Spring 2023
Everyone's Talking about...Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, 1664 Courtesy: Washington DC, National Gallery of Art. Open access.
May 31, June 7, June 14
1-3 pm
Bower's Museum, Kershaw Auditorium
Lecturer: Annalee Andres
Cost: $105
In this special three week series we will look at the phenomenon of the 17th century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. The artist is currently enjoying a landmark exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, a show that sold out in a matter of days. The artist produced at maximum of only 50 works during his lifetime, twenty-eight of which are on view at the show. The works themselves are ordinary genre scenes so typical of the Dutch Republic at this time, yet in the hands of Vermeer, they become precise, immaculate, and riveting worlds of their own.
In this series, we will consider this momentous exhibition, as well as the mysterious life of this Delft master and place his works in the context of the time, look at the technology available to him, and consider the lives of these paintings over the past three centuries. In doing so, we will investigate the great museums of the world and encounter some of the most colorful collectors of the 19th century such as Isabella Stewart Gardner and Henry J Frick.