- Click here to view a sortable table of all past, ongoing, and future Vermeer exhibitions.
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter travels to Turin and Rome Italy 
Un Vermeer a Palazzo Barberini. Donna in blu che legge una lettera
Palazzo Barberini, Rome
July 8–October 11, 2026
https://barberinicorsini.org/evento/un-vermeer-a-palazzo-barberini-donna-in-blu-che-legge-una-lettera/
Johannes Vermeer
c. 1662–1665
Oil on canvas, 46.5 x 39 cm.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Coming to Turin and Rome from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Vermeer's luxurious Woman in Blue Reading a Letter will be on view from March 5 to October 11, 2026, in Palazzo Barberini, Rome, as part of a new project entitled Encounter with the Masterpiece.
Curated by Thomas Clement Salomon and Paola Nicita, the presentation unfolds between the Sala Ovale (Oval Room) and the Sala Paesaggi (Landscape Room) at Palazzo Barberini. The exhibition culminates in the Sala Paesaggi, where Woman in Blue Reading a Letter is displayed alone in a small, darkened space designed for close observation. Carefully directed lighting, calibrated to the painting's cool tonal range, casts minimal shadows from the substantial frame. The unusually close viewing barrier permits a rare opportunity to study the work's refined surface and minute details without distraction from neighboring paintings. Removed from the visual competition of surrounding works, the setting allows Vermeer’s masterpiece to be studied with an intimacy seldom possible in a major exhibition. The close barrier also permits visitors to examine its exquisite detail at near range.
Digital materials address Vermeer's technique, the painting’s history, and the cultural setting of seventeenth-century Delft, while a special section examines the Rijksmuseum's 2010 restoration, which recovered the colors' luminosity and revealed significant details of execution.
In arrivo a Torino e Roma dal Rijksmuseum di Amsterdam, la sontuosa Donna in blu che legge una lettera di Vermeer sarà esposta dal 5 marzo all’11 ottobre 2026 a Palazzo Barberini, a Roma, nell’ambito di un nuovo progetto intitolato Incontro con il capolavoro.
Curata da Thomas Clement Salomon e Paola Nicita, la presentazione si sviluppa tra la Sala Ovale e la Sala Paesaggi di Palazzo Barberini. Il percorso culmina nella Sala Paesaggi, dove Donna in blu che legge una lettera è esposta da sola in un piccolo ambiente oscurato, concepito per un’osservazione ravvicinata. Un’illuminazione attentamente orientata, calibrata sulla fredda gamma tonale del dipinto, proietta ombre minime dalla sua importante cornice. La barriera, posta a una distanza insolitamente ridotta, offre la rara possibilità di studiare la raffinata superficie dell’opera e i suoi minutissimi particolari senza la distrazione di dipinti vicini. Sottratto alla competizione visiva delle opere circostanti, il capolavoro di Vermeer può così essere osservato con un’intimità raramente possibile in una grande mostra.
I materiali digitali illustrano la tecnica di Vermeer, la storia del dipinto e il contesto culturale della Delft del XVII secolo, mentre una sezione speciale prende in esame il restauro condotto dal Rijksmuseum nel 2010, che ha restituito luminosità ai colori e rivelato importanti dettagli esecutivi.
Vermeer's Masterwork View of Delft travels to Madrid
Mauritshuis ♥ Thyssen-Bornemisza – Masterpieces from The Hague
Exhibition: October 9, 2026–
January 10 , 2027
Johannes Vermeer
c. 1660–1663
Oil on canvas, 98.5 x 117.5 cm.
Mauritshuis, The Hague
The permanent collections of both institutions are of very different origins. While the Thyssen Museum traces its roots to private collections, the Mauritshuis's collection comes from the estates of the Stadtholders and the House of Orange-Nassau. These differences are also reflected in their approaches, as they focus, in one case, on Dutch Golden Age painting and, in the other, on a broad overview of Western painting, diverse in schools and chronologies.
The works included in the Madrid exhibition span a chronological arc from around 1618 to 1705, and are by artists such as Ambrosius Bosschaert I, Frans Hals, Hendrick Avercamp, Pieter Claesz, Rembrandt van Rijn, Gerrit ter Borch, Jan Steen, Jacob Ruisdael, Pieter de Hooch, and Nicolaes Maes, among others. The paintings are presented thematically: the first room is dedicated to still lifes and genre paintings; the second to landscapes and compositions with figures; and the third displays, on its own, one of the greatest landscape paintings of all time: Vermeer's View of Delft.
