For the first time in three centuries, Johannes Vermeer’s The Guitar Player has been placed alongside its long-disputed double from the Philadelphia Art Museum. The encounter opens a long-overdue dialogue. The PMAs near-identical canvas joins the signed London version for the exhibition Double Vision: Vermeer at Kenwood.
Vermeer’s surviving paintings number just 37. Any suggestion of a 38th has provoked fascination, especially around the Philadelphia picture, which mirrors the London painting yet omits key details: no curling ringlets, a softer distribution of light, and—most tellingly—no signature.
“This is a rare and unsettling experience,” says Wendy Monkhouse, English Heritage’s senior curator. “To stand before a Vermeer is one thing, but to see its twin beside it changes the conversation. The subtleties—the pearls, the fabrics, the loaded table—demand comparison.”
“It opens the door to a fuller discussion,” explains Wendy Monkhouse, English Heritage’s senior curator at Kenwood. “We wanted not only to give experts a platform, but to let visitors step into the role of detectives, weighing the evidence for themselves. Seeing the two side by side produces a kind of beautiful confusion—you can hardly believe what you’re looking at.”
Technical analysis of both paintings is currently underway, with results expected within months. Whether the findings strengthen or undermine claims of Vermeer’s hand, Monkhouse suggests the outcome will be revelatory. “If he painted a second version, it would be unprecedented—Vermeer never made copies of his own work. But if another artist was capable of producing something of this quality, the question becomes: what else did they do? Because this could hardly be their only achievement.”
The London canvas remains one of Vermeer’s most cherished works. The Philadelphia version has suffered: cleaning mishaps and surface wear complicating attribution. Yet differences in pigments and grounds uncovered by technical analysis point towards divergent origins. Vermeer’s ultramarine gives way to the Philadelphia artist’s cheaper indigo; his pale grey-brown ground is replaced with burnt umber.
The puzzle is not new. Since the 1920s, scholars have argued over whether the second painting is a workshop replica, a contemporary imitation, or something more enigmatic. Modern science has added layers of data, but no clear resolution.
Jennifer Thompson of the Philadelphia Museum of Art calls the exhibition a “thrilling opportunity” to reconsider both science and connoisseurship: “It allows us to think harder about how materials and technique inform authorship in the 17th century.”
For now, the mystery remains unresolved. What is certain is the drama of seeing both canvases together—two guitar players, one assured, one elusive, both locked in a dialogue across time.
Top Photo: P C Robinson © Artlyst 2025
Double Vision: Vermeer at Kenwood runs until 11 January 2026, Hampstead Heath, London.