Three years ago it was revealed that the panel of Girl with the Red Hat (around 1664-69) at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, DC, was overpainted on top of an earlier composition, a rather conventional portrait of a man. This earlier research suggested that the male figure was not the work of Vermeer, but by an unidentified artist. Its brushwork was loose, unlike Vermeer’s refined style.
But more recent studies, using the latest imaging techniques, show that Vermeer’s initial paintwork was generally looser and done quickly at the underpainting stage. The NGA specialists therefore now argue that the male portrait could be his own work; this “has not yet been proven or denied”.
Research suggests the underpainting may be by the Dutch artist himself
National Gallery of Art/Kathryn Dooley and John Delaney
If the underpainting is indeed by Vermeer, it would be his only known male portrait—and would throw fresh light on his early career. Based on the man’s costume (particularly his broad-brimmed hat and collar with a tasselled tie), the composition can be dated to 1650-55. Vermeer’s earliest known picture is Christ in the House of Mary and Martha (1654-55, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh), but he might have painted portraits before his religious subjects of the mid 1650s.
Unidentified survivors
If so, some early Vermeer portraits might actually survive, unidentified as from his hand. As youthful works, they would probably be unremarkable in style, explaining why they had not been previously attributed to the master.
Equally intriguing is the suggestion that the hidden portrait behind Girl with the Red Hat could be a work by his fellow Delft artist Carel Fabritius, now best known for The Goldfinch (1654, Mauritshuis, The Hague).
A 1676 inventory compiled after Vermeer’s death shows that he had then owned two male heads by Fabritius; he could also have had other panels which he reused. Only about a dozen paintings by Fabritius are known, so if the underpainting was by him then this would represent a significant addition to his oeuvre.