National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Girl with the Red Hat
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

Girl with the Red Hat, one of Johannes Vermeer’s smallest works, is painted on panel rather than on the Delft master’s customary canvas. His subject has turned in her chair and interacts with the viewer through her direct gaze. The effect is unusual spontaneity and informality. The artist’s exquisite use of color is the painting’s most striking characteristic, for both its compositional and its psychological impact. Vermeer concentrated the two major colors in two distinct areas: a vibrant red for the hat and a sumptuous blue for the robe; he then used the intensity of the white cravat to unify the whole.

Vermeer also owned an art dealership. No documentation of his artistic training or apprenticeship exists, but in 1653 he became a master in the Saint Luke’s Guild, a professional artists’ trade organization. In the 1660s and 1670s he served four terms as head of the guild. In his lifetime, Vermeer’s small oeuvre was well regarded by connoisseurs, but only in the late nineteenth century did his intimate genre scenes and quiet cityscapes become world renowned.

Inscription

upper center of tapestry in ligature: IVM

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Possibly Pieter Claesz van Ruijven [1624-1674], Delft; possibly by inheritance to his wife, Maria de Knuijt [d. 1681]; possibly by inheritance to her daughter, Magdalena van Ruijven [1655-1682], Delft;[1] possibly by inheritance to her husband, Jacob Abrahamsz. Dissius [1653-1695], Delft; (sale, Amsterdam, 16 May 1696, probably no. 39 or 40).[2] Lafontaine collection, Paris; (his sale, Hôtel de Bouillon, Paris, 10-12 December 1822 [postponed from 27-29 November], no. 28). Baron Louis Marie Baptiste Atthalin [1784-1856], Colmar; by inheritance to his nephew and adopted son, Louis Marie Félix Laurent-Atthalin [1818-1893], Colmar and Paris; by inheritance to his son, Baron Gaston Marie Laurent-Atthelin [1848-1912], Paris and Château des Moussets, Limay, Seine-et-Oise; by inheritance to his wife, Baroness Marguerite Chaperon Laurent-Atthalin [1854-1931], Paris;[3] (M. Knoedler & Co., New York and London); sold November 1925 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 30 March 1932 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Perhaps the Girl with the Red Hat was one of the tronien listed in the April 1683 inventory of possessions accruing to Jacob Dissius after the death of his wife, Magdalena van Ruijven, on 16 June 1682. See John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History, Princeton, 1989: 359, doc. 417.

[2] John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History, Princeton, 1989: 363-364, doc. 439. Item no. 38 in the sale is described as "a tronie in antique dress, uncommonly artful"; item no. 39 as "Another ditto Vermeer"; and item no. 40 as "A pendant of the same."

[3] Bernard Roulier, the Baroness’ great-grandson, related the family’s history of their ownership of the painting in a letter of 6 October 1983 to J. Carter Brown (copy in NGA curatorial files). Roulier suggests that Baron L.M.B. Atthalin might have purchased the painting at the 1822 sale, while his mother related to mutual friends of hers and J. Carter Brown that the baron bought the painting after seeing it in a shop window (letter, 28 June 1977, Brown to Mme Denise Kagan Moyseur, copy in NGA curatorial files).

Exhibition History

1925
Loan Exhibition of Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1925, no. 1.
1928
A Loan Exhibition of Twelve Masterpieces of Painting, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1928, no. 12.
1995
Johannes Vermeer, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1995-1996, no. 14, repro.
1998
A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 60.
1999
Johannes Vermeer: The Art of Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, brochure, fig. 11.
2001
Vermeer and the Delft School, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The National Gallery, London, 2001, no. 74, repro.

