th Century
    Dutch Art, 17th century The Dutch Golden Age was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military, and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first section is characterized by the Thirty Years' War, which ended in 1648. The Golden Age continued in peacetime during the Dutch Republic until the end of the century. The transition by the Netherlands to the foremost maritime and economic power in the world has been called the "Dutch Miracle" by historian K. W. Swart. Adriaen van Ostade (1610 – 1685) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works. He and his brother were pupils of Frans Hals and like him, spent most of their lives in Haarlem. A01 The Painter in his Workshop 1633 A02 Resting Travelers 1671 David Teniers the Younger (1610 – 1690) was a Flemish painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile artist known for his prolific output. He was an innovator in a wide range of genres such as history, genre, landscape, portrait and still life. He is now best remembered as the leading Flemish genre painter of his day. Teniers is particularly known for developing the peasant genre, the tavern scene, pictures of collections and scenes with alchemists and physicians. A03 Peasant Wedding 1650 A04 Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his gallery in Brussels Gerrit Dou (1613 – 1675), also known as Gerard and Douw or Dow, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders.
    [Show full text]
  • Johannes Vermeer : a Generative Artist ? So What ? Courchia Jean Paul, MD Saint Joseph’S Hospital, Dpt of Ophthalmology
    Johannes Vermeer : A generative artist ? So What ? Courchia Jean Paul, MD Saint Joseph’s Hospital, Dpt of Ophthalmology. Marseille. France e-mail : [email protected] Guigui Sarah Department of Internal Medicine, North Shore LIJ at Forest Hills Hospital. Courchia Emmanuel Department of Psychology, Queens College at CUNY. Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch artist born in Delft (the Netherlands) on October 31th 1632, and died on December 16th 1675 at the age of 43 years old. Over the course of his life he was a successful painter locally around Delft and The Hague, but this modest celebrity was soon forgotten after his death. He painted only few paintings of which only 36 are known to date. His paintings are often thought to be small but in reality are of varying sizes from 160 cm to 20 cm in greatest dimension. What is interesting is that they are sometimes at the same (or almost) dimensions. Especially in the series of interiors with the light coming through a window on the left, it is possible that the size’s choice is not only linked to the fact that Vermeer use standard sizes. It is not until 1866 that Vermeer becomes familiar with global fame. Thanks to Theophile Thore-Burger, a French journalist, whose art critic column propelled Vermeer onto the international scene. In 1842 when he saw the View of Delft in the Mauritshuis of The Hague and became an instant fan of the duct painter. He helped Vermeer’s notoriety by publishing an essay attributing 66 works to the painter although 34 are universally attributed to him.
    [Show full text]
  • HNA Apr 2015 Cover.Indd
    historians of netherlandish art NEWSLETTER AND REVIEW OF BOOKS Dedicated to the Study of Netherlandish, German and Franco-Flemish Art and Architecture, 1350-1750 Vol. 32, No. 1 April 2015 Peter Paul Rubens, Agrippina and Germanicus, c. 1614, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Andrew W. Mellon Fund, 1963.8.1. Exhibited at the Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD, April 25 – July 5, 2015. HNA Newsletter, Vol. 23, No. 2, November 2006 1 historians of netherlandish art 23 S. Adelaide Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904 Telephone: (732) 937-8394 E-Mail: [email protected] www.hnanews.org Historians of Netherlandish Art Offi cers President – Amy Golahny (2013-2017) Lycoming College Williamsport PA 17701 Vice-President – Paul Crenshaw (2013-2017) Providence College Department of Art History 1 Cummingham Square Providence RI 02918-0001 Treasurer – Dawn Odell Lewis and Clark College 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road Portland OR 97219-7899 European Treasurer and Liaison - Fiona Healy Seminarstrasse 7 D-55127 Mainz Germany Contents Board Members President's Message .............................................................. 1 Obituary/Tributes ................................................................. 1 Lloyd DeWitt (2012-2016) Stephanie Dickey (2013-2017) HNA News ............................................................................7 Martha Hollander (2012-2016) Personalia ............................................................................... 8 Walter Melion (2014-2018) Exhibitions ...........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Engagement of Carel Fabritius's Goldfinch of 1654 with the Dutch
    Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art Volume 8, Issue 1 (Winter 2016) The Engagement of Carel Fabritius’s Goldfinch of 1654 with the Dutch Window, a Significant Site of Neighborhood Social Exchange Linda Stone-Ferrier [email protected] Recommended Citation: Linda Stone-Ferrier, “The Engagement of Carel Fabritius’ Goldfinch of 1654 with the Dutch Window, a Significant Site of Neighborhood Social Exchange,” JHNA 8:1 (Winter 2016), DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2016.8.1.5 Available at http://www.jhna.org/index.php/vol-8-1-2016/325-stone-ferrier Published by Historians of Netherlandish Art: http://www.hnanews.org/ Terms of Use: http://www.jhna.org/index.php/terms-of-use Notes: This PDF is provided for reference purposes only and may not contain all the functionality or features of the original, online publication. This PDF provides paragraph numbers as well as page numbers for citation purposes. ISSN: 1949-9833 JHNA 7:2 (Summer 2015) 1 THE ENGAGEMENT OF CAREL FABRITIUS’S GOLDFINCH OF 1654 WITH THE DUTCH WINDOW, A SIGNIFICANT SITE OF NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIAL EXCHANGE Linda Stone-Ferrier This article posits that Carel Fabritius’s illusionistic painting The Goldfinch, 1654, cleverly traded on the experience of a passerby standing on an actual neighborhood street before a household window. In daily discourse, the window func- tioned as a significant site of neighborhood social exchange and social control, which official neighborhood regulations mandated. I suggest that Fabritius’s panel engaged the window’s prominent role in two possible ways. First, the trompe l’oeil painting may have been affixed to the inner jamb of an actual street-side window, where goldfinches frequently perched in both paintings and in contemporary households.
