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Youg woman playing a guitar

Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life.

Max Resolution:3691×4226 PX

Title:Youg woman playing a guitar

Artists:Johannes Vermeer

Date:c.1670 - c.1672

Style:Baroque

Genre:genre painting

Medium:oil,canvas

Location:Kenwood House, London, UK

Dimensions:53×46.3 cm

Copyright:Public domain

The Guitar Player is a 1672 painting by Jan Vermeer, on display in Kenwood House, London as part of the Iveagh Bequest. In 2012 Kenwood closed for renovations until autumn 2013, and the painting was on display in the National Gallery for this period, next to their own two Vermeers. It was returned to Kenwood House in late December.

On February 23, 1974, the painting was stolen from Kenwood House, and held for a ransom of over $1,000,000US in food to be distributed on the Caribbean island of Grenada, or else the painting would be destroyed by those who had stolen it. Later, a small strip of the painting was sent to The Times along with a demand that Irish Republicans Marion and Delours Price be allowed to serve their prison sentence at home. It was recovered by Scotland Yard in the cemetery of St Bartholomew-the-Great, in London's financial district, on May 7, 1974. Although the painting showed signs of dampness, it was otherwise undamaged.

A period copy, A Lady Playing the Guitar, is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.