A Couple of Vermeer's "Friends"

There were other Dutch genre masters included in the exhibition "Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting" that I went to today. Here are some of the non-Vermeers paintings that caught my fancy.

First, "Woman at Her Toilet" by Caspar Netscher. It was painted around 1665 and is part of a private collection in London. To see any work held in a private collection is always a tremendous gift. This one was so exquisite in it's detail from the texture of the carpet to the shimmer in the satin dress.

Second, "The Serenade" by Jacob Ochtervelt. It was painted around 1669 and is also part of a private collection without any geographic assignation.

The next one is "Man Visiting a Woman Washing Her Hands" by Gabriel Metsu, circa 1663-66. It is housed at Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury, England, as part of "The Rothschild Collection".

And Finally, a pair of paintings from the National Gallery of Art of Dublin, also by Metsu. "Woman Reading a Letter" and "Man Writing a Letter" were painted as a pair and are rich with metaphor. I'd seem both before in the Metsu retrospective at the National Gallery of Art--a show also curated by Arthur Wheelock. It was nice to see them again.