Cambridge City News, Cambridge Local News Stories & Latest Headlines About Cambridge | Fitz goes Dutch to see women in master's world
The Lacemaker by Johannes Vermeer will go on show in the UK for the first time in a new exhibition at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum.
Vermeer’s Women: Secrets and Silence, will explore the role of women in the 17th century Dutch master’s paintings and includes four iconic works by Vermeer as well as 28 works by other artists of the age.
Women are one of the key subjects in Vermeer’s works. Whether gazing out wistfully at the viewer, or focusing on an activity with an almost eerie calm, they possess a powerful allure.
The exhibition is the first to focus on Vermeer’s domestic interiors and, by examining them in the context of paintings by other Dutch Golden Age masters, it explores the enigma of these women who seem crystallised in a moment in time.
The focal point is The Lacemaker (c 1669-70). One of the Louvre’s most treasured works, it is rarely seen outside Paris and is on loan to the UK for the first time.
Complementing this are three further works representing the pinnacle of Vermeer’s mature career: A lady at the virginals with a gentleman The Music Lesson (c 1662-5) on loan from The Royal Collection; A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (c 1670) from the National Gallery, London; and Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (private collection, New York).
Joining these will be 28 masterpieces of genre painting from artists of the Dutch Golden Age including Cornelis de Bisschop, Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch, and Eglon van der Neer.
The vivid realism of these paintings provides a remarkable window into the private world of women in the 17th century Dutch Republic.
Dr Timothy Potts, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, said: “Vermeer’s Women will be a rare opportunity to enjoy some of Vermeer’s most ravishingly beautiful paintings of the intimacy of the Dutch household – frozen moments captured in Vermeer’s uniquely luminous style.
“Although domestic scenes constitute the principal subject of Vermeer’s work and that of many of his contemporaries, and are one of the most distinctive and evocative aspects of Dutch art of the Golden Age, this will be the first exhibition to focus exclusively on them, and to explore their hidden significance in terms of contemporary Dutch mores.
“Equally importantly, Vermeer’s Women will reveal the extraordinary subtlety and skill of Vermeer’s finest contemporaries, many of whom were far more famous than Vermeer during their lifetimes.”
