Video

June 18, 2025
Speaker: Robert Fucci, Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam

On June 18, Robert Fucci, Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, delivered a lecture exploring the rich practice of epistolary exchange in the seventeenth century, and Vermeer’s attention to the emotional lives of the women writing and receiving letters in his paintings. Fucci was the guest curator of Vermeer’s Love Letters, the inaugural exhibition presented in the Frick’s new Ronald S. Lauder Exhibition Galleries, on view June 18 to August 31, 2025.

John Updike Curator Aimee Ng and Guest Curator Robert Fucci discuss the exhibition Vermeer's Love Letters, on view in the Frick’s new Ronald S. Lauder Exhibition Galleries through August 31, 2025. In this exhibition, the Frick's Mistress and Maid is joined by The Love Letter (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) and Woman Writing a Letter with Her Maid (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin). Their presentation together in a single gallery for the first time offers visitors an opportunity to consider Vermeer’s treatment of the theme of letters as well as his depiction of women of different social classes.