The one that got away

Recently, my family was kind enough to cash in some about-to-expire airmiles and indulge me in a trip I have been dreaming of since I returned from England in 2007. Having accidentally started, and then formally devised, my quest to see all 35 of Vermeer's available works (out of a total of 37 paintings) while living abroad, there were only a handful of paintings I needed to see to complete my odyssey. After trips to Vienna and Dulwich during the intervening years, all that was left was the six paintings at various museums in Germany.

My mom is the ultimate champ at travel planning, and my godmother's brother-in-law happens to be German. Between them they were able to work out the logistics of the trip, sorting out rail travel from Frankfurt to Braunschweig to Berlin to Dresden and back to Frankurt to fly back to the States, as well as contacting all the museums to make sure we would be able to see the Vermeers during the week of our trip.

Everything was going really well until we got to Berlin and found out that they had just sent Woman with a Pearl Necklace to Japan for a special exhibition the week prior to our trip! Major fail, as the kids say these days. After all that hard work and planning, I am still one painting short and will have to return to Berlin next year once the painting has been returned to its home museum. At this point, with only one painting left to go, it just seems silly not to see it before I turn 30 in March of 2014.

Despite this incredibly depressing set-back, the trip itself was wonderful, with just the right blend of activities and downtime, along with absolutely picture-perfect weather.

Inside the Reichstag Dome

The highlights of the trip all came in Berlin, where we spent three nights and two days. I can't say enough about Casa Camper, which is one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in. The rooms are stylish and comfortable and feature one of the best rainshowers around, but the real highlight of the hotel is the self-service guest cafe on the top floor, which doubles as a lounge and common room. There is even an honor bar for the alcoholically inclined among us. Other Berlin highlights were climbing the ramps inside Sir Norman Foster's Reichstag dome and a five-hour, wine-laden dinner at Lorenz Adlon Esszimmer that remains beyond belief or description.

First Course at Lorenz Adlon

Dresden was also a beautiful city, but I was not able to enjoy as fully as I would have liked due to our short time there and the fact that I was still trying to recover from the aforementioned dinner. All in all, it was a fantastic vacation that truly felt like a vacation, which is a very rare thing indeed, especially with a prescribed agenda.

Dresden

Thanks to my mother and father, Ann, and Thomas for making it all happen and sharing in my adventure with me.

Below, I offer some observations on each of the five paintings I was able to see on this trip.

The Geographer - Frankfurt

As always, Vermeer does wonderful things with cloth and tapestry. The tapestry in the foreground here is not luminescent like the one in The Music Lesson, but it is still full of tons of rich detail. My favorite element of this painting, the rivets on the front of the chair in the background on the right, is not even visible in the reproduction. In person, these tiny rivets, mere dots of grey-ish white paint, are incredibly dimensional and seem to glint in the light.

The Girl with a Wineglass -  Braunschweig

Despite the fact that the girl looks slightly "creepy" and "retarded" (growing up in Massachusetts ingrained that word into my vocabulary), this painting ended up being my favorite of the trip. I certainly spent the most time looking at it, returning to it again and again during the time we were at the museum. The masterful way in which the skirt of the girl's dress is painted is just outstanding; it seems like you could reach out and feel the silk. I also really like the fact that the skirt of the figure in the stained glass window is the same color as the girl's dress. Here, a detail that is not obvious in the reproduction is the clarity and brightness of the highlight on the wine jug. And to cap it all off, look at the golden glow on the inside vertical edge of the window - absolutely perfect!

The Glass of Wine - Berlin

Compared to the similar painting above, this one seemed a bit flat to me. Of course, I may also have just been desensitized to its beauty by having the wind knocked out of my sails upon finding out that it's museum-mate had been sent to Japan. Either way, I didn't make too many notes on this one. However, the gauziness of the blue curtain between the stained glass and the picture frame is insanely delicate. Again, not so easy to see in a reproduction, but then that is why we are traveling hither and yon to see these things in person.

A Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window - Dresden

This panting has an odd greenish-yellow cast to it that is atypical of Vermeer's work. The usual clarity and brightness is missing, yet the mastery of light is still evident. The painting has an overall delicate sense to it, with both the girl and her reflection rendered so skillfully, and the tapestry again full of Vermeer's signature lavish detail.

The Procuress - Dresden

This particular work has always fascinated me because it seems to stand apart from the majority of Vermeer's work, and yet there are elements that make it undoubtedly his. On the one hand, the colors are flat and garish, but on the other hand, the faces of the woman in yellow and the man on the left, as well as the detailed reflections in the woman's goblet, are pure Vermeer, as is the tapestry, of course, though it is much flatter and less detailed than any of the tapestries depicted in the paintings above.

All Vermeer images from the indispensable Essential Vermeer Catalogue