Vermeer and an unusual occurrence of Serendipity #MondayBlogs #Vermeer #Mauritshuis

One of the interesting aspects of living in a foreign country is not only meeting exciting and totally cool people who’ve had adventures of which you can only dream but also seeing how your life intersects with these cool beings. (And no, you don’t have to be cool to have an occurrence of intersection with a cool person – thankfully!) I recently experienced an awesome case of this type of intersection. Let me explain.

In November 1995, I was lucky enough to attend the Vermeer exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The exhibit was a super show of twenty-one Vermeers, which had been coaxed from various private and museum collections throughout the world. It had been 300 years (!) since that many Vermeers had been seen together. My husband, like thousands of unemployed pilots to this day, was a flight instructor to the privileged and happened to have a director of the National Gallery as a student. Knowing my husband was Dutch, she offered us the opportunity to attend the exhibit early on opening day.

As a lowly member of the US Army at the time, I was excited to be invited to the museum before it opened. When we arrived, however, we were held back at the entrance as the President of the United States decided to attend as well. So, the first time I saw The Girl with a Pearl Earring was in a room full of Disney cartoonists and secret service men. Although I’ve always had good experiences with the secret service (way better to work with than the FBI who are jerks!), I wouldn’t recommend visiting an art museum with a bunch of Disney cartoonists, because they take forever studying each painting!

Naturally, when I attended an art class given by a woman who is a docent at the Mauritshuis (the permanent home of The Girl with the Pearl Earring), I had to tell her my story about seeing the girl for the first time. She was already working at the Mauritshuis then and remembered the event well. Why did she remember it? It turns out the exhibit, when it reached the Mauritshuis, was attended by tons more people than they had expected. Why, you ask? Well, it turns out the exhibition at the National Gallery was more than a bit of a disappointment.

You see, in 1995 the government had shut down not once, but twice, and there was a blizzard for which no one was prepared. Between the shutdowns and the blizzard, 19 of the 90 exhibition days were lost. On top of that, the gallery estimated that 60,000 to 70,000 visitors were deterred from attempting to visit due to the governmental shutdowns. (Just an aside here – as a member of the military at the time, I don’t remember anything about shutdowns. Shutdowns? No, we (wo)men in camouflage don’t do those.)

Due to these issues in the US, the attendance of the exhibit when it reached Dutch shores skyrocketed. They had to put a tent up in the forecourt of the museum to accommodate waiting visitors, and the museum stayed open until midnight to accommodate the additional visitors. They even served breakfast! My acquaintance remembers the museum turning down European heads of state who wanted to visit as they simply couldn’t meet their security requirements due to the overwhelming number of visitors.

More than twenty years after the exhibit, my memories of that time have been refreshed by a chance discussion with another American about Vermeer. And that, folks, is the very definition of serendipity.

FYI: I’m super excited to take part in another ground-breaking Vermeer event this week. The Mauritshuis is conducting research on the girl, using equipment adapted from the medical world, and is holding lectures to discuss what they are hoping to find and their techniques. Can. Not. Wait.