In addition, three paintings from the museum's collection have been selected and are exhibited alongside three others from the Mauritshuis. Jan Brueghel the Elder's The Garden of Eden is displayed next to The Garden of Paradise by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Rubens; The Merry Violinist with a Glass of Wine is paired with The Violist, both by Gerrit van Honthorst, and The Western Façade of St. Mary's Church in Utrecht, by Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, complements the exterior view of the temple depicted in the panel by the same artist belonging to the Mauritshuis.
Girl with a Pearl Earring goes to Japan
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Nakanoshima Museum of Art
, Osaka
August 21-September 27, 2026
https://vermeer2026.exhibit.jp/
Art lovers will have chance to see Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring in Japan, which will be displayed at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka from Aug. 21 to Sept. 27. Just announced, second masterpiece by Vermeer, Diana and her Companions, will be exhibited alongside the Girl with a Pearl Earring.
The exhibition will be organized by The Asahi Shimbun, the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, and Asahi Television Broadcasting Corp. The painting's trip to Japan will be its first in 14 years since 2012 when about 1.2 million people visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum for the Masterpieces from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis exhibition, which was also organized by The Asahi Shimbun, among other entities.
- Further details will be announced in late February.
- Exhibition inquiries will open in late February.
- Vermeer's masterpiece will be loaned to the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka while its home museum in The Hague is closed for renovations.
- This exhibition will be held only in Osaka and will not travel to other regions.
Martine Gosselink, general director of the Mauritshuis: "The Asahi Shimbun has been a highly valued partner of our museum since the major revamping of the Mauritshuis between 2012 and 2014. The Asahi Shimbun organises several exhibitions each year with museums around the world. We are highly honored to be able to work with the media organisation on the presentation in Osaka in 2026. Every year, we welcome thousands of Japanese tourists who love Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. For the Mauritshuis, the Girl's trip to Japan is a unique opportunity for us to share her with the Japanese public, perhaps for the very last time."
The Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, The Asahi Shimbun Company, and Asahi Television Broadcasting have begun a ticket lottery sale today, July 14, for the “Vermeer: Girl with a Pearl Earring” exhibition.
Rather than offering first-come, first-served general sales for the initially planned first through third periods, regular tickets for the entire exhibition period will be sold by lottery through Ticket Pia from July 14 to 21. While no same-day tickets will be sold, additional lottery sales may be held through Ticket Pia depending on sales conditions and other factors.
Vermeer's AfterlivesNew publication on Vermeer by Ruth Yeazell
Vermeer's Afterlives
Ruth Bernard Yeazell
2026
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691277820/vermeers-afterlives
Ruth Bernard Yeazell
from the publisher's website:
Johannes Vermeer is one of the most beloved painters in the world. But when an enterprising French journalist and art critic set out to recover his work in the mid-nineteenth century, both his name and achievement were virtually forgotten. Vermeer's Afterlives tells the remarkable story of how one of the great masters of the Dutch Golden Age was lost to obscurity until the rise of art history as a new discipline introduced his work to modern audiences and asks why his art compels so many other artists to respond with works of their own.
Ruth Bernard Yeazell traces the cultural ascendency of this extraordinary painter, whose enigmatic subjects and quiet, introspective interiors, transfigured by light and color, continue to captivate viewers far removed from his native Delft. We meet the critics who first welcomed Vermeer into the canon along with the painters who sought to imitate him, the forgers who tried to pass off their work as his own, and the contemporary artists who openly repurpose it. The enquiry concludes by looking at Vermeer's paintings through the eyes of the poets and novelists who have attempted to translate his silence into words and give voice to the stories he left untold. Along the way, Yeazell interrogates the changing assumptions that govern art history, while demonstrating how paintings live on not only in later paintings but in poetry, fiction, photography, and film.
Marking the 350th anniversary of Vermeer's death, this beautifully illustrated book explores the variety of ways in which Vermeer's art has been interpreted through the centuries and shows how his paintings take on afterlives of their own in the imaginations of those who view them.
