Moça com Flauta (Girl with a Flute) - Johannes Vermeer

Moça com Flauta (Girl with a Flute) - Johannes Vermeer
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Estados Unidos
Óleo sobre painel - 18x20 - 1665-1670


Girl with a Flute is a small painting attributed to the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, executed 1665–1670. The work is in possession of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., just as Woman Holding a Balance, A Lady Writing a Letter and Girl with a Red Hat (also attributed to Vermeer).
It is contested whether the painting can be attributed to Johannes Vermeer. Possibly another painter finished the painting after an initial start by Vermeer. The composition is comparable to Girl with a Red Hat, the only other work Vermeer painted on panel. The bluegreen jacket with the fur lining is also used in Woman Holding a Balance and The Concert and is listed as a 'oude groene false mantel met een witte bonte kant' in Vermeer's inventory after his death. Just like Girl with a Red Hat and Girl with a Pearl Earring the model wears a glass, lacquered pearl earring.
Girl with a Flute is a so-called tronie, a study of a remarkable facial expression or a stock character in costume. This was a popular genre in Dutch Golden Age painting. Tronies were produced for the mass market, not for specific patrons. Unlike with portraits the models were always anonymous.
Girl with a Flute was in possession of the family of Pieter van Ruijven and was sold at the 1696 Dissius auction in Amsterdam. The work was probably one of the three tronies with catalogue numbers 38, 39 and 40. In the 19th century the painting was owned by the Van Son family in Brabant. In 1923 the American art collector Joseph E. Widener bought the painting. Widener donated his extensive and valuable art collection in 1939 to the National Gallery of Art, including this Vermeer painting.
Girl with a Flute is only cautiously attributed to Johannes Vermeer. The general character, appearance, and some of the techniques of this work relate closely to Vermeer’s other works, especially to Girl with the Red Hat. The quality of execution, however, does not match the master’s standards, probably because the image was extensively revised in the seventeenth century. Girl with a Flute is one of only two paintings attributed to Vermeer that are on panel; the other is Girl with the Red Hat. The two works are so close in concept that one has to assume they were created at approximately the same time. In both paintings the young women interact directly with the viewer. Each wears an exotic hat that creates a strong shadow over the greater portion of her face. Each girl sits in a chair with lion finials, leans on one arm, and is framed by a wall tapestry of which only a fragment is visible. Because of the paintings’ slightly different sizes, however, it is unlikely that they were conceived as companion pieces, as has frequently been asserted.