A woman is seated at a table, looking back at another woman handing her a letter.
Rediscovering Vermeer’s "Mistress and Maid": The Newest Book in the Frick’s Diptych Series

Margaret Iacono, Associate Research Curator, writes about Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid, the second installment in the Frick’s Diptych book series.

Oil painting of a woman and man sitting at a table near a window
Staff Favorites: A Blind Date at the Frick
Monica Sands, Sales Associate, Retail and Visitor Services, imagines her parents stopping to look at Vermeer's Officer and Laughing Girl during a blind date at The Frick Collection in the mid-1950s.
Painting detail of two figures seated at a table in front of a large wall map
Reading List: New Perspectives on Vermeer
In celebration of Johannes Vermeer’s 390th birthday this month, explore a recommended reading list from the Frick Art Reference Library on the artist’s life and work by Eugénie Fortier, Acting Storage and Retrieval Lead. All the resources on this list were published within the last two decades, speaking to the Dutch artist’s continuing legacy nearly four hundred years later.
Clock surrounded by gilt-bronze sculptures of flowers, two babies, and doves
Reading List: Explore Frick Artists Online
While the Frick Art Research Library is closed for renovations, explore a list of e-books and other online resources from the library that offer deep dives into a wide range of artists and artworks from the Frick’s permanent collection.
Painting of a woman seated at a table set near a window with a man handing her a sheet
Datasets of the Dutch Golden Age
Since its founding in 2014, the Digital Art History Lab (DAHL) has served the public with workshops and symposia to introduce the possibilities that the digital world holds for art historians. During these events, DAHL staff have encountered a wealth of enthusiasm but a lack of workable art datasets. Thus, we are excited to announce the release of two datasets, the Montias database and a Vermeer dataset on GitHub(link is external), an online repository and hosting service built for collaboration.
Oil painting of a woman and man sitting at a table near a window
Staff Favorites: Northern Baroque 400
Payton Goad, Executive Assistant, Frick Art Reference Library, vowed to work with Old Masters after seeing Vermeer’s Officer and Laughing Girl when she was a senior in college: “In my eyes, nothing else could compare.”
Woman looking at a painting of a female maid handing a letter to a seated woman in a yellow coat
Return of the Vermeers: New Insights on Three Masterworks
Freshly reinstalled at Frick Madison after their presentation in the Rijksmuseum’s landmark Vermeer exhibition, The Frick Collection’s three canvases by the “Sphinx of Delft” have divulged a few more secrets from their layered histories.
Two conservators seated at a table in a lab
New Discoveries Offer Answers to Mystery of Frick's Vermeer
The Frick's beloved Mistress and Maid (1666–67) by Johannes Vermeer poses many unanswered questions, notably its seemingly unfinished background. A recent technical study in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Doerner Institut uncovers important new information about the painting, one of only thirty-six works attributed to the artist. 
Woman seated at a table, looking back at a woman handing her a letter
Mapping Provenance: Vermeer's "Mistress and Maid"
Digital tools allow us to visualize the trajectory of an artwork through time and space. Explore an interactive map tracing the meandering path of Johannes Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid (ca. 1666–67) around the globe, from Vermeer’s studio in Delft in the seventeenth century to the second floor of Frick Madison in 2021.
A man showing a paper to a woman in a headscarf seated at a table with a musical instrument
What We Look at When We Look at a Vermeer
On the occasion of the return of The Frick Collection’s three paintings by Johannes Vermeer to their display at Frick Madison, Christopher Snow Hopkins, Associate Editor, reflects on the experience of viewing the canvases in the Rijksmuseum’s monumental Vermeer exhibition this year.