This is B-I-G. Found something new in View of Delft by Vermeer.

Another important update, 18 march, 2021 – Found the butt of the gun this week! Now it does look more like the gun that it is.

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Here is the freshly minted NFT (non-fungible token), super expensive (of course) digital asset destined for a museum in the future (when technology confirms the gun — https://rarible.com/boom_vermeer.) Bring on the robots because the “art experts” are sleeping on this. They are in denial.

Important Update, 11 june, 20/20 – Someone just clued me in to the fact that >>>View of Delft is available on Google Super Zoom! Unfortunately there is a lot of ambient lighting added to the photo so it’s not that great. My closeup from the museum remains the best photo.

Initial post:

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Greetings once again my friends. It initially seemed like a good idea to wait until this is investigated further, but since I am already telling people about it, might as well post it.

This story begins with a crossroads at which I found myself whilst painting the Vermeer themed bike tunnel project in Delft. If one can not make out what something is, than that makes it difficult to paint your own version of it.

Notice the figures are really tiny in the left hand corner.

Examples of paintings in their frames offered by EssentialVermeer.com to compare scale. These figures are t-i-n-y.

We begin with these figures which appear in the lower left hand corner of View of Delft by Vermeer:

My questions initially were:

Why is her face this weird color? (It looked like a ghost to me.)

Why is she frowning?

Is she holding a baby over her shoulder (not logical holding position for a baby)?

Those questions also lead to the obvious question, and that is: Did a restoration maybe change the face color and shape a bit?

(Another curious theory I have heard twice now, is that the gun shot the woman and the small figure is a spirit leaving the body.)

I sent the Mauritshuis Museum (where the painting hangs) these questions. They were nice enough to send me their opinion plus this closeup:

photo credit – Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft, c. 1660 – 1661. Mauritshuis, The Hague.

There are still a number of varying opinions about the figures on the left.

A friend of mine suggested it is a woman carrying a child on her back piggyback style kind of like this random image I found online as an example. Thanks Melissa!

This is what I used as a basis in the Vermeer tunnel, as it seemed the closest to what I saw myself, once led away from the “baby over the shoulder” idea. However my good people, this is not the B-I-G thing.

What is the B-I-G thing…

The fact he is definitely holding a long gun is B-I-G. I outlined it in a computer graphics program.

For me what gave it away was the horizontal highlights, which I could easily see, and the silver thing on the top.

Those clues, combined with his “gun holding stance” and the placement of the finger on the trigger area, makes it undeniable in my eyes. What is interesting though, is that not everyone can see it!!!!! Mainly only creative types can see it. Who does not see it: the person I emailed at the museum, the Vermeer expert I asked, the man from the newspaper, my client from Chicago. Who can see it: Almost every artist that I showed the close-up and told the story. The first thing I looked up was whether or not guns existed at that time and there were a whole slew of them. Delft was also known for its armory and weapon trade in the 17th century.

Something kind of like this.

This is how I painted it so far (although might improve Pieter’s face a bit still). “Maria Thins” received a bit less of an ugly face in my version because the Vermeer version looks like a pig nose to me.

Vermeer’s version

Almost as fast as I noticed the gun, the theoretical story behind this scene popped in my head almost just as fast.

The People:

Man in brown – Vermeer’s client – Pieter van Ruijven

Woman standing next to man in brown – His daughter or wife.

Man in black – Vermeer

Woman with the gray face – Maria Thins, clearly upset about the gun, and holding one of Vermeer’s eleven children.

Why was this painted? As a joke or to release some aggression? Or both?

According to EssentialVermeer.com, there are varying opinions as to date ranges for how long this painting took and most of them were relatively long ranges of time.

Clients can get testy when they have to wait exceedingly long for a commissioned painting to be finished. There are people who can’t believe I started the tunnel project in 2017 and it is still not done. Compared to how long Vermeer took, I’ve actually gotten a lot done in my humble opinion. His canvas was not 4 -5 km away from his home and pretty sure he never had to wear waders or wait until the weather permitted him to paint. As an artist, I can relate to this client/artist potential conflict, so for me that was why this story played out as it did in my imagination. I think there is enough room for one more theory about View of Delft and this is mine.

What the next steps are:

1. Go see View of Delft in person at the Mauritshuis Museum in the Hague.
2. Look up the two recommended technical art books that Mauritshuis recommended to investigate the sequence in which this was painted. Figure out if these figures were painted last, in which case my theory would hold a bit more weight. The books: Vermeer in het licht. Conservering, restauratie en onderzoek (J. Wadum en R. Hoppenbrouwers) en Bewaard voor de eeuwigheid. Conservering, restauratie en materiaaltechnisch onderzoek in het Mauritshuis (ed. E. Runia).
   

Update: Went to the library to look at the books. >>>>>>>>>>Photos are in this album.

Was not able to determine the order in which the figures were painted, but it was interesting to see how much was restored, and to see what Vermeer had painted over (an additional man).

3.  Inspire Mauritshuis to utilize all their fancy equipment to figure out scientifically if there is a gun in his hand. I seriously see it.

This is listed on Wikipedia as his self-portrait. The look on his face = total prankster.

She has blue braids. I bet she can see the gun. This is Dr. Abbie Vandivere, painting conservator and the head researcher of the Girl in the Spotlight project at the museum. Can’t wait to ask her. Check out her amazing research project about the Girl with the Pearl online.

Much looking forward to investigating this further in the near future. Could I really be so lucky to discover something new???

Thanks for reading my blog. Scroll wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy down to “GET CONNECTED” if you want to be on the list to receive email updates when I post something.

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Update – 21 aug., 2018

This is a closeup that I took with my own camera today. I think the reason it has stronger highlights in the gun region is because the sunlight in the room has highlighted the raised area where the paint is thicker. The photo from the museum earlier has no other extraneous reflections from the light in the room where it hangs. When I looked at it with the naked eye, I could hardly see any highlights truthfully.

Today I saw it again in person. My personal experience – when I leaned in and really looked at the paint layers at an angle, there is definitely a thicker layer of paint in the area where this gun is. The highlights and little silver thing on top are pretty difficult to see in person due to the fact these figures are so small. The in-person viewing did not help clarify the lady with the frown. It looks exactly like it does in the closeup. The painting in general is really beautiful with rich colors. Here are a few more photos from today. I enjoyed the art more than I took pics.

Me in the sexy waders to paint above water whilst standing in it.

Love, Lucy

Another update: A friend went to the museum, and these are his close-ups:

Even more news: The woman with the blue braids, the one and only Dr. Abbie Vandivere, painting conservator and the head researcher, that I was SOOOO hoping would see the gun, totally does not. And I think she is weirded out by the whole idea to be honest. Does this mean we are not going to have lunch anytime soon? Sorta disappointed. I met her at an event by Delft and we chatted. She’s still one of my new recent idols. What is interesting, is that the talk that she gave did outline specifically what type of new technology can be utilized to negate or confirm said musket aka The Gun in View of Delft. So it is only a matter of time. I do not see this as some theoretical possibility never to be able to be scientifically proven. It is the opposite.

Basically when I die, you can put this on my gravestone, “She found a gun in Vermeer’s View of Delft.” And I should possibly die smiling because that is winning in life.