Reproduction

Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. and I disagree about Vermeer.


In his article, "The Appreciation of Vermeer in Twentieth-Century America," he writes:

"Vermeer's images are so distinctive that once seen, they are never forgotten, and that is true of works as varied as the View of Delft and The Girl with the Red Hat. With knowing one, there is this powerful urge to see another, and yet another, for one can never tire of the beauty of his light and color, or the sense of peace that his works bring. As only about 35 paintings are know to exist, it is easy to build a repertoire of the images in one's mind and even to imagine that it might be possible to see them all and undertake the sort of pilgrimage first traveled by Thore in the 1860s....

[I agree with him so far.]

"Still, the question exists, how is it that Vermeer's genius, once seemingly appreciated by only a small group of collectors and connoisseurs, has entered into the mainstream of cultural life? Certainly, color reproductions of his painting have brought them to a wide public and have helped make Vermeer's art known to many who have never actually stood in front of one of his works. Vermeer's paintings reproduce remarkably well. While printed reproductions rarely capture the impact or scale and texture, they effectively convey the clarity of his compositions, the purity of his light, and his distinctive yellows and blues."

Well, yes, you can get the general idea from a reproduction, but God is in Vermeer's details (texture) and in his scale.

In his divine touch.

In the aura his pictures generate.

And it is demagogic to suggest that the public can have any true sense of Vermeer in reproduction.

Wheelock put together a hugely successful blockbuster at the National Gallery in 1996.

There was another American blockbuster at the Met in 2001, by the other great American Vermeer scholar, Walter Liedtke.


I can't imagine a worse way to experience Vermeer than in the midst of such crowds.

It's bad enough on an ordinary day in the Mauritshuis or the Rijksmuseum. (Try looking at Night Watch, these days
worse than ever.