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hidden portrait beneath vermeer girl with the red hat 1234752997

During the pandemic, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., used advanced imaging techniques to analyze four paintings attributed to Johannes Vermeer. Beneath the surface of *Girl with the Red Hat* (ca. 1669), conservators discovered an underpainting of a man in a wide-brimmed hat and tasseled collar, dated to 1650–55. Initially thought to be by an unidentified artist, further study suggests the underpainting may be Vermeer’s own work, making it his earliest known painting and his only known male portrait. However, specialists caution that the theory has not been proven or denied, and the hidden portrait could alternatively be by Carel Fabritius, with Vermeer painting over it.

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Hidden picture beneath Vermeer’s ‘Girl with the Red Hat’ may be the artist’s only existing male portrait, research reveals

New research using advanced imaging techniques suggests that the hidden male portrait beneath Johannes Vermeer's 'Girl with the Red Hat' (c. 1664-69) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., may have been painted by Vermeer himself, rather than an unidentified artist as previously thought. Earlier studies had dismissed the underpainting as the work of another hand due to its loose brushwork, but recent analysis indicates Vermeer's initial paintwork was typically looser and quicker. The male figure's costume dates the composition to 1650-55, which would make it Vermeer's only known male portrait and predate his earliest known work, 'Christ in the House of Mary and Martha' (1654-55).

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