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Is one of these nearly identical Vermeer paintings a forgery? [1]

['Ellsworth Toohey']

Date: 2025-09-02

Johannes Vermeer painted "The Guitar Player" in 1672, a year so calamitous for the Dutch that they dubbed it the "Disaster Year." War and economic turmoil had nearly obliterated the art market. Yet this masterpiece, which remained in Vermeer's family long after his death, survived — even enduring a brief theft in 1974.

But the most interesting fact about the painting is that it has a nearly identical twin. And for the first time in over three centuries, visitors to London's Kenwood House can compare the authenticated Vermeer with its mysterious doppelgänger from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The exhibition "Double Vision: Vermeer at Kenwood" invites art lovers to scrutinize the paintings side by side.

Recent scientific analysis has revealed telling disparities. As reported by artnet News, the Kenwood Vermeer uses a pale ground layer and ultramarine blue, while the Philadelphia painting has a dark umber ground and cheaper indigo blue. Most notably, the Philadelphia version lacks the iconic ringlets framing the subject's face.

With only 37 paintings confidently attributed to Vermeer, this exhibition presents a rare opportunity to examine "what science and connoisseurship offer to our understanding of Vermeer and 17th-century painting techniques," says Jennifer Thompson, curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Previously:

• Vermeer's paintings might be 350 year-old color photographs

• Explore a 108 billion-pixel scan of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

• Restored Vermeer uncovers cherub, penis

• Explore this 10 billion pixel scan of Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring

• Gentleman glues his head to Vermeer's 'Girl With a Pearl Earring'

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