Bibliography

1866
Thoré, Théophile E. J. (William Bürger). "Van der Meer de Delft." Gazette des Beaux Arts 21 (October-December 1866): 297-330, 458-470, 542-575, no. 47, as Portrait of a Young Man.
1907
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century.... 8 vols., translated from the German edition. London, 1907-1917: 1(1907):602, 46a.
1913
Hale, Philip L. Jan Vermeer of Delft. Boston, 1913: 359.
1925
Barker, Virgil. "A Trans-Atlantic Chronicle--No. 1." Arts 8 (October 1925): 222-227, repro.
1925
Bo[renius?]. "Aus der Sammlerwelt und vom Kunsthandel." Der Cicerone 17, pt. 2 (1925): 878.
1925
Borenius, Tancred. "The New Vermeer." Apollo 2 (July-December 1925): 125-126.
1925
Constable, W. G. Review of Wilhelm Hausenstein, Vermeer van Delft, Das Bild Atlanten zur Kunst 10., Munich, 1924. The Burlington Magazine 47 (November 1925): 269.
1925
Flint, Ralph. "Rare Dutch Art in a Loan Exhibition." Art News 24 (21 November 1925): 3.
1925
Grundy, Cecil Reginald. "The Re-Discovered Vermeer." The Connoisseur 73 (October 1925): 116, 119.
1925
G.-S., L. "Two Vermeers are Newly Discovered." Art News 23 (12 September 1925): 1.
1925
Loan Exhibition of Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century. Exh. cat. M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1925: no. 1.
1925
Lavallée, Pierre. "Un Tableau Inconnu de Vermeer: La Jeune Femme au Chapeau Rouge." Revue de l'Art 47 (May 1925): 323-324, repro.
1926
Kauffmann, Hans. "Overzicht der Literatuur betreffende Nederlandsche Kunst." Oude Holland 43 (1926): 235-248.
1926
Waldmann, Emil. "Ein neues Bild von Jan Vermeer van Delft." Kunst und Künstler 24 (1926): 186-187, fig. 174.
1927
Siple, Ella S. "Recent Acquisitions by American Collectors." The Burlington Magazine 51 (December 1927): 297-309.
1928
"Amerika: New-York." Pantheon 1 (1928): 270, 272, repro.
1928
Brière-Misme, Clotilde. "Overzicht der Litteratuur betreffende Nederlandsche Kunst." Oud Holland 45 (1926): 90-96.
1928
F. "Altmeister ausstellung bei M. Knoedler & Co. in New York." Der Cicerone 20 (1928): 373-374, 376, repro.
1928
A Loan Exhibition of Twelve Masterpieces of Painting. Exh. cat. M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1928: no. 12.
1928
"Illustrierte Berichte aus Amerika." Pantheon 1 (May 1928): 269-270, 272, repro.
1928
"Illustrierte Berichte aus Amerika." Pantheon 2 (October 1928): 521-522.
1928
R. "Neuerwerbungen amerikanischer Sammler." Der Cicerone 20 (1928): 44.
1929
Lucas, Edward Verrall. Vermeer the Magical. London, 1929: vii-viii, repro.
1929
Wilenski, Reginald Howard. An Introduction to Dutch Art. New York, 1929: 284-286 (also rev. ed., Dutch Painting, London, 1945: 178, 187).
1931
Henkel, M. D. "Overzicht der literatuur betreffende Nederlandsche kunst." Oud Holland 48 (November 1931): 278-288.
1932
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Zum 300. Geburtstag Jan Vermeer, Oktober 1932: Vermeer und die Meister der Holländischen Genremalerei." Pantheon 5 (October 1932): 305-324.
1933
Alexandre, Arsène. "Nouveaux aperçus sur Vermeer." L'Art et les Artistes 27 (February 1933): 145-173, repro.
1935
Watson, Forbes. "A World Without Elegance." Parnassus 7 (May 1935): 3-8, 48, repro.
1937
Crowninshield, Frank. "The Singular Case of Andrew W. Mellon." Vogue (1 April 1937): 74-78, 142-143, color repro.
1937
Hale, Philip L. Vermeer. Boston and New York, 1937: vii, no. 22, 132-133, pl. 22.
1937
Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 82.
1939
Plietzsch, Eduard. Vermeer van Delft. Munich, 1939: 29, 51, 62, no. 38, color repro., no. 26 (also 1948 English ed.).
1939
Vries, Ary Bob de. Jan Vermeer van Delft. Amsterdam, 1939: 48, 89 no. 29, repro. fig. 53 (also rev. ed., London, New York, Toronto and Sydney, 1948: 40, 90, pl. 22).
1940
Bloch, Vitale. "Vermeer." Maandblad voor Beeldende Kunsten 17 (1940): 3-8.
1941
