Explore the intimate beauty of Vermeer's exquisite scenes of Dutch 17th-century women in their homes in the only showing of this stunning exhibition. At its heart is Vermeer’s extraordinary painting The Lacemaker (c.1669-70) - one of the Musée du Louvre’s most famous works - rarely seen outside Paris and now on loan to the UK for the first time.
The painting is complemented by three key works by Vermeer representing the pinnacle of his mature career, A lady at the virginals with a gentleman 'The Music Lesson' (c.1662-5) on loan from The Royal Collection; A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (c.1670) from the National Gallery, London; and Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (private collection, New York).
Joining these are 28 masterpieces of genre painting from the Dutch 'Golden Age' evoking the private realms inhabited almost exclusively by women who we glimpse engaged in domestic tasks, at their toilette or immersed in pleasurable pastimes such as music making, reading or writing letters.
Featuring works from museums and private collections in the UK, Europe and the USA, many of which have never been on public display in Britain, this Cambridge showing will be the only chance to see these masterpieces brought together in one exhibition.
