Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge UK is showing from October 5th to January 15, 2012, "Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence."

Jonathan Jones in the Guardian describes Vermeer's art:

What grips us in his art is a silence full of feeling. The voiceless, unfinished dramas he depicts hold the heart and linger in the imagination. A young woman reads a letter at a window. Pale light illuminates her. You can almost feel the hour of the day, sense the slow passing of time in the big house beyond. Who is the letter from, and what does it say?

At the heart of this visually stunning exhibition is Vermeer's extraordinary painting The Lacemaker (c.1669-70) - one of the Musée du Louvre’s most famous works, rarely seen outside Paris and now on loan to the UK for the first time. The painting will be joined by a choice selection of other key works by Vermeer representing the pinnacle of his mature career, and over thirty other masterpieces of genre painting from the Dutch 'Golden Age'. Featuring works from museums and private collections in the UK, Europe and the USA - many of which have never been on public display in Britain - this Cambridge showing will be the only chance to see these masterworks brought together in one location.

Celebrating the eerie calm of Vermeer's carefully-crafted images of young women in domestic interiors, Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence will be the first exhibition of its kind to focus exclusively on the mysterious and enigmatic world created by Vermeer in some of the best loved and most characteristic works from his later career. The exhibition will also trace the impact of his unique compositions on contemporary masters of Dutch genre painting, including Gerard ter Borch, Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch, Nicolaes Maes and Jan Steen.

Image credit: Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), The Lacemaker (c.1669-70). Musée du Louvre, Paris © Réunion des Musées Nationaux/ Gérard Blot

Wed 5 October 2011 to Sun 15 January 2012
Mellon Gallery (13)