Review of Graham-Dixon's Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found
"The Fruitless Search for Vermeer's Personal God," Hyperallergic,
Natasha Seaman
August 5, 2026
https://hyperallergic.com/the-fruitless-search-for-vermeers-personal-god/
In a substantial review of Andrew Graham-Dixon's Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, Natasha Seaman, Doctor of Philosophy Professor at Rhode Island College, criticizes the author's emphasis on Vermeer's religious beliefs, arguing that the biography relies too heavily on speculation while giving insufficient attention to other unresolved questions, including Vermeer's possible use of the camera obscura.
New article on Vermeer and Van Gogh
Kolfin Elmer, "An a Arrangment of lemon yellow, pale blue and pearl gray: What Van Gogh saw in Johannes Vermeer." Oud Holland 2026, 1/2 volume 139, 99-112.
In this study, Elmer Kolfin examines the profound admiration that Vincent van Gogh held for Vermeer and explores the ways in which the Delft master's art shaped Van Gogh's thinking about painting. Drawing on Van Gogh's correspondence, Kolfin demonstrates that Vermeer occupied a special place among the seventeenth-century Dutch painters whom Van Gogh studied throughout his career. Although direct references to Vermeer in the artist's letters are relatively few, they reveal a deep appreciation for Vermeer's ability to capture the effects of light, color, and atmosphere with extraordinary clarity and simplicity.
Kolfin argues that Van Gogh was particularly captivated by Vermeer's luminous color harmonies, famously describing them as combinations of "lemon yellow, pale blue, and pearl gray." The article traces Van Gogh's encounters with works such as View of Delft, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, and The Lacemaker, showing how these paintings informed his ideas about observing nature and translating visual experience into paint. At the same time, Kolfin places Van Gogh within a broader nineteenth-century rediscovery of Vermeer, demonstrating how the painter's growing reputation influenced artists of the Hague School and contributed to Van Gogh's conviction that great art could arise from direct, attentive engagement with the visible world.
On Vermeer's house: closing remarks to Grijzenhout's writings
So where was Johannes Vermeer's house in Delft located? Frans Grijzenhout thinks it was at the eastern corner of Molenpoort alley-Oude Langendijk, the house named Serpent. In contrast, Hans Slager's research points to the house named Trapmolen on the opposite side of the alley. In Finding Vermeer, back to the Molenpoort Grijzenhout claims to have proven his notion via the ledger named "Groot Familiegeld," a list of persons who received a tax on their wealth in 1674. But his method, the various intrinsic assumptions and usage of archival data do not provide any new certainties at all, as was detailed in Slager's critical article Vermeer's house again and the Jesuit church. Recently Grijzenhout reacted to these critiques with "A brief reply to Hans Slager" on the issue of Vermeer's residence. This has compelled Slager for the second time to write down his arguments, now in more detail, where Grijzenhout goes wrong.
On Vermeer's house: closing remarks to Grijzenhout's writings
New "insider's" account of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston theft which included Vermeer's The Concert
Geoffrey Kelly
Thirteen Perfect Fugitives
Geoffrey Kelly
March 10, 2026
It seems just about everyone has been fingered at one time or another as the perpetrator of the largest art theft in U.S. history: the 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Two men dressed as police officers showed up at the door of the museum just after 1 a.m. on March 18 as the city rested after celebrating St. Patrick's Day. They tied up the two guards on duty and walked off with 13 items, including masterpieces by Rembrandt and the mid-career The Concert by Vermeer. The total loss associated with this robbery has been estimated at over $1 billion.
In the ensuing decades all kinds of theories were hatched about who was behind the theft. The Corsican mob. The Irish mob. Noted art thieves. Unknown petty criminals. People who worked in the building. The Irish Republican Army.
Geoffrey Kelly, the F.B.I. agent who handled the case for 22 years, heard all of them and investigated many of them. In his new book, Thirteen Perfect Fugitives" Kelly dismisses many of the theories and outlines who he really thinks committed the crime but could never be prosecuted.
