Exhibition: Double Vision: Vermeer at Kenwood

Friends of Kenwood provided a substantial donation towards this display at Kenwood which ran from 1 September-12 January 2026.

Two paintings depicting the same subject, The Guitar Player – one signed by the great Johannes Vermeer (1632-75) and another from the US which appears to be an early copy but whose origins remain a mystery – were displayed side-by-side for the first time in over 300 years. The Philadelphia painting, on loan from the John G. Johnson Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA, joined the original Vermeer masterpiece, on permanent display at Kenwood House, to mark the 350th anniversary of Vermeer’s death in 1675. The display also coincided with extensive scientific research into both paintings.

Jennifer Thompson, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s curator of European painting and sculpture and curator of the John G. Johnson Collection, said in a statement: “Double Vision provides a thrilling opportunity to place the two pictures side by side and to consider what science and connoisseurship offer to our understanding of Vermeer and 17th century painting materials and techniques.”

Winter 2025