‘Closer to Vermeer’ a feast for art-lovers
What makes Johannes Vermeer aka “the Sphinx of Deft” so unique? Is it the way the artist, who lived from 1632 to 1675, bathes his subjects in natural light? The faces of his famous, frequently female subjects appear to glow from within. Is it the complexity of his grasp of perspective? Vermeer’s tiled floors look like mathematical experiments. Was anyone as fond of tiled floors (and Turkish carpets) as Vermeer? We’ve seen “Girl with the Pearl Earring,” a 2003 fiction film about Vermeer (Colin Firth) and the young servant girl (Scarlett Johansson), who was his model and assistant for the painting of the same name. “Close to Vermeer” is a record of a Vermeer exhibit that gathers together 37 Vermeers from Europe and the U.S., including one “The Girl with Flute,” whose authenticity is disputed.
The film largely follows Gregor Weber, who describes himself as a scientist and serves as the director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Weber is a year from retirement. But first he wants to mount the most comprehensive Vermeer exhibit ever. Weber tells us that as a boy he saw his first Vermeers and “fainted.” Yes, he is a bit of a drama queen. But his passion is infectious.
We follow Weber together with some colleagues around Europe and to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and Metropolitan Museum of Art and Frick in New York City to request paintings to be loaned. At the same time, award-winning documentary filmmaker Suzanne Raes (“Quid Pro Quo”) interweaves an expert-led examination of most of the paintings in the exhibit. This is what makes “Closer to Vermeer” such a joy for Vermeer enthusiasts and art lovers alike. We see a 17th century Delft building in a painting by Vermeer and are reminded that a single “red shutter” is simply the “greatest of its kind in art history.” Rembrandt painted 80 self portraits. Vermeer only shows us his back in a painting of an artist and model (we even see a small part of the painting-within-thepainting).
Vermeer achieved some of his greatest effects using a box-shaped device known as a “camera obscura.” Vermeer was apparently introduced to the device by the Jesuits next door. Dutch art historian Pieter Roelofs, roller-skating, paintings conservator Abbie Vandivere, American artist and Vermeer devotee Jonathan Janson and others embellish the experience of the film by lending their expertise and unabated enthusiasm. Using the latest techniques, art experts make new findings in regard to Vermeer’s work. Meanwhile, Weber sniffs at the “merchandising” of Vermeer’s art in a New York museum’s gift shop. Weber also points out the looming menace in “An Officer and a Laughing Girl.” One of Vermeer’s masterpieces “The Lacemaker” is too small to sell, really. Why did he paint it?
Las Vegas casino operator Steven Wynn once owned a Vermeer entitled “A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals.” The work is back in a museum. Much fuss is made concerning the shawl the young woman wears, and the quality of its depiction (Was Vermeer having an “off day?”).
Vermeer, we are told, often quoted himself by painting similar subjects such as his “seductions” of young women in red dresses. Is “Girl with a Flute” a Vermeer? Or is the work of a previously unknown associate or student? How was Vermeer able to ascertain that he could use the color known as “green earth” for flesh tones? No one else had ever done this, we are told. Vermeer has been described over the years as a populist, a storyteller and a feminist. For the first time, Janson uncovers the original of a painting that is partially depicted in a Vermeer interior. We watch, nerves jangling, as the exhibit’s paintings are affixed to the museums walls. Music by Alex Simu (“My Rembrandt”) lends a suitably arty/capermovie touch. The film plays today at the Museum of Fine Arts. Go.
(“”Closer to Vermeer” contains no objectionable material unless you don’t like art)