Pieter Anthonisz. van Groenewegen, Mountain landscape

In February, the exhibition Vermeer’s Delft opened in the Museum Prinsenhof Delft. Through masterpieces by Delft painters, objects of applied art, maps, prints, drawings, books, biographical documents and other archival matter, the exhibition presents the cultural and artistic climate in 17th-century Delft as Vermeer would have experienced it.

In 2007, Hoogsteder loaned the Museum Prinsenhof a landscape painting by Pieter Anthonisz. van Groenewegen (1600-1658). Groenewegen’s mountainous landscape was included in the exhibition, as it was sampled twice by Vermeer in his painting A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal (ca. 1670-72). Different parts of Groenewegen’s landscape can be seen in the top left of Vermeer’s painting and directly in front of the woman, above the virginal. The discovery of Groenewegen’s landscape in Vermeer’s painting was done a little over twenty years ago by Hoogsteder and Gregor Weber, then curator of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.

As Groenewegen also worked in Delft and was a friend of Vermeer’s father, an art dealer himself, Groenewegen’s painting helps to present more context on Vermeer’s Delft, as part of the exhibition.

See also the MUSEUM PRINSENHOF DELFT website.