    [Show full text]
  • Thoughts About Paintings Conservation This Page Intentionally Left Blank Personal Viewpoints
    PERSONAL VIEWPOINTS Thoughts about Paintings Conservation This page intentionally left blank Personal Viewpoints Thoughts about Paintings Conservation A Seminar Organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Research Institute at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, June 21-22, 2001 EDITED BY Mark Leonard THE GETTY CONSERVATION INSTITUTE LOS ANGELES & 2003 J- Paul Getty Trust THE GETTY CONSERVATION INSTITUTE Getty Publications 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 500 Timothy P. Whalen, Director Los Angeles, CA 90049-1682 Jeanne Marie Teutónico, Associate Director, www.getty.edu Field Projects and Science Christopher Hudson, Publisher The Getty Conservation Institute works interna- Mark Greenberg, Editor in Chief tionally to advance conservation and to enhance Tobi Levenberg Kaplan, Manuscript Editor and encourage the preservation and understanding Jeffrey Cohen, Designer of the visual arts in all of their dimensions— Elizabeth Chapín Kahn, Production Coordinator objects, collections, architecture, and sites. The Institute serves the conservation community through Typeset by G&S Typesetters, Inc., Austin, Texas scientific research; education and training; field Printed in Hong Kong by Imago projects; and the dissemination of the results of both its work and the work of others in the field. Library of Congress In all its endeavors, the Institute is committed Cataloging-in-Publication Data to addressing unanswered questions and promoting the highest possible standards of conservation Personal viewpoints : thoughts about paintings practice. conservation : a seminar organized by The J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Research Institute at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, June 21-22, 2001 /volume editor, Mark Leonard, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Vermeer As Aporia: Indeterminacy, Divergent Narratives, and Ways of Seeing
    Munn Scholars Awards Undergraduate Research 2020 Vermeer as Aporia: Indeterminacy, Divergent Narratives, and Ways of Seeing Iain MacKay Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/munn Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Vermeer as Aporia: Indeterminacy, Divergent Narratives, and Ways of Seeing Iain MacKay Senior Thesis Written in partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of Arts in Art History April 23, 2020 Copyright 2020, Iain MacKay ABSTRACT Vermeer as Aporia: Indeterminacy, Divergent Narratives, and Ways of Seeing Iain MacKay Although Johannes Vermeer’s paintings have long been labelled “ambiguous” in the canon of Western Art History, this research aims to challenge the notion of ambiguity. By shifting the conception of Vermeer’s works from ambiguity to indeterminacy, divergent narratives emerge which inform a more complex understanding of Vermeer’s oeuvre. These divergent narratives understand Vermeer’s paintings as turning points in stories that extend beyond the canvas; moments where the possibilities of a situation diverge in different directions. Thus, a myriad of narratives might be contained in a single painting, all of which simultaneously have the possibility of existing, but not the actuality. This interpretation of Vermeer takes evidence from seventeenth-century ways of seeing and the iconographic messages suggested by the paintings within paintings that occur across Vermeer’s oeuvre. Here for the first time, an aporetic approach is utilized to explore how contradictions and paradoxes within a system serve to contribute to holistic meaning. By analyzing four of Vermeer’s paintings – The Concert, Woman Holding a Balance, The Music Lesson, and Lady Seated at a Virginal – through an aporetic lens, an alternative to ambiguity can be constructed using indeterminacy and divergent narratives that help explain compositional and iconographical choices.
