ePaper
Subscribe
Newsletters
Search
Profile
Visitor Figures
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Vermeer
Adventures with Van Gogh
Russia-Ukraine war
Subscribe
ePaper
Newsletters
Visitor Figures
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Vermeer
Adventures with Van Gogh
Russia-Ukraine war
Johannes Vermeer
news

First Cupid, now a wine glass? More revelations emerge from restored Vermeer painting in Dresden

Major restoration on Girl reading a Letter at an Open Window shows a large studded goblet later covered by a green curtain

Martin Bailey
9 September 2021
Share
Detail of Vermeer’s Girl reading a Letter at an Open Window (1657-59) showing the base of the wine glass Courtesy SKD

Detail of Vermeer’s Girl reading a Letter at an Open Window (1657-59) showing the base of the wine glass Courtesy SKD

A mysterious wine glass has been uncovered in Vermeer’s Girl reading a Letter at an Open Window at Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie. The 1657-59 painting goes on display tomorrow after a major restoration project, which has involved removal of later overpaint to reveal a picture of Cupid hanging on the back wall.

During the restoration the lower part of a Dutch roemer (a large, studded wine glass) was also found at the very bottom of the composition, towards the right. After removal of overpaint the rounded shape of the base of the glass can be seen in dark blue-grey, with white highlights as it catches the light.

Nearly all the roemer was hidden by a green curtain, added by Vermeer himself while he was working on the composition—but the base of the glass remained. The base was later disguised with 18th-century overpaint, which has now been painstakingly removed.

Vermeer’s Girl reading a Letter at an Open Window (1657-59), fully restored Courtesy SKD

The full glass, which would have been 18cm high, is visible in x-radiographs. Conservators can even make out a trailing vine tendril decoration and see the level of the wine.

Vermeer may originally have wanted the glass to appear to rest on a balustrade, teetering in front of the viewer. He might also have originally framed the canvas so that the wine glass would seem to stand on the actual wood of a plain frame.

It is even possible that Vermeer intended the framed painting to be hung in an interior to give the trompe-l’oeil impression that it was an opening in the wall. This would have provided a fictive view into an adjacent room in which the woman reading a letter could be observed. Or maybe the roemer is nothing to do with Girl reading a Letter at an Open Window, but is simply the remains of a discarded earlier composition, whose canvas the artist later reused.

But whatever Vermeer’s original intention, he apparently changed his mind, painting over nearly all the wine glass with the curtain. His decision is obviously being respected and the curtain has been left. But the discovery of the hidden roemer represents yet another puzzle to be solved about this most enigmatic of artists.

• Johannes Vermeer: On Reflection, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, 10 September-2 January 2022

Johannes VermeerDresdenDiscoveriesExhibitionsRestoration
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
© The Art Newspaper