George Deem

Green Vermeer

Date:	1973
Medium:	Oil on canvas
Size inches:	c. 27 1/2 x 23 3/4
Size cm:	70 x 60
Signature:	Signed and dated on the reverse "August, 1973 George Deem"
Location:	Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana. Accession Number 84.30.101

Evansville Museum of Arts, Science, and History, Evansville, Indiana, 1984. Accession Number 1984.030.0101

Reference
Vermeer, The Little Street in Delft, c. 1658. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid, c. 1670-72. National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Liberale Da Verona (1445-1525)
Aeolus (God Keeper of the winds). Book illumination. Piccolomini Library, Siena Cathedral .Detail of ptg available in B&W photography.

Inform the EvansvilleMuseum the medium is oil on canvas not acrylic on canvas.
Ref. See "Works in Museums" file .for works in Evansville Museum and "Private Collector's File" alpha file.

About your painting Green Vermeer. The room is Vermeer's, his painting entitled Lady writing a