More than 20 years after the legendary Vermeer exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the institution has once again mounted a revealing exhibition surrounding the Dutch Golden Age master and his relationships with contemporaries.
On view now through January 21, 2018 at the National Gallery of Art is a stellar exhibition featuring some of the most iconic and prized Dutch Golden Age masterpieces. “Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting” had a very successful run in 2017 at the Musée du Louvre and the National Gallery of Ireland before landing in Washington, D.C., for American audiences to enjoy. The show features some 65 masterpieces by Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries — including Gerard ter Borch, Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch, Nicolas Maes, Eglon van der Neer, Caspar Netscher, and Jacob Ochtervelt.
The paintings are organized by theme, composition, and technique as a way of highlighting how the painters admired, challenged, and pushed each other toward greater artistic achievement. “The paintings also reflect how these masters responded to the changing artistic climate of the Dutch Republic in the third quarter of the 17th century, particularly in Amsterdam, Haarlem, Leiden, Deventer, Rotterdam, and Delft,” the museum reports.
National Gallery Director Earl A. Powell III adds, “The 1995 ‘Johannes Vermeer’ show endures as one of the most significant exhibitions in the Gallery’s history. ‘Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting’ will undoubtedly have the same impact while also deeply enriching our understanding of the web of influence among 17th-century Dutch artists.”
To learn more, visit the National Gallery of Art.
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