"The Guitar Player by Vermeer is an exquisite work of art, perfectly capturing a single moment in time. It is one of only 37 known paintings by Vermeer, an artist who specialised in depicting everyday life in domestic interiors,"
"Since the 1920s scholars have puzzled over the relationship between these two paintings, but this display does not draw conclusions, instead inviting visitors to witness the prowess of one of the greatest artists of the 17th-century and respond to this question for themselves,"
"Philadelphia's Lady with a Guitar was assumed to be the original, until the Kenwood version emerged in 1927. As Kenwood's The Guitar Player was in considerably better condition and appeared authentic, it was quickly accepted as the prime version. In 2023, Arie Wallert, a former scientific specialist at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, told a symposium in Amsterdam that there are two versions of the work by Vermeer: the long-accepted painting at Kenwood House and the similar composition that has been in the Philadelphia museum's stores for nearly a century."
Double Vision: Vermeer (1 September–11 January 2026) at Kenwood House displays Vermeer’s The Guitar Player alongside Lady with a Guitar from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Kenwood painting reappeared in 1927 and, being better preserved and signed, has been accepted as the prime version. The Philadelphia work was long assumed original but remains in the museum’s stores. Scholarship and recent remarks by Arie Wallert renew claims that both are by Vermeer. The paintings share near-identical composition but differ in the sitter’s hairstyle and in the presence of a signature, prompting renewed questions about provenance and authenticity.
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