Vermeer Visits

Vermeer’s ‘Mistress and Maid’ travels from the Frick in New York to be displayed beside the National Gallery of Ireland’s Vermeer, ‘Woman Writing a Letter with her Maid’ – an exceptional opportunity to witness the Old Master’s two works side by side.

The National Gallery of Ireland has been given the unique opportunity to unite the Frick Collection’s Johannes Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid with the National Gallery of Ireland’s Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid. While the Frick Collection’s New York residence is currently undergoing a renovation and expansion, the Vermeer bequeathed by Henry Clay Frick, which is usually not permitted to travel, may now make an exceptional trip to Dublin.

Until this year, when both works were a part of the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer exhibition, the paintings were once fleetingly united at a Paris auction in July 1889. Separated for over a century, this exhibition offers the opportunity to view the Frick’s loan side-by-side in dialogue with the NGI Vermeer.