Held, Julius S. "Masters of Nothern Europe, 1430-1660, in the National Gallery." ArtNews 40, no. 8 (June, 1941): 15, repro.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 208.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 33.
1942
Mir, M. Jan Vermeer de Delft. Buenos Aires, 1942: 62, no. 41, repro.
1946
Blum, André. Vermeer et Thoré-Burger. Geneva, 1946: 195, repro.
1948
Bertram, Anthony. Jan Vermeer of Delft. London, 1948: repro. xxxvii.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 94, repro.
1949
Review of Professor van Thiereu [sic] Jan Vermeer of Delft (London, 1949). In Apollo, (January 1950): 30.
1949
Thienen, Willem Sophie van. Jan Vermeer of Delft. New York, 1949: 23, no. 25, repro.
1950
Swillens, P. T. A. Johannes Vermeer: Painter of Delft, 1632-1675. Utrecht, 1950: 65, no. G.
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 102, color repro.
1952
Fierens, Paul. Jan Vermeer de Delft, 1632-1675. Paris, 1952: no. 48, repro.
1952
Gowing, Lawrence. Vermeer. London, 1952: 21, 55-56, 145-147, no. xxvii, pl. 57 (also 2nd ed., New York, 1970).
1952
Malraux, André, ed. Vermeer de Delft. Paris, 1952: 21-22, repro. (detail), 94, 96, no. xxvii, 104, color repro.
1954
Bloch, Vitale. Tutta la Pittura di Vermeer di Delft. Milan, 1954: 27-28, 35, repro. no. 56 (also English ed., transl. Michael Kitson, All the Paintings of Jan Vermeer, New York, 1963: 27, 35, repro. no. 56).
1956
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 10, repro.
1960
Baird, Thomas P. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Seven in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 38, color repro.
1960
Goldscheider, Ludwig. Rembrandt Paintings, Drawings and Etchings. London, 1960: 131, 139, no. 25, color pl. 60.
1961
Greindl, Edith. Jan Vermeer, 1631-1675. Milan, 1961: 38, color repro.
1962
Brion, Marcel. Vermeer. London, 1962: 55, color repro., 61, 64.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 315, repro., 346.
1964
Seymour, Charles Jr. "Dark Chamber and Light-Filled Room: Vermeer and the Camera Obscura." Art Bulletin 46, no. 3 (September 1964): 323-331.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 135.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:260, color repro., as The Girl with a Red Hat.
1966
Descargues, Pierre. Vermeer. Translated by James Emmons. Geneva, 1966: 132-133, color repro. 103.
1966
Emiliani, Andrea. Vermeer (1632-1675). Milan, 1966.
1966
Rosenberg, Jakob, Seymour Slive, and E. H. ter Kuile. Dutch Art and Architecture: 1600-1800. Baltimore, 1966: 122 (rev. ed., London, 1984).
1967
Bianconi, Piero. The Complete Paintings of Vermeer. New York, 1967: 84, 94-95, no. 32, repro., color pl. 40.
1967
Koningsberger, Hans. The World of Vermeer 1632-1675. New York, 1967: 142-143, repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 122, repro.
1968
Kühn, Hermann. "A Study of the Pigments and the Grounds Used by Jan Vermeer." In National Gallery of Art Report and Studies in the History of Art 2. (1968-69): 195, no. 21.
1969
Mittelstädt, Kuno. Jan Vermeer van Delft. Berlin, 1969: 15, 44, color repro.
1970
Walicki, Michal. Jan Vermeer van Delft. Dresden, 1970: 39-40, 125, repro. no. 56.
1973
Fahy, Everett. The Wrightsman Collection V: Painting, Drawings and Sculpture. New York, 1973:313-314, repro.
1973
Mistler, Jean. Vermeer. Paris, 1973: 45-46, color repro.
1973
Sonnenburg, Hubert von. "Technical Comments." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 31 (Summer 1973): unpaginated, repro. detail.
1973
Walsh, John, Jr. "Vermeer." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 31 (Summer 1973): unpaginated, repro. detail and color repro.
1974
Grimme, Ernst Günther. Jan Vermeer van Delft. Cologne, 1974: 61, no. 21, repro.
1975
Blankert, Albert, contr. by Rob Ruurs and Willem van de Watering. Johannes Vermeer van Delft, 1632-1675. Utrecht and Antwerp, 1975: 108-110, 167-168, 202, repro. (also English ed., Oxford, 1978: 73-74, 172, cat. B.3, color repro.).
