Philadelphia Art Museum

Whistler and Vermeer?

It has been 142 years since Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 has been on display in Philadelphia and its return is a good recent to speculate about Whistler’s motives in the painting and his apparent incomprehension when the public became fascinated by his mother, rather than the painting and the artist.

The Vermeer is generating interest due to the proposal by Arie Wallert, a researcher, that while the copy of Vermeer’s The Guitar Player is just that, a copy, it may have been painted by Vermeer himself. Current study indicates that the pigments in the paint are indeed from before the mid-1700s, but was it Vermeer or someone else. The hairstyle is different and the copy is damaged. Can you decide?