"The Rijksmuseum's Vermeer exhibition of 2023 is arguably the world's most successful show this century. It was spectacular in terms of ticket sales (650,000, with the main batch selling out only two days after the opening), the presentation of the largest-ever group of the artist's works (28 of the 37 paintings) and for what it revealed about the pictures. The results of that scholarship have now been assembled in the Rijksmuseum's book, Closer to Vermeer: New Research on the Painter and his Art,"
"Pieter Roelofs, the head of fine and decorative arts at the museum, reveals that initially he and his senior co-curator Gregor Weber were not planning a narrowly focused show on the artist, but "a rather broader, thematic exhibition, with Vermeer in the leading role, among the work of other artists". That idea was later abandoned, in favour of simply presenting as many as possible of the 37 paintings. The show had a one-word title: Vermeer (10 February-4 June 2023)."
"but Roelofs now wistfully records that The Astronomer (1668) from the Musée du Louvre in Paris had been on loan to Louvre Abu Dhabi at the time. Braunschweig's Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum refused to lend its Girl with a Wine Glass (1659-61), arguing that the city's schoolchildren "should have the chance to see the actual painting". The Rijksmuseum then offered "buses to drive the students to the Amsterdam museum, so that they might view no fewer than 29 Vermeer paintings-this was declined"."
The Rijksmuseum's 2023 Vermeer exhibition attracted 650,000 visitors and presented 28 of the painter's 37 authenticated paintings, selling out major allocations within days. Curators abandoned an initial plan for a broader thematic show to assemble as many Vermeers as possible under the single title Vermeer (10 February–4 June 2023). New specialist research accompanied the project, contributed by 23 experts. Loan negotiations left only nine Vermeers absent, with some works unavailable due to theft, concurrent loans, or institutional refusals; one lender declined despite an offer to transport local schoolchildren to Amsterdam.
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