Johannes Vermeer's (1632-1675) iconic Girl with a Pearl Earring will star in an exhibition dedicated to major Dutch masterworks taking place at The High Museum of Art in Atlanta until September 29.
 Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of Vermeer's masterpieces, described as the 'Dutch Mona Lisa', but very little is known about either the artist or his sitter |
The exhibition is being held in collaboration with the Mauritshuis, a major art museum in The Hague, Netherlands, where the work is normally housed.
The Girl with a Pearl Earring will undoubtedly cause a stir, as it has not been on view in the US for more than 15 years and has never been exhibited in the southeast of the country.
"For a selection of works from this renowned collection to be shown in the Southeast is a rare and extraordinary opportunity," said the museum's director, Michael E Shapiro.
"Paintings of this caliber are underrepresented in this part of the country and this exhibition will create an opportunity for our community to study and admire these works of art that rarely travel outside of Europe."
A further 35 exceptional paintings from the Dutch Golden Age will feature, including works from Rembrandt van Rijn, Frans Hals and Jan Steen.
The exhibition aims to highlight Dutch painters as pioneers, having embraced genre paintings of secular subjects far more readily that their southern European contemporaries.
Focusing on scenes of daily life, Dutch artists recorded the domestic interior of the day, but also managed to portray distinct moral undertones and wit.
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