#art attribution

 The National Gallery of Art Just Discovered That One of Its Four Vermeer Paintings Wasn't Actually Painted by Vermeer | Artnet News

1. Studio of Johannes Vermeer, Girl With a Flute (c. 1669/1675). National Gallery of Art, Washington, Widener Collection

2. Dina Anchin, associate paintings conservator at the National Gallery of Art, studies a painting.

3. Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance (c.1664). National Gallery of Art, Washington, Widener Collection

4. An image visualizing characteristics of the underpaint in Johannes Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1664): a composite image of the color photograph, infrared reflectance image, and chemical element maps for iron and copper. Photo: National Gallery of Art.

5. Two unconvincing Vermeer forgeries in the National Gallery exhibition. Photo: Kriston Capps.

Scientists and historians at the National Gallery of Art have deduced that a painting attributed to Johannes Vermeer, one of four in the museum’s collection, wasn’t painted by the Dutch master after all.

Girl With a Flute (1665/1675), a small study of a figure holding a recorder, was instead likely made by someone who studied under Vermeer or otherwise worked closely with him. The new findings unlock the intriguing possibility that the Golden Age artist—whose Girl With a Pearl Earring and other masterpieces rank among the most famous paintings in the world—may have had an apprentice.

As to who that figure might be, National Gallery officials can only speculate. There’s no record of any students registered with the local painters guild, no notes about friends or family members taking lessons. Nevertheless, the museum is now saying, with 99 percent confidence, that this particular painting was produced by “school of Vermeer.”

“The idea that Vermeer had a studio is not one that a lot of people have really talked about. Because he’s always been thought of as the lone genius,” said Marjorie E. Wieseman, curator and head of the department of northern European paintings at the National Gallery. “We only know of about three dozen paintings by him. So why would he have needed a studio?”  ...

...  Vermeer also liked to dapple the lips of his subjects with highlights: tiny dots reflecting a color found nearby. The artist who made Girl With a Flute worked closely enough with Vermeer to witness these techniques, but not to master them. “Rather than having a pink highlight on the lip, she’s got, you know, an errant piece of spinach in her teeth,” the curator said.

Girl With a Flute was only ever “cautiously” attributed to Vermeer, according to the museum, so it may not come as a surprise to researchers that it was done by another artist. But the fact that this mystery artist worked alongside Vermeer raises a lot of new questions. While the museum considers this particular case closed, the investigation points to a deeper mystery about how the artist’s studio actually functioned.  ...

“Vermeer’s Secrets” is on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from October 8 through January 8, 2022.

Da Vinci Discovered in Paris

Several news outlets reported earlier this week on the discovery of a drawing by famed artist Leonardo da Vinci at the French auction house Tajan. Part of a loose folio of drawings owned by a retired physician, the double-sided drawing depicts Saint Sebastian on the recto while the verso reveals several shadow studies. 

The attribution of the sheet involved the expertise of some of the world’s leading figures on Old Master drawings, among them: Thaddée Prate, Tajan’s Director of Old Master works; Patrick de Bayser, an independent expert; and Carmen C. Bambach, Curator of Italian and Spanish Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of New York. According to The New York Times, Bambach was overjoyed at the find, the first work by Leonardo to be discovered in the last 15 years:  

“ ‘My eyes jumped out of their sockets,’ Dr. Bambach said in a telephone interview, remembering her first sight of the drawing in Paris with Mr. de Bayser on the last day of March. ‘It exactly complemented the Hamburg St. Sebastian,’ she added, referring to how that pen-and-ink study of the saint tied to a tree also included inscribed optical studies on the reverse side, and to how the handwriting of the inscription was consistent in both double-sided drawings.”

The double-drawing has been given an estimated value of €15-€16 million. 

Further Reading:  Scott Rayburn, “An Artistic Discovery Makes a Curator’s Heard Pound” (The New York Times, 11 December 2016). 

Victoria Stapley-Brown, “Heart-pounding discovery of rare Leonardo da Vinci drawing” (The Art Newspaper, 12 December 2016). 

Images of verso (courtesy of The New York Times) and recto drawings (courtesy of The Art Newspaper). 

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