Three years in the past it was revealed that the panel of Lady with the Crimson Hat (round 1664-69) on the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork (NGA) in Washington, DC, was overpainted on high of an earlier composition, a slightly typical portrait of a person. This earlier analysis urged that the male determine was not the work of Vermeer, however by an unidentified artist. Its brushwork was unfastened, not like Vermeer’s refined fashion.
However more moderen research, utilizing the newest imaging methods, present that Vermeer’s preliminary paintwork was usually looser and performed rapidly on the underpainting stage. The NGA specialists due to this fact now argue that the male portrait might be his personal work; this “has not but been confirmed or denied”.
Analysis suggests the underpainting could also be by the Dutch artist himself
Nationwide Gallery of Artwork/Kathryn Dooley and John Delaney
If the underpainting is certainly by Vermeer, it might be his solely identified male portrait—and would throw contemporary mild on his early profession. Primarily based on the person’s costume (notably his broad-brimmed hat and collar with a tasselled tie), the composition might be dated to 1650-55. Vermeer’s earliest identified image is Christ within the Home of Mary and Martha (1654-55, Nationwide Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh), however he might need painted portraits earlier than his spiritual topics of the mid 1650s.
Unidentified survivors
If that’s the case, some early Vermeer portraits may really survive, unidentified as from his hand. As youthful works, they might in all probability be unremarkable in fashion, explaining why they’d not been beforehand attributed to the grasp.
Equally intriguing is the suggestion that the hidden portrait behind Lady with the Crimson Hat might be a piece by his fellow Delft artist Carel Fabritius, now finest identified for The Goldfinch (1654, Mauritshuis, The Hague).
A 1676 stock compiled after Vermeer’s demise exhibits that he had then owned two male heads by Fabritius; he might even have had different panels which he reused. Solely a few dozen work by Fabritius are identified, so if the underpainting was by him then this may symbolize a big addition to his oeuvre.
