Great Art and Artists Linger in Our Lives Vermeer, Rembrandt Cultural Touchstones

Summary

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If you have a favorite book that you read every few years or a certain symphonic work that you return to time and time again, then you know great art follows you around in life. It lingers uniquely in your imagination, reappearing occasionally to connect you in ways that are both personal and cultural.

For me, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer has been such a touchstone. In 1995, when a large collection of his works - about 35 are extant - were on tour at the National Gallery in Washington, I traveled south for the show, which had only one other stop - in Holland. In a shocking arts-emergency moment, the gallery closed because of budget problems the day before I was to attend. Then, as if God himself could not bear to deny Vermeer to the masses, one of the gallery's angels stepped forward and miraculously contributed enough money to pay the staff. And I was in.

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Extract

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Great Art and Artists Linger in Our Lives Vermeer, Rembrandt Cultural Touchstones

That day, museum-goers huddled before each work breathily whispering in languages from every corner of the world. They lingered at each painting, many of them very small, hungry for the certainty of Vermeer's brush...

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