17 For decades, art historians assumed that the previous state of Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter in Dresden was the result of alterations made by the artist in the course of a lengthy working process, and that every step of that process had been executed by his own hand.9 Neither in Dresden nor among international experts were there any doubts about the then-visible composition, which was roundly admired as the consummate pictorial invention of a gifted young painter.10 The present publication therefore contains research and investigation findings that consider the restored painting from the perspective of scientists, conservator-restorers, art historians, mathematicians, and IT experts from multiple European and American institutions, working together in a project that began in 2017. It is intended to describe Vermeer’s painting even more comprehensively, to shed light on the process of its creation, thus providing transparency and enabling both fellow professionals and the public to understand the Dresden decision to remove the later overpainting. II The first reference to the arrival of the painting Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window in Dresden is found in a letter dated 1742 from the secretary of the Saxon legation and official art agent in Paris, Samuel de Brais, to the prime minister of Saxony, Count Heinrich von Brühl. De Brais announced to the prime minister the shipment of a consignment of 30 paintings that had been assembled through the services of the Parisian art dealer Noël Araignon for the collection of the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, Augustus III. De Brais added that the dealer was sending along, as a complimentary “bonus”, a work by Rembrandt, which he described as follows: “Dans le nombre des tableaux que Votre Excellence recevra il y en a un Rembrant representant une Jeune fille qui lit vis à vis d’une fenêtre [. . .],”11 in short: a “young girl reading in front of a window”. That this must have been a very generous bonus indeed, both from the point of view of donor and recipient, is indicated by the (false) attribution to Rembrandt, which is quite understandable conFig. 5 Exhibition “Johannes Vermeer. On Reflection”, September 10, 2021– January 2, 2022 in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, view of the exhibition Fig. 6 Weborello, accompanying the exhibition “Johannes Vermeer. On Reflection”. Digital, interactive information medium for preparation and follow-up of the exhibition visit
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