Painting discovered in Vermeer
Everyone was able to admire the painting of the Lady Standing at the Virginals by Johannes Vermeer during the Vermeer exhibition at the Mauritshuis. What a privilege it was to be able to view the painting in The Hague surrounded by so many other works by the artist. Johannes Vermeer surely has no equal; he has a way of subtly overwhelming the viewer. Each object, each form has a unique magic in the paintings of this Delft master, so that we almost forget what we are looking at. We willingly allow ourselves to be swept along in Vermeer's fine colours, the calm of the movement, the almost abstract composition, the apparently simple technique. In this article we break the spell and examine one particular painting by Vermeer with a sober, searching eye. The Lady Standing at the Virginals, currently at the National Gallery in London, contains an intriguing phenomenon which is discussed here for the first time.
Vermeer often included paintings in his interiors. But a closer examination of his Lady Standing at the Virginals reveals three other pictures in this painting. Behind the lady hangs a large portrait of a Cupid and beside it a landscape in a gilt frame. A second landscape is depicted on the opened lid of the virginals.
Johannes Vermeer borrowing of art
Gregor Weber, curator of Italian paintings at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, has long been involved in research into the paintings Vermeer incorporated in his masterpieces. Recently, he discovered that Vermeer had included the painting of Caritas Romana by an artist from the school of Dirck van Baburen in his Music Lesson in the collection of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II. In 1994 he had shown how Vermeer had used a landscape by another Delft artist, Pieter Jansz. van Asch, in his paintings of the Lady with a Guitar and the Lady Seated at the Virginals. Clearly, Vermeer did always employ these examples literally, in fact he used some parts and left out others. New elements were not added, although Vermeer did give existing aspects more volume and accentuation. This form of borrowing was relatively common in the seventeenth century.
Quite surprisingly, it became clear that Vermeer had used Pieter Jansz. van Asch's landscape to invent two entirely different paintings. Viewing the two interpretations of Van Asch's work separately it is not immediately obvious that they are based on the same painting.
Armed with this knowledge, Weber studied the two landscapes in Vermeer's Lady Standing at the Virginals. He noted that the landscape on the wall and on the lid of the virginals showed remarkable similarities. In addition to the structure, with its succession of light and dark layers, of rocks and trees, various characteristic details, such as the roofs of the houses and the blue waterfall in the right corner were almost identical. Weber concluded that both landscapes must have been based on the same example.
Pieter Anthonisz. van Groenewegen
In his search for the original painting, Weber eventually realised that the landscape followed a relatively familiar pattern: to the right in the painting we see a high mountain surmounted by a fortification, in front of which is a wedge-shaped layer that leads diagonally into the distance and to the left, rounding off the composition, a tall tree silhouetted against the background. Many landscape artists composed their paintings along these lines; depictions by artists such as David Teniers the Younger and Allard van Everdingen reveal a similar layout. But Weber noted a remarkable similarity between the two landscapes in the Lady Standing at the Virginals and the works of another landscape painter from Delft, Pieter Anthonisz. van Groenewegen. After seeing a photo of Van Groenewegen's Mountain Landscape with Travellers, quite by coincidence, he was struck by the similarities between this painting and the two Vermeer landscapes. He informed John and Willem Jan Hoogsteder of his discovery. When they read his letter, they were amazed.
Variations on the original
Although Weber was surprised by the similarities, he also noticed a number of discrepancies when he compared the two paintings. This was especially evident in the structure of the dark layer in the foreground where Vermeer left out the dead trees to present a more undulating line, in the absence of the figures and in the crown of the tree to the left. Weber therefore tentatively concluded that Vermeer may have used a second, slightly different version of our painting as an example. Unfortunately, no such work is currently known.
To establish with a little more certainty whether Vermeer actually used the Mountain Landscape with Travellers by Van Groenewegen as his model, we decided to employ some modern technology.
Computer montage
We commissioned a series of computer simulations to reverse the angle of the painted lid and to show the Van Groenewegen painting in perspective. When the adjusted virginal lid and Van Groenewegen's landscape are compared, the similarities are obvious. In both landscapes, a group of buildings can clearly be seen at the top of the hill. These are dominated by a tall fortification (a). At the foot of the hill are two identical houses, one above the other, beside which water tumbles down a waterfall under a bridge (b). But there are differences too. Vermeer has given the trees on the left more volume (c). In addition, when Vermeer's landscape is adjusted, the horizon is lower, the figures are absent (d) and the foreground features a curving line (d).
Poetic license
When Van Groenewegen's painting is projected onto the lid, we see why Vermeer painted it this way. If the mountain landscape is projected without adjustment, the result is an unbalanced composition. The hill is disproportionately high and the cluster of trees on the left too thin. To make the painting more attractive, Vermeer lowered the horizon, giving the sky more space and cutting away the bottom of the landscape. As a result, the dark layer in the foreground is thinner. This in turn truncates through both the figures and the trees. Vermeer solved this problem by leaving out the figures and turning the trunks into a clump of trees. This is the reason for the undulating line in the foreground which is so characteristic of both landscapes in the Lady Standing at the Virginals. Vermeer accentuated the cluster of trees on the left to correct the distorted compositional proportions in the shortened painting.
Two from one
The results of the computer montage of the small painting on the wall are equally remarkable. Here Vermeer focused on the right side of Van Groenewegen's landscape. Only the hill and the surrounding plain is shown (a). Clearly identifiable elements in Vermeer's small landscape are the waterfall and the two houses, one above the other (b). There is no mountaintop fort here and the large house to the right of the castle has been placed lower down the hill. The two figures are included in the valley (d). In the small landscape they occupy a central position. Projecting the right side of Van Groenewegen's landscape into the gilt frame in Vermeer's painting, the same problem arises as occurred with the projection onto the virginal lid. Once again, the horizon is too high. For the same compositional reasons that applied to the lid, Vermeer lowered the entire composition here too.
Conclusion
To a large extent, the computer montages removed Weber's original doubts. Yet it is still quite possible that Vermeer based his landscapes on a second version of Van Groenewegen's painting with more similarities. Nevertheless, since Van Groenewegen's oeuvre is not otherwise known to have included more than one version of a work the chance is slight.
It therefore seems probable that Vermeer used the Mountain Landscape with Travellers by Pieter Anthonisz. van Groenewegen as a model for the landscapes in his Lady Standing at the Virginals. Vermeer treated the landscape much as he would a jug, a musical instrument or a young woman. The names of the women who posed for Vermeer have been lost to obscurity. But more is known about the paintings he took as models. We owe Johannes Vermeer a debt of gratitude: by quoting Van Groenewegen's landscape in his Lady Standing at the Virginals he ensured that Mountain Landscape with Travellers would be remembered forever.
MS/WJH
With thanks to Dr Gregor J.M. Weber, curator of Italian Paintings at Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.
In his article Johannes Vermeer, Pieter Jansz. van Asch und das Problem der Abbildungsttreue in Oud Holland 108 (1994) Dr Weber shows that Johannes Vermeer took Van Asch as a model. In Weltkunst 70, no. 2 (February 2000) he published the painting Caritas Romana incorporated by Vermeer in the Music Lesson.