Want to See All the Vermeers in the World? Now’s Your Chance

As a painter and an art lover, I enjoy being able to see these high-quality images. At best, however, it is a limited experience. As a painter and an art lover, my heart sinks when I see many people in museums giving real art a few seconds of their time while they fiddle with their phones to take a picture or a selfie with the artwork. A few people want to really look at art in person. Whether enhanced digital images displayed on screens will increase that number is anyone's guess. Though wouldn't be amazing if we went to look at real art and actually talked to each other about it?

A few years ago a friend convinced me to go to New York for a weekend. He took me to the Frick Collection where, for the first time in my life, I saw Vermeers. I know very little about what else there was in the collection because I was rooted to the floor in front of the Vermeers. Breathtaking.

I'm waiting for the Dogs Playing Poker gallery app.

Dang! What about us Luddite art lovers who eschew "smartphones" (what an oxymoron) but have reconciled to the use of computers? Is there no justice?

It's OK because if Vermeer were alive today he wouldn't have gone to the trouble of actually painting the pictures but would have just used the paint app on his smartphone.

Finally, good news. More please.

Anyone who thinks they are actually seeing a painting when they see a photograph in a book or on a computer is seriously mistaken. My greatest joy, other than painting myself, since I moved to Europe from NYC, is traveling to other cities to see paintings I was sure I had known all my life. What a difference it makes to actually stand in front of them! Intensity of color, texture, scale, their sheer presence, can only be appreciated in person.

It would be better for the planet if people do not travel - especially by airplane - to see these paintings in person. Airplane travel produces tremendous amounts of the pollution which is warming our earth. Virtual museums like this are a brilliant way to let everyone see these masterpieces without contributing to climate change.

Even though I have recently completed my goal of seeing all of the existing paintings of Vermeer (well, except for St. Praxedis, the recently authenticated, but still controversial painting currently in Japan). I am excited to try the new app. For those interested in Vermeer, the website Essential Vermeer is the best source for current information on where to see all the paintings.

Unless I'm mistaken, this is purely a phone app, with no ability to access via my graphics oriented PC with 32 inch high def monitor. My bad if you think I am going to get excited about a phone app that lets someone view masterpiece artwork on a palm sized screen. Kinda reminds me of years ago seeing people watching the movie "Avatar" on an airline seat-back screen while en route to Europe. I had previously traveled across my state to watch it in an IMax 3D theater, totally worth the trip. Watching people view it on a 8 inch screen made me shake my head. The experience of seeing important visual experiences on a phone screen is becoming the norm. I personally try to buck this trend, but it is a shame that this cultural avalanche seems impossible to stop. I hear and empathize with the comments about the need to see the works in person. But I will argue that if people calibrate their computer monitors to accepted standards, the artwork will be pretty well presented. Monitors have oodles of control capabilities, though most consumers just use the default settings. (Consult the manual). Most likely Google has photographed and reproduced these works using industry standards, which will reproduce very close to "correctly" with monitors set to those standards.

By including only works whose authenticity is uncontested, the makers of this app have missed a huge opportunity. Inclusion of dubious and contested works would have enabled users of the apps to view works linked by some scholars with Vermeer in the context of uncontested Vermeers, allowing users to judge for themselves.

Interesting to some I suppose but this is not seeing Vermeer. They are of course, made out of paint. If you are not seeing the raised strokes and glazes, the edges and blurs, then you are not experiencing a painting by Vermeer, only a vague reminder-like a postcard.

I love Vermeer, and went to the DC show years ago. When I hear Vermeer is being shown temporarily from a private collection I go see it. When I travel I go out of my way to see them. All that being said - this app is like a video game, and too hard to use. Major disappointment

Maybe it's better to see fewer paintings, but to see the genuine articles? It certainly is for me.... In January 1996, I travelled to Washington DC to see an exhibition of 21 Vermeers at the National Gallery. At the time, it was the largest collection ever on display. We got tickets well in advance, but because of government shutdowns, the museum was open for only a portion of the time the paintings were on display and as a result, we could only get tickets for late in the day. The upside was that no new vilsitors came in after us and the galleries got less crowded as people left. I found myself alone in room with five Vermeer ladies. It was a magical experience, one which leaves me awestruck to this day.

Years and years ago, I used to hitchhike, sometimes with my best friend, from Maine down to Boston…to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I’d sit, for a while, in one of the stonework arches by the “palazzo’s” garden courtyard, listening to the trickle of water in the fountain. Then I’d go upstairs to the second floor, to the Dutch Room to look at “The Concert.” Often, I’d stand in front of the painting, looking, for more than an hour. Its theft broke my heart and I haven’t been back to the Museum since. Every now and again I see pictures of the painting, but it’s just not the same thing…

Reminds me of a young woman who said she did not need to go to Venice because she had seen it in Las Vegas.

