State of the art
It was interesting to read Pete Duckworth’s review of Vermeer: A life lost and found, by Andrew Graham-Dixon (12 June), with the accompanying 1973 quotation from George Gorman, in which he describes sitting for at least an hour before a Vermeer painting. But George Gorman was a mere amateur; in his book Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman (an author not unknown to me) describes in some detail the experience of sitting for three hours in front of a single painting by Degas at the Harvard Art Museum – this is the initial assignment for her students from Jennifer Roberts, who teaches art history at Harvard.
As for spending time in front of Vermeer’s paintings, would that it were now possible. My wife and I were fortunate to have tickets for the big Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam in 2023. The experience was significantly marred by the eagerness of many, if not most, visitors, who, far from spending a meditative time in front of the paintings, were much keener to photograph each of them on their phones, presumably to prove they’d been there (otherwise, why bother – there are perfectly good pictures of all twenty-eight paintings on the web).
Pete Duckworth writes that ‘Vermeer is asking us, as we view the painting [Girl with a Pearl Earring] to recognise that of God within ourselves’. I tried hard to find that of God in the photographers, but it was a struggle.
Steven Burkeman
Bigger fish to Fry
Sadly we all have so much more to do, and to give, to create a truly just criminal justice system. Earlier Friends achieved a great deal as we see from the letter sent to Elizabeth Fry (News, 12 June), and her tireless work.
Fry’s contribution to the cause was, Friends might recall, acknowledged when we all carried her image on the £5 note in our pocket books. Sadly she was rudely replaced by Winston Churchill. Given the government’s willingness to sacrifice welfare for warfare, this seems prophetic.
Simon Ewart
