The Concert
Johannes Vermeer·1663
Historical Context
Vermeer's The Concert from around 1663-66 was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 and remains the most valuable stolen painting in the world. The work depicts three figures making music in an interior decorated with two paintings—a pastoral scene and Dirck van Baburen's Procuress—whose symbolic content comments on the themes of harmony and desire. Before its theft, The Concert was considered one of Vermeer's most perfectly balanced compositions, its loss an irreplaceable blow to the world's artistic heritage.
Technical Analysis
Vermeer's mature technique is evident in the precisely rendered interior space, the harmonious arrangement of the three figures, and the characteristic rendering of light filtering through the unseen window. The paintings-within-the-painting are rendered with both fidelity and atmospheric integration.