Or, one could pick up any of a number of fine books that have reproductions of all the paintings, often along with insightful essays about the works and the artist. But I suppose books are not as exciting as the latest whiz-bang "app".

The app is only available on Android devices. That’s a huge limitation.

The painting itself in this article is worth looking at. It appears to be perfect in every way, and the cracking gives it a nostalgia effect of a time of perfection in the art world. In my smart phone (I don't have internet--too expensive) i have a small drawing of a pictograph on the side of rock in Maui that i made many years ago. The figures appear to be dancing wildly; there is implied motion which still fascinates. At the time i had been following a small canal looking for a trail from the Lahaina side of the island to the rainy peaks above, which i did not find. The canal went thru a small cactus forest before disappearing in a tunnel in the rocks. I mention this, because it is the creaky floors part of the exhibit or the wonder of looking at a real drop of water in a Velasquez that you remember.

I was excited by this headline but not so much by the content of the article. How about putting all of the acknowledged Vermeer paintings in the same museum for six months and allowing those of us who are interested to go there and look at the paintings in "real reality" instead of "virtual reality"? The virtual reality people can also participate of course, but I prefer to see paintings through my own eyes without any augmentation or 3D goggles or whatever.

Meet Vermeer is part of the Google "Art and Culture" app, not a separate app you download. You can see it online, too, by searching "Google Art and Culture" for the URL. The virtual reality part is not on the web, but the images are, along with extensive annotation.

Except the “app” can’t be accessed on Apple products so the digital show is only for Google devices.

This "app" is a wonderful "reason for folks to bury their noses in their phones," as one "critic" put it. As travel around the world becomes more costly and difficult, a technological innovation like this is a timely harbinger.

How do you access the app?

Nice but how does one access the app? Is it free?

One can also go to www.wikiart.org. The photos are good, and it has tons of art from both well-known and less-known artists going back many centuries.

Does the app have gaggles of tourists taking selfies in front of the pictures?

Mauritshuis is a wonderful museum housed in a 400 year old Dutch mansion. The floors are wood and have that wonderful creakiness to them as you walk on them. The large windows create an exquisite lighting. The setting is near the sea and canals of The Hague so it has a very Dutch ambiance, as you would expect. I have been to the museum many times, but not for many years at this point. The experience of viewing the wonderful collection at Mauritshuis is much more than just seeing a Vermeer, it is all the things above. I cannot imagine that a virtual tour can capture these things.

No, you are not seeing ANY of the Vermeers in the world. You are seeing digital reproductions of those works. Not the real colours, but rather the colours that your phone's GPU can produce. Not in the light you would be seeing at the museum, which is reflective, but in the emissive light of your phone screen. And not the actual size, but a four inch miniature. Like art books, this project is a good thing for educating people, but it should NOT be confused with the real experience.

I am old and have disabilities of the body and pocketbook. And while I can appreciate commenters who say the digital displays cannot compare with seeing the originals, or that Google's making it possible detracts from the validity of the enterprise, I wholeheartedly thank these technicians for making it possible. I would never see it otherwise. Me and millions of others.

Tip of a destination - not iceberg - heading toward the ship of artistic bliss. Are we close to a time when I can display these and so many other paintings - and cave paintings - and so much more - on the large screen ultra 6HD screen that will be hanging on my living room wall?

Magnificent! This accomplishment enriches the world and human beings everywhere. And, as noted in the article, I immediately thought “It will never replace seeing the works in person.” But it will perhaps inspire us to visit the originals. Several decades ago there was an extensive installation of impressionist works at the Art Institute of Chicago that I visited. I was awestruck to see so many paintings, in person, that I previously had seen reprsented in texts. And of course, I bought the comprehensive coffee table book, one of good quality, that was offered. Each time I revisit that traveling collection in the book, I am reminded of the richness of the originals, but the actual light and presence of the works was not fully captured. Although digital media I imagine will do better, it will likely not outdo the real, the presence. Bravo, Google and the participating museums. Bravo.

Not sure I understand the hoopla over a website with images of Vermeer's paintings. Oh wait! It was made by Google, and it's an "app." Now I get it. Earth-shaking!

Having had the privilege of seeing a good number of these in museums around the world over many years, I am enthusiastic about the possibility that many will enjoy them in digital form since they cannot get to see them in situ. Seen in a place like the Mauritshaus, where one can get up close and personal with them, is breath-taking. A phone is quite personal and very close, so that might help a great deal too. But there is nothing quite like walking by Vermeer's "View of Delft", stopping, and realizing that the museum staff at Mauritshaus has put a bench behind you, at exactly the right viewing distance and angle. So, you sit, and are amazed for a good, long time. It's a luminous and staggeringly beautiful painting, and large for a Vermeer. Even capturing a bit of that for many to see will be wonderful. But, go if you can. You will be captivated for life.