Woodstock VT Film Series: Close to Vermeer

Close to Vermeer

2023. Directed by Suzanne Raes. 78 minutes. Not rated.
In Dutch, English, and German with subtitles.

Showings take place at 3:00PM in the Billings Farm & Museum Visitor Center Theater. Tickets are $15 person/$12 Billings Farm member.

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Go behind the scenes of the largest Vermeer exhibition ever mounted, which was on view from February to June 2023 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Capturing the imagination of the art world — with glowing reviews, global publicity, and tickets sold out through the entirety of its run — the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer retrospective was nothing short of an historic event.

Suzanne Raes’s film follows curators, conservators, collectors, and experts in their joint mission to shine a new light on the elusive Dutch Master. This fascinating documentary reveals everything from the quiet diplomacy required to get the Vermeers to the Netherlands and the new technical knowledge gained by scanning the paintings layer by layer, to the shocking news that one work may not be by Vermeer after all.

In the process, we discover how Vermeer was able to depict reality so differently from his contemporaries. But above all, Close to Vermeer shows the infectious love Vermeer’s art inspires. As one curator lovingly puts it: “A good exhibition should change your view of the world. Vermeer can really do that.”

How many paintings did Vermeer actually paint? That’s the challenge facing Vermeer expert Gregor Weber and exhibition curator Peter Roelofs as they attempt to put together the definitive exhibition of his works… wander through the gallery as the team attempts to define what a Vermeer is.” ~ Austin Chronicle