Johannes Vermeer, (1632–1675) – Mistress and Maid, ca. 1666?67. The Frick Collection, New York, photo: Joseph Coscia Jr.
Vermeer Visits at the National Gallery of Ireland from May 11-August 18 will reunite Mistress and Maid from the Frick with the gallery’s own Vermeer, Woman Writing a Letter with her Maid. While The Frick Collection’s New York residence is currently undergoing a renovation, Mistress and Maid makes an exceptional trip to Dublin, marking only the second time it has left New York since its acquisition in 1919. Before the paintings were on display at the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer exhibition in 2023, they were last united at the auction of French copper industrialist Eugène Secrétan in Paris in 1889. The painting rarely travels outside its home in New York under the conditions of its bequest.
Mistress and Maid is unusual in Vermeer’s oeuvre in that the composition focuses almost exclusively on the interaction between the figures – the mistress pausing her writing in surprise at the arrival of a letter brought by a maid. The painting is exceptionally large in comparison to Vermeer’s other genre scenes, measuring over a metre in height.
Johannes Vermeer, (1632–1675) – Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid, c.1670. Presented, Sir Alfred and Lady Beit, 1987 (Beit Collection). Image, National Gallery of Ireland.