Art exhibition in the City - The Girl With A Pearl Earring, Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis

One of the most popular paintings in the world was in the city recently. The De Young Museum just hosted a traveling art exhibition entitled Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis and at its center is The Girl With a Pearl Earring.

The exhibition just ended last week but I feel truly blessed to have seen this beauty in my lifetime. Imagine, it even traveled from Belgium to San Francisco? I love this city!

The De Young Museum opened this traveling exhibition on January 26, 2013 and consisted of a select 35 paintings from Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague. The Mauritshuis is currently undergoing renovation so this is why this traveling select collection of paintings made it to San Francisco. Thank God for the Maurithuis renovation and the De Young!

The collection's superstar painting is the Dutch Mona Lisa or The Girl With a Pearl Earring by artist Johannes Vermeer (Delft 1632–1675).  The collection also included four works by Rembrandt. Unfortunately, taking picture was prohibited so I had nothing to take with me from the exhibition. Just like the Mona Lisa painting, The Girl With a Pearl Earring is not a big painting in terms of size. It is probably not wider than 3 feet and not longer than 4 feet. But that does not diminish its awe inspiring effect once you stand in front of it. I must have stood and stared at the painting for over 5 minutes.

Having watched the movie with the same title, I already had an idea what the painting is going to look like upclose and I knew I was going to love it. I noticed one common attribute of the paintings in the collection and that is the use of light. From my photography classes, I learned the importance of light in taking photos. The Girl painting looks as if there was someone in front of her holding a reflector to cast that shimmering light on her face.

Below is the only photo I took home with me during the exhibition because this was the only section without the no photos sign posted. It is a picture of the Mauritshuis and a perspective of what it will look like once the renovation is finished. Mijo was in the Philippines on a holiday when I saw the art exhibition so it would be great if we could visit Belgium in the future and see this museum and its permanent art collection. 

 

Since taking pictures were prohibited at the exhibition, I just bought this postcard so I have something to take home with me. One morning at the Glen Park BART station, I saw this ad so I took a picture of my postcard with the ad.

 

The exhibition ran from January 26, 2013 through June 2, 2013 at the De Young Museum in San Francisco.

~rl