Paintings from the Berlin Museums Exhibited in Co-operation with The Department of The Army

This was the penultimate stop of the travelling exhibition of some 200 paintings rescued from the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin and held under US Army custody, running 27 February to 14 March 1949 at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh before the tour closed in Toledo later that month. Essential Vermeer records the stop under the heading “Philadelphia,” though the Carnegie Institute is in Pittsburgh. Only one Vermeer was shown: Woman with a Pearl Necklace, catalogue number 138, listed in the catalogue as “Young Woman with a Pearl Necklace.“ This distinguishes it from the earlier Philadelphia stop (19 June to 7 July 1948), held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which displayed two Vermeers: Woman with a Pearl Necklace and The Glass of Wine.

The Carnegie Institute is a cultural complex in the Oakland neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, founded in 1895 by Andrew Carnegie. The building on Forbes Avenue houses the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Music Hall, and the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History. The Department of Fine Arts, which hosted the Berlin pictures, took its present name, the Carnegie Museum of Art, in 1986.