An Unknown »Vermeer«

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An Unknown »Vermeer«


(Picture: DS)

Present whereabouts are unknown to me; plese contact me if you do know more (picture: DS)

An Unknown »Vermeer«

In his book on Han van Meegeren (p. 273) Jonathan Lopez mentions an »unknown Vermeer« in the possession of London art dealer Anthony Reyre.

The above picture might – might! – show that seemingly unknown picture. And this hypothesis of mine rests on the combination of two informations: Lopez also mentions that Reyre asked Cornelis Hofstede de Groot to authenticate his ›Vermeer‹ (which Hofstede declined), and this in 1923. In that very same year Hofstede in fact did authenticate another picture for Reyre as a Ter Borch. And both pictures – the above shown Vermeer (with expertise by Willem Vogelsang) and the Ter Borch (with expertise by Hofstede; see here) – are parts of what we have called our ›album of expertises‹.

So the hypothesis might be that, if Hofstede had declined to authenticate that picture, Reyre might have asked Vogelsang, and with expertise of the latter, both pictures were bought by the (still) anonymous professor [5 February, 2017: it was the Basel (Zurich-born) professor of art history Paul Ganz] who was the owner of the picture collection documented by our album (or: the professor had asked Vogelsang, after he had bought the Vermeer (and the Ter Borch) from Reyre (without expertise), to have it authenticated afterwards).

Reyre is also to be associated with other erroneous Vermeer attributions, namely Portrait of a Girl and The Girl with a Blue Bow (see here; and see again Lopez’ book on Han van Meegeren).

Portrait of a Girl
(picture: essentialvermeer.com)

Girl with a Blue Bow
(picture: essentialvermeer.com)

(ps: please note that I have put »Vermeer« into quotation marks wherever possible; the picture does not force me to think of Vermeer himself; I am considering four possibilities: a) it is a 17th century painting; b) it is by Han van Meegeren (one of the unidentified pictures Van Meegeren’s son spoke about in 1951); c) it is by another, perhaps still unknown Vermeer-imitator; and d) it is an old picture with a Vermeer-monogram – which the picture seems to bear – added to it)

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