Stories

Long reads on the heists, mysteries, and rediscoveries woven through Vermeer's small but storied body of work.

A painting of the Last Judgment hangs on the wall behind the woman in Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance

Paintings Within Paintings

View of Delft by Johannes Vermeer, the city seen across the water under a broad cloudy sky, its gates and the Nieuwe Kerk tower along the far bank

The 1994 Restoration of View of Delft

Diana and her Companions by Johannes Vermeer, one frame joined diagonally from the pre-restoration state with a blue sky in the upper right corner into the cleaned painting with a dark background

The 2000 Restoration of Diana and her Companions

The four figures of Vermeer's The Procuress after cleaning: the grinning man with a cittern at the left, the procuress in black, the soldier in red, and the young woman in a bright yellow jacket beside a blue-and-white wine jug

The 2004 Restoration of The Procuress

The Art of Painting by Johannes Vermeer, a painter seen from behind at his easel, a model dressed as the muse Clio, a large wall map and a gilt chandelier

The 2010 Examination of The Art of Painting

Woman in Blue Reading a Letter by Johannes Vermeer, the same view blended diagonally from the yellowed pre-cleaning state at the upper left into the cleaned painting at the lower right

The 2011 Restoration of Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

Close detail of Girl with a Pearl Earring, her face and blue turban set against a dark background where a green curtain once hung

The 2018 Examination of Girl with a Pearl Earring

Vermeer's Mistress and Maid, a maid in olive handing a letter to a seated woman in a fur-trimmed yellow jacket against a dark background

The 2020 Examination of Mistress and Maid

A painted Cupid on the back wall of Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, framed by a window and a green curtain

The 2021 Restoration of Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window

Detail of Girl with a Flute, a young figure in a striped conical hat and fur-trimmed jacket against a dark tapestry, the face modelled in flat planes

The 2022 Examination of Girl with a Flute

Vermeer's Milkmaid pouring milk into a bowl, a wicker basket on the bare wall behind her

The 2022 Examination of The Milkmaid

Detail of A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals, the sitter turning from the keyboard to meet the viewer's eye, a yellow shawl at her shoulder

The 2024 Restoration of A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals

The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, stolen in 1990

The Heist of The Concert

The Guitar Player by Johannes Vermeer

The Heist of The Guitar Player

Delft in ruins after the gunpowder explosion of 1654, painted by Egbert van der Poel

The Thunderclap

Three seventeenth-century Dutch tronies side by side: Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, Rembrandt's old man in military costume, and Frans Hals's Malle Babbe

Tronies: Faces of No One

Detail of the large wall map of the Seventeen Provinces in Vermeer's The Art of Painting, with a brass chandelier hanging in front of it

Vermeer’s Maps

Four extreme close-ups of ultramarine paint in Vermeer's paintings blended side by side, the blue brushwork and craquelure of the Milkmaid's apron, the jacket of Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, the headscarf of Girl with a Pearl Earring, and the Geographer's gown

Vermeer’s Ultramarine