Girl with a Flute

The Vermeer attribution was accepted through most of the twentieth century and championed by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., the National Gallery of Art’s Curator of Northern Baroque Paintings, who included the work in his catalogue raisonné. Earlier generations of scholars, including Wilhelm von Bode and Abraham Bredius, had likewise accepted it without reservation.

Technical examination carried out in connection with the NGA’s 2021 study of Vermeer’s working methods revealed anomalies in the underdrawing, ground preparation, and paint application that set the picture apart from Vermeer’s securely autograph works. Infrared reflectography found none of the compositional adjustments typical of Vermeer’s process. In 2022 the NGA revised its attribution to “An Associate of Johannes Vermeer,” the first major institutional reversal of a Vermeer attribution in decades. Wheelock himself endorsed the conclusion. Some independent scholars continue to accept autograph status.