Seen from above the quayside, across the slowly moving waters of the Schie river full of dark reflections, the distant centre of Delft is hit by early morning sun. Soon people shall be walking its streets, with their yellow cobbles and freshly washed tiles, as children play by front doors and servants go about their work, glimpsed in the gloom of a side alley.
Opening the magnificent Johannes Vermeer exhibition at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, two paintings of these morning scenes plunge us right in, taking us on a journey through Vermeer’s art, spread across 10 rooms. We shuttle from city views to private interiors, between the sacred and the profane; from domestic life, with quiet music and private moments, to religious devotion and bawdy scenes. All this in an exhibition of only 28 paintings.
