Amsterdam’s Vermeer exhibition closes its doors

Vermeer’s exhibition in the Netherlands’ Art and History National Museum closed its doors for the final time on Sunday. The exhibition collected paintings from around the world, bringing together 28 of Vermeer’s 37 paintings.

It has attracted around 650,000 visitors from 113 countries during its 16-week run, which started in early February.

Visitors, including French President Emmanuel Macron, movie director Steven Spielberg, and Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis, came to admire masterpieces such as The Milkmaid and Girl with a Pearl Earring.

“Vermeer is the artist of peacefulness and intimacy. We wanted the visitors to enjoy it to the fullest,” museum general director Taco Dibbits said. Six Vermeer paintings will remain on display in the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honour in the Netherlands.

Four of the paintings are from the museum’s own collection, along with The Girl with the Red Hat from the National Gallery of Art in Washington and Young Woman Seated at a Virginal from the Leiden Collection in New York.