EV website addition: the 1689 Reis-Boek door de Vereenigde Nederlandtsche Provintien
Amsterdam
Jan ten Hoorn
1689
A new, illustrated study on Essential Vermeer examines how Delft was described to travelers in a fascinating late-seventeenth-century guidebook published just fourteen years after Vermeer's death. Focusing on the Delft section of the 1689 Reis-Boek door de Vereenigde Nederlandtsche Provintien (full title: Travel Book through the United Netherlands Provinces, and Their Neighboring Regions and Kingdoms; Containing a Precise Description of the Cities, with Indications of the Boat and Wagon Routes, along with Suitable Inns Where Travelers May Lodge in Each City, and Other Useful Travel Information), the article reconstructs the city as visitors encountered it in Vermeer's lifetime: its churches, civic buildings, markets, inns, and remarkably precise transport schedules. Read alongside paintings such as View of Delft and The Little Street, the guide reveals a city shaped by order, mobility, and civic routine, offering a grounded historical framework for understanding the everyday world behind Vermeer's quiet scenes.
Temporary Closure of the Mauritshuis
The Mauritshuis in The Hague will temporarily close for building renovations from August 24 to September 20, 2026. The collection houses three paintings by Vermeer: View of Delft, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Diana and her Companions. The iconic Girl with a Pearl Earring, will be loaned to Japan for an exhibition at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka (see item below). This closure coincides with a rare international loan of its key masterpiece, allowing Japanese art lovers to see it while the museum undergoes necessary building work.
Key Details:
- : August 24–September 20, 2026.
- : Building renovations.
- : During this period, Girl with a Pearl Earring travels to Japan.
- : The painting will be at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka from August 21 to September 27, 2026.
A rare jewelry box and other objects identified in Vermeer paintings sheds new light on the artist's connections in a new book about the tangible objects in Vermeer's paintings
De tastbare wereld van Johannes Vermeer: Huisraad als schildersmodel (The tangible world of Johannes Vermeer)
Alexandra van Dongen
https://www.bol.com/be/nl/p/de-tastbare-wereld-van-johannes-vermeer/9300000233085375/
Alexandra van Dongen
A forthcoming Dutch publication by Alexandra van Dongen, curator at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, reveals that the ornate jewelry casket seen in Vermeer's Mistress and Maid and A Lady Writing was an Indo-Portuguese work produced in 17th-century Cochin, India. Crafted from teak and ebony, such caskets were luxury items commissioned by Europeans and are now exceedingly rare. Van Dongen, aided by Amsterdam art dealer Dickie Zebregs, traced what may be the only surviving example in the Távora Sequeira Pinto collection in Porto. Since Vermeer could scarcely have afforded such a costly object, the study suggests that the casket was likely lent to him by his patron Maria de Knuijt, a wealthy shareholder in the Dutch East India Company and owner of both paintings.
Van Dongen's research highlights Vermeer's careful observation of real objects, from precious imports to everyday items. In Woman with a Pearl Necklace, she identifies another Asian luxury—a Japanese lacquer box with gold decoration, possibly also owned by De Knuijt—while The Milkmaid features an Oosterhout earthenware pot, a humble kitchen vessel typical of Delft households. Together, these discoveries underline Vermeer's fascination with the tangible world that surrounded him and his ability to render both the exotic and the ordinary with equal precision and reverence.
Johannes Vermeer
c. 1666–16687
Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 78.7 cm.
Frick Collection, New York
Johannes Vermeer
c. 1662–1667
Oil on canvas, 45 x 39.9 cm.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Essential Vermeer addition: Vermeer Chronology: An Interactive Feature
Chronologies are vital instruments in art history, as they make it possible to trace an artist's evolution, follow changes in style, and reconstruct the order in which ideas and techniques emerged. For Vermeer, this task is unusually complex, since only two of his thirty-five (?) paintings are dated. Every proposed sequence is therefore partly conjectural. Yet, despite the scarcity of evidence, most scholars have arrived at a general agreement about the relative order of his works.
The newly updated Essential Vermeer chronology expands the traditional horizontal display of paintings into a dynamic, interactive tool for both newcomers and specialists. Users can view the paintings in three modes—standard, in-scale, and framed—resize and scroll through each sequence, create and save up to five custom orders, and compare them directly with the chronologies of seven leading Vermeer scholars or the default Essential Vermeer order. Paintings considered doubtful or rejected are grouped at the end for clarity. Custom sequences can also be printed in a grid layout, offering an engaging way to visualize and test different interpretations of Vermeer's artistic development.