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 362, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 304, no. 407, repro.
1976
Wright, Christopher. Vermeer. London, 1976: 12, 46, repro. no. 20, 78, 81, 84-85.
1977
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "Perspective, Optics, and Delft Artists around 1650." Ph.D. diss., Harvard University (1973). Reprinted New York and London, 1977: 292, 298, repro. 99.
1978
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "Zur Technik zweier Bilder, die Vermeer zugeschrieben sind." Maltechnik-Restauro 84 (1978): 242-257, repros.
1981
Slatkes, Leonard J. Vermeer and His Contemporaries. New York, 1981: 97, color repro.
1981
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Jan Vermeer. New York, 1981: 39, 130, color repro. no. 34 (2nd rev. ed, 1988).
1983
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "Northern Baroque." In Encyclopedia of World Art 17 vols. Bernard S. Myers, ed. Palatine, Illinois, 1983: 16 (supplement):198, pl. 45, color repro.
1984
Pops, Martin. Vermeer: Consciousness and the Chamber of Being. Ann Arbor, 1984: 68, repro. 69, 71, 76, 96, 99, 103.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 304, no. 402, color repro.
1985
Brentjens, Yvonne. "Twee meisjes van Vermeer in Washington." Tableau 7 (February 1985): 54-58, repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 420, repro.
1986
Aillaud, Gilles, Albert Blankert, and John Michael Montias. Vermeer. Paris, 1986: 200, 201, cat. b3, repro. (English ed., New York, 1988).
1988
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "The Art Historian in the Laboratory: Examinations into the History, Preservation, and Techniques of the 17th-Century Dutch Painting." In The Age of Rembrandt: Studies in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting. Roland Fleischer and Susan Scott Munshower, eds. Pittsburgh, 1988: 214-245, repros. 9-22, 9-23, 9-24.
1989
Montias, John Michael. Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History. Princeton, 1989: 265-266.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 63, 67, color repro.
1995
Johannes Vermeer. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1995-1996: no. 14.
1995
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Vermeer and the Art of Painting. New Haven, 1995: 119-127, color repro.
1995
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 382-387, color repro. 383.
1997
Gowing, Lawrence. Vermeer, London, 1997, no. 57, repro.
1997
Robinson, James. "Vermeer." Classical Realism Journal 3, no. 2 (1997): 4-21, repro. 4.
1997
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Vermeer: The Complete Works. New York, 1997:50-51, no. 23, repro.
1998
McLellan, Diana. "Really Big Shows." Washingtonian 33, no. 11 (August 1998): 70.
1999
Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 208, color repro.
2001
Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 56-57, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: dustjacket cover, 208-209, no. 164, color repro.
2005
Fehy, Everett, ed. The Wrightsman Pictures. New Haven, 2005: 134-135, under cat. 37, fig. 4.
2008
Dolnick, Edward. The Forger’s Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century. New York, 2008: 107, 134, 169.
2008
Lopez, Jonathan. The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren. New York, 2008: 53, 55, 104, 175.
2011
Henderson, Jasper and Victor Schiferli. Vermeer: The Life and Work of a Master. Amsterdam, 2011: 56-57, color ill.
2012
Percival, Melissa. Fragonard and the Fantasy Figure: Painting the Imagination. Burlington, Vt.: 58, fig. 2.7.
2012
Tummers, Anna. The Eye of the Connoisseur: Authenticating Paintings by Rembrandt and His Contemporaries. Amsterdam, 2012: 28, 29, 30, color fig. 9.
null
Humphries, Oscar, ed. “Listings: Agenda, 7.” Apollo 176, no. 602 (October 2012): 25, color repro.

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