When the Frick Collection opened its doors last fall as the temporary home to fifteen paintings from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis in the Hague, the buzz surrounded Dutch Golden Age painters Johannes Vermeer, 
Rembrandt van Rijn, and Frans Hals. The highlight of the exhibition was arguably Vermeer’s masterpiece Girl with a Pearl Earring, and it was expected that patrons would arrive in droves to see it. But in a surprising twist of timing and coincidence, it was a little bird called The Goldfinch painted in 1654 by Carel Fabritius that ended up stealing the show.
Thanks to Donna Tartt’s book-by-the-same-name, a best-seller that features the bird on its cover and is the subject matter within the novel, The Goldfinch would become the Frick’s biggest celebrity. Tartt released her book on October 22, 2013–the same day the Frick opened up its loan show from the Mauritishuis, which is currently undergoing renovation. Suddenly, interest in The Goldfinch rivaled that of Girl with a Pearl Earring. The Frick’s show, Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis, which closes on Sunday, January 19, will end up being one of the best attended in the museum’s 79-year history.
During the Mauritshuis exhibition, FORA.tv has presented several behind-the-scenes lectures from the Frick Collection on the remarkable works that came out of the Netherlands in the 17th century. Watch this clip featuring Mauritshuis Head of Collections Edwin Buijsen discuss the importance of The Goldfinch; in particular, why it is the perfect representation of the 17th century Dutch obsession with capturing scenes of everyday life.
How a Dutch Master Made ‘The Goldfinch’ Come Alive from The Frick Collection on FORA.tv
The post How ‘The Goldfinch’ Became the Frick Collection’s Surprising Pearl appeared first on The Conference Channel Blog.
