Vermeer in America

When I was 14 years old I set myself a list of things that I wanted to do before I died. Some of them were quite conventional (have children) and others not so much. A few years ago I realised that I had achieved them all, except one (visit Israel). So I thought that since I didn't want to die anytime soon, I'd better come up with some more things to do before I shuffled off this mortal coil. So far, I've added three new things, and one of them is to see every existing painting by Jan Vermeer. The originals. They are all in Europe or the east coast of the United States. Over the past two years I saw three in England, two in Amsterdam and one in Austria. In my first two days in New York I saw another eight.

Three were in the truly wonderful Frick Collection, which had once been the private collection, and the home, of Henry Clay Frick. It's a wonderful art gallery and repository of all manner of antiques. You can get quite close to the artwork, and the place is laid out as it was in Frick's lifetime, as a home. This means that the art is not divided up into periods or schools, but rather arranged to be beautiful in its own setting. If you travel to New York I thoroughly recommend this collection.


The other five were at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was also a great place to spend many hours, although Ellie never got further than the ancient Roman art, complaining of sore feet and museum fatigue.

We had planned to visit Washington, DC for a couple of days, since it had six more Vermeers. However, with Ellie growing tired of being a tourist, and my vague thought that seeing too many Vermeers at once might actually hasten my own demise, we decided to stay in New York for the extra days. Ellie got a bit of rest and the Vermeers will still be there when I come back some day!