Abstract
Among the thirty-six paintings ascribed to the Dutch seventeenth century artist Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), Mistress and Maid, in The Frick Collection, stands out for the large-scale figures set against a rather plain background depicting a barely discernible curtain. Although generally accepted as among the late works of the artist and dated to 1667–1668, for decades scholars have continued to puzzle over aspects of this portrayal. When the painting was cleaned and restored in 1952, attempts to understand the seeming lack of finish and simplified composition were hampered by the limited technical means available at that time. In 1968, Hermann Kühn included Mistress and Maid in his groundbreaking technical investigation ‘A Study of the Pigments and the Grounds Used by Jan Vermeer.’ In the present study, imaging by infrared reflectography and macro-X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) revealed significant compositional changes and drew focus to areas of suspected color change. Three of the samples taken by Hermann Kühn, and now in the archive of the Doerner Institut in Munich, were re-analyzed, along with a few paint samples taken from areas not examined in the 1968 study, using scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDS) and Raman spectroscopy. These analyses made it possible to further visualize detailed compositional elements in the background of the painting that were later painted out, and to characterize darkening and color changes in different paint passages.
Highlights
When Henry Clay Frick purchased Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid (Fig. 1a) in 1919, it joined two other paintings in his collection by this esteemed artist
Infrared reflectography (IRR) carried out for this study clearly revealed Vermeer’s initial compositional design for the background that will be discussed in detail below (Fig. 2b)
It is important to note that samples S1 and S2 do not show an intermediate layer of varnish or dirt between the dark layer of the first composition and the subsequent paint layers of the curtain, which implies that both were part of Vermeer’s painting process in developing—and changing—the composition
Summary
When Henry Clay Frick purchased Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid (Fig. 1a) in 1919, it joined two other paintings in his collection by this esteemed artist. By this time, the tacking margins had been removed and the original canvas support had been lined to a linen fabric with an aqueous glue/paste adhesive and stretched onto a keyable stretcher [1]. The seated woman, dressed in elegant attire, is dramatically lit by an unseen light source that illuminates her marble-like skin and yellow mantle. Set before her is a table spread with a cloth on which lie a sheet of paper, Mahon et al Herit Sci (2020) 8:30
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