Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum review: ‘one of the great art experiences’

This show is easily the largest Vermeer retrospective ever and is surprisingly ‘revolutionary’

Girl reading a letter at the open window by Johannes Vermeer
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (c.1657): ‘intoxicating’
(Image credit: Imagno/Getty Images)

“Everybody loves Vermeer,” said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. His paintings are “irresistible”: “the magical light, the air of perfection, the whispery moods, the intoxicating combinations of yellow and blue”. They are also very rare things indeed: Johannes Vermeer (1632-75) seems to have produced only about two paintings per year; it is thought that he completed about 45 in total, of which just 37 survive; three are disputed, and one has been missing since a robbery in 1990.

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