Sienna Vermeer

Date:	1974
Medium:	Oil on canvas
Size inches:	c. 27 1/2 x 31 1/2
Size cm:	70 x 80
Signature:	Signed and dated on the reverse
Location:	Private Collection, Louisville, Kentucky

Detail available in B&W photograph.

Reference
Vermeer, Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid, c. 1670-72, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; The Music Lesson, c. 1662-64, The Royal Collection, H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.

For seven years I lived in a farmhouse outside the hill town of Cortona in southern Tuscany on the border with Umbria. In Umbria the earth is the color raw umber. Going west from Cortona, across the plain of the Valdichiana, then through the smooth low hills that surround Siena, about forty miles away, one sees the earth turn yellow, the color raw sienna. The bricks of Siena's city walls and pavements and buildings are the color burnt sienna. In Italy I learned the rationale of the earth colors, raw umber, burnt umber, raw sienna, burnt sienna, and their use in constructing a painting: Sienna Vermeer, 1974. (George Deem, undated note).

Raw sienna is the principal color I used in (my painting Sienna Vermeer). It is one of a series of Vermeer paintings. I have worked a lot with Vermeer imagery. I did this painting in Italy where I was fascinated to see that the yellow earth around the city of Siena is indeed the source of the color. (George Deem, letter to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Wyatt, Louisville, Kentucky, July 29, 1986).

Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana

Exhibition date:	December 8, 1974 - January 19, 1975
Institution:	Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
Works Shown:	A Letter from Picasso An American Vermeer Blue Vermeer Composition in Red and Black (Rubens Vermeer) Deem Vermeer (Self-Portrait) George Washington in White Face George Washington Vermeer Green Vermeer Ingres Vermeer La Tour Vermeer Martha Milk Primary Vermeer Quartet (1973) Rita Vermeer Sienna Vermeer Three Women (Vermeer)

Harm Bouckaert Gallery, New York

Exhibition date:	March 29 - April 21, 1984
Works Shown:	George Washington Vermeer Sienna Vermeer Vermeer Palette Vermeer Repeat (Two Extra Buttons)

Sneed-Hillman Gallery, Rockford, Illinois

Exhibition date:

May 21 - June 30, 1976

Works Shown:

A Musical Portrait of Jean Rigg A Painting for Babies 1970/1980 Christopher Composition in Black and Yellow (The Visitation) Dance Company English Portraits Fall of Whistler's Mother, The French Harbor: Antibes George Washington Vermeer George Washington Vermeer (Study) La Tour Vermeer May Wilson in Europe Picture of a Landscape Sienna Vermeer Spanish Drawing (Velasquez) Three Women (Vermeer) Vermeer Landscape