    [Show full text]
  • The Frick Collection Staff As of June 30, 2011
    The Frick Collection annual report july 2010 – june 2011 The Frick Collection annual report july 2010 – june 2011 leadership 2 Board of Trustees reports 3 Margot Bogert, Chairman 6 Anne L. Poulet, Director 8 Colin B. Bailey, Associate Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator 11 Stephen Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian collection 13 Museum Acquisitions 13 Noteable Library Acquisitions public programming 15 Exhibitions 15 Lectures 17 Free Public Evenings 17 Symposia 17 Publications 18 Concerts financial statements 19 Statement of Financial Position 20 Statement of Activities donor support and membership 21 Gifts and Grants 25 Fellows and Friends 32 Corporate Members and Sponsors staff 33 The Frick Collection 36 Frick Art Reference Library cover Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430/1435–1516), detail of St. Francis in the Desert, c. 1475–78, oil on poplar panel, The Frick Collection; photograph by Michael Bodycomb The Frick Collection Board of Trustees As of June 30, 2011 Margot Bogert, Chairman Walter A. Eberstadt, Vice Chairman Franklin W. Hobbs, Treasurer John P. Birkelund, Secretary Peter P. Blanchard III L. F. Boker Doyle Blair Effron Jean-Marie Eveillard Barbara G. Fleischman Emily T. Frick Martha Loring Anne L. Poulet, ex officio Juan Sabater Stephen A. Schwarzman Aso O. Tavitian Helen Clay Chace President Emerita I. Townsend Burden III Walter Joseph Patrick Curley Howard Phipps Jr. Trustees Emeriti Annual Report July 2010–June 2011 2 optimistic that the year ahead will continue range of high-profile media coverage, includ- Report of the Chairman on a steady course. ing a substantial “Why the Frick Matters” Margot Bogert I am happy to report that the physical article published in the Wall Street Journal.
    [Show full text]
  • Meet the Masters Johannes Vermeer
    Meet The Masters Johannes Vermeer • October 1632 --- December 1675 • Dutch painter who lived and worked in Delft • Created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art. • His works are rare. • He is known to have done only 35 or 36 paintings • Most portray figures inside. • All show light and color The Netherlands Delft China Family History • He began his career in the arts when his father died and Vermeer inherited the family art dealing business. • He continued to work as an art dealer even after he had become a respected painter because he needed the money. Married • Vermeer married a Catholic woman named Catharina Bolnes, even though he was a Protestant. • Catholics in Delft lived in a separate neighborhood than the Protestants and the members of the two religions did not usually spend much time together A Big Family! • Vermeer and his wife had 14 children but not nearly enough money to support them all. Catharina’s mother gave them some money and let the family live with her but Vermeer still had to borrow money to feed his children Patron • Patron: someone who supports the arts • Pieter van Ruijven, one of the richest men in town, became Vermeer’s patron. • He bought many of Vermeer’s paintings and made sure he had canvas, paints, and brushes so he could work. • Having a patron meant that Vermeer could use the color blue in his paintings, a very expensive color in the 1600s because it was made out of the semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli. Not Famous Until Later • After his death Vermeer was overlooked by all art collectors and art historians for more than 200 years.
    [Show full text]
  • 2Bbb2c8a13987b0491d70b96f7
    An Atlas of Rare & Familiar Colour THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS’ FORBES PIGMENT COLLECTION Yoko Ono “If people want to make war they should make a colour war, and paint each others’ cities up in the night in pinks and greens.” Foreword p.6 Introduction p.12 Red p.28 Orange p.54 Yellow p.70 Green p.86 Blue p.108 Purple p.132 Brown p.150 Black p.162 White p.178 Metallic p.190 Appendix p.204 8 AN ATLAS OF RARE & FAMILIAR COLOUR FOREWORD 9 You can see Harvard University’s Forbes Pigment Collection from far below. It shimmers like an art display in its own right, facing in towards Foreword the glass central courtyard in Renzo Piano’s wonderful 2014 extension to the Harvard Art Museums. The collection seems, somehow, suspended within the sky. From the public galleries it is tantalising, almost intoxicating, to see the glass-fronted cases full of their bright bottles up there in the administra- tive area of the museum. The shelves are arranged mostly by hue; the blues are graded in ombre effect from deepest midnight to the fading in- digo of favourite jeans, with startling, pleasing juxtapositions of turquoise (flasks of lightest green malachite; summer sky-coloured copper carbon- ate and swimming pool verdigris) next to navy, next to something that was once blue and is now simply, chalk. A few feet along, the bright alizarin crimsons slake to brownish brazil wood upon one side, and blush to madder pink the other. This curious chromatic ordering makes the whole collection look like an installation exploring the very nature of painting.
    [Show full text]