Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington

In early 1999 the National Gallery of Art, Washington sent a broad survey of its collection to Japan, opening at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (30 January to 4 April 1999) before travelling to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (17 April to 11 July 1999). The exhibition drew on the NGA’s founding gifts from Andrew W. Mellon, Joseph Widener, Samuel H. Kress, and Chester Dale, presenting paintings spanning several centuries and collecting traditions to Japanese audiences.

Vermeer’s A Lady Writing (catalogue no. 83) was the sole Vermeer in the show. Painted around 1665, the canvas depicts a seated woman in a yellow fur-trimmed jacket who pauses mid-sentence to meet the viewer’s gaze, a directness unusual among Dutch letter-writing subjects. The NGA acquired the work in 1962 as a gift from Harry Waldron Havemeyer and Horace Havemeyer, Jr., in memory of their father Horace Havemeyer. The catalogue was compiled by Norio Shimada and Haruko Ota and published in Tokyo in 1999.