text: Vermeer's 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' at Frick Collection - The New York Times
  Art & Design|A Room to Herself for a Vermeer Girl
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  | Inside Art A Room to Herself for a Vermeer Girl
  By CAROL VOGELDEC. 13, 2012
  Paintings that have achieved superstar status need superstar treatment. That's what Colin Bailey, chief curator at the Frick Collection, realized on a recent trip to Tokyo when, at an exhibition, he saw the crowds jostling to get a glimpse of Vermeer's beloved "Girl With a Pearl Earring."Often referred to as the Dutch Mona Lisa, the image of that wide-eyed girl looking over her shoulder has been the most popular painting at the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis in The Hague for more than a century. It became more popular still after it was the subject of a best-selling novel in 1999 and a movie four years later starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth."When I saw it in Tokyo, it had been given a large berth," Mr. Bailey said. "That's when I thought it would be best to put her on her own in the Oval Room.""Girl With a Pearl Earring" is one of 15 paintings going to the Frick for "Vermeer, Rembrandt and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting From the Mauritshuis," which opens on Oct. 22. The exhibition is a version of a traveling show of highlights from that museum, which is closed for two years for renovations. Continue reading the main story
  Originally Mr. Bailey had planned to hang "Girl With a Pearl Earring" in a central spot in the Oval Room along with the rest of the show, which then consisted of 10 paintings.
  "But I worried that there is so much interest in the Vermeer that the other pictures would not get their due," he said. He has decided instead to hang the Vermeer by itself and use the Frick's East Gallery to display the remainder of the exhibition.The paintings that are normally in the East Gallery — portraits by masters like David, Goya, Reynolds and van Dyck, along with Manet's "Bullfight" — will be moved to other rooms, as was done earlier this year for "Renoir: Impressionism, Fashion and Full Length Painting."Taking over the East Gallery also means that Mr. Bailey is able to add five paintings, including two more Rembrandts, to the show. Now there will be a total of four Rembrandts: "Portrait of an Elderly Man," from 1667; "Simeon's Song of Praise," from 1631; and the two additions, one of which depicts the naked image of "Susanna," from 1636, and the other a portrait of a man with a feathered beret, from 1635. Also joining the exhibition will be "The Old Lacemaker," from 1655, by Nicolaes Maes, and "Vanitas Still Life," a 1630 image of a scull by Pieter Claesz, as well as Adriaen Coorte's "Still Life With Five Apricots," from 1704.
  The Frick will most likely be offering timed tickets for the exhibition, which runs through Jan. 19, 2014.
  Nicolaes Maes's "Old Lacemaker," from 1655, will be in a Frick exhibition next year along with "Girl With a Pearl Earring."
  Mauritshuis, The Hague A SHOW OF BACK STORIESWhat's hidden on the back of an artwork can be more intriguing (and revealing) than what is on the front. There could be a personal inscription from an artist that reveals a bit of its history, or a sketch that provides a peek into an artist's method, or a centuries-old sticker from a dealer or auction house that helps trace the work's past. The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., is telling some of these tales in "Backstories: The Other Side Of Art," opening on Dec. 22.
  The show includes five centuries' worth of art and objects — paintings, works on paper, sculpture, silver and porcelain — from the Clark's collection, all displayed on pedestals, so visitors can view them from every angle.
  The exhibition will also highlight a gift that was made to the Clark in 2010 but has not been shown until now. It is "The Terminal," an 1892 photograph by Alfred Stieglitz of a wintry scene shot in front of the old post office near City Hall in Manhattan where the Third Avenue streetcar line ended. The photograph depicts a streetcar driver wearing a long raincoat and hat, watering his horses in front of the Astor House Hotel."It literally walked in off the street," said Jay Clarke, the Institute's curator of prints, drawings and photographs.A woman arrived at the Clark from her home in Cambridge, Mass., one day in the summer of 2010, "The Terminal" in hand.
  The woman, Penelope Tyson Adams, asked, " 'Is this what I think it is?' " Ms. Clarke recalled. Not only was it what she suspected, but it was a large-scale photogravure, of which fewer than 100 are known to have been printed. Realizing that what she had was historically important, Ms. Adams said she wanted to donate it to an institution where it would make a difference and be in a place where it could be used for teaching. The Clark ticked both those boxes.
  Ms. Adams's husband, John Barclay Adams, had inherited the photograph from his mother, Dabney Moon Adams, who was Stieglitz's dermatologist, to whom Stieglitz had given the image as a present. On the back Ms. Clarke discovered a label from An American Place, Stieglitz's New York gallery. And on the front is an inscription in graphite that reads, "With deep appreciation of her great kindness to me, for Dr. Moon Adams — Alfred Stieglitz." Also rare is that the image is in its original white-painted steel frame."It not only has a wonderful back story," Ms. Clarke said, "But it also shows the driver's literal back facing the viewer."
  DOOR SHUTS, OTHERS OPENIt is that time of year when some galleries close and others open. Greenberg Van Doren, a 13-year-old space at 730 Fifth Avenue specializing in postwar and contemporary art, is shutting its doors next Friday.Ronald K. Greenberg, one of the owners, will deal privately from St. Louis, and his partner, John Van Doren, will team up with Dorsey Waxter (Greenberg Van Doren's director) to form Van Doren Waxter, opening Feb. 20 at 23 East 73rd Street in Manhattan. The gallery's first show will be an exhibition of canvases by the American painter John McLaughlin, who died in 1976.Ms. Waxter is also being named president of the Art Dealers Association of America, replacing Lucy Mitchell-Innes, who had held the job since 2009. She starts that position in January.
  A version of this article appears in print on December 14, 2012, on Page C24 of the New York edition with the headline: A Room to Herself For a Vermeer Girl. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe