Red Chair, The

Date:	2002
Medium:	Oil on canvas
Size inches:	24 x 24
Size cm:	61 x 61
Signature:	Signed and dated lower left and inscribed on the reverse
Location:	Private Collection, West Hartford, Connecticut

 

Reference
Vermeer The Art of Painting, c. 1666-67. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
The window: The Music Lesson, c. 1662-64. The Royal Collection, London.
The tiles at the base of the wall: A Lady Standing at a Virginal, c. 1670-72. National Gallery London.

Deem rarely copied another artist's work wholesale, and when he did, he always had ulterior motives. (This is seen in his great Vermeer-based diptych (New York Artist in His Studio/Vermeer's "Artist in His Studio")). More often, Deem took elements from one or more of Vermeer's paintings and rearranged them within a single space, also adapted from an original by Vermeer. Sometimes, Deem even expanded that space in order to get, literally, "the big picture." In The Red Chair, Deem borrowed windows and a chair from Vermeer's The Music Lesson (1662-65; The Collection of H. M. Queen Elizabeth II) and a map and another chair (the red one) from Vermeer's Artist in His Studio (The Art of Painting) (1666-67) ... Deem's baseboard tiles come from Vermeer's A Lady Standing at a Virginal (ca. 1672-73; National Gallery, London). Thus, Deem distilled and reinvented Vermeer's genre paintings - his famous recordings of everyday human activity - into beautifully composed still-lifes that, as critic Charles Molesworth has put it, represent "the absence of presence." (David Dearinger, exhibition wall text, George Deem: The Art of Art History, The Boston Athenaeum, April 11 - September 1, 2012).

 

Yale University Jonathan Edwards College Master's House

Exhibition date:	January 16 - March 16, 2003
Institution:	Yale University
Works Shown:	The Art of Painting, diptych The Art of Painting (Study) Extended Vermeer Extended Vermeer: The Woman in Blue George Washington Vermeer Love Letter, The Love Letter, The (Study) Painting Perspective Red Chair, The Signature Vermeer Detail 2002 Vermeer's Chair Vermeer's Chandelier 1986 Vermeer's Easel Vermeer's Jug Vermeer's Music Lesson with the Figures Removed Vermeer's Window Woman in Blue Woman with a Water Pitcher

Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York

Exhibition date:	March 21 - April 20, 2002
Works Shown:	An Allegory of Faith An Allegory of Faith (Study) Extended Vermeer Love Letter, The Painting Perspective Red Chair, The Seven Vermeer Corners Woman in Blue Woman with a Water Pitcher

The Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Massachusetts

Exhibition date:	April 11 - September 1, 2012
Institution:	The Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Massachusetts
Works Shown:	A Stool, A Chair, and a Map An American Rug The Art of Painting, diptych Artist in His Studio, The (diptych) Ashcan School Bingham Ceiling Courbet Palette Deem Palette Deem Vermeer (Self-Portrait) Easel Painting Everybody's Schoolroom Extended Vermeer George Washington and His Portrait The Landscape Painter Manet Palette Modigliani Palette Profile Red Chair, The Sargent Vermeer School of Sargent School of Winslow Homer Self-Portrait (1992) Seven Vermeer Corners Studio Visit Vermeer Detail 2003 Vermeer's Map Woman with a Water Pitcher Yankee Vermeer Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, Again