Friday night was a busy night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Many people took the opportunity to see one of the world's most popular paintings, the Milkmaid (De Melkmeid) by Johannes Vermeer. Dutch in America visited the exhibition around of this work that was loaned to the Metropolitan Museum by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in honor of the NY400 celebrations.

The exhibition begin with copies of the 36 known Vermeer paintings, five of which are in the permanent collection of the Met. The next rooms in the small gallery show the six Vermeers along with other paintings from that era. The exhibition is curated by Walter Liedtke, an Vermeer expert and accompanying the show is a 36-page catalogue by Liedtke that takes an original look at this beautiful painting.

It's rare to see so many Vermeers close by each other: 9 in the same city (The Frick Collection, a few blocks up the street, also houses 3 Vermeers). Today NLNY had an interview with the Dutch Consul General Gajus Scheltema in New York, and it mentions that the exhibition is drawing about 6,000 visitors per day.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vermeer's Masterpiece The Milkmaid
http://www.www.metmuseum.org
through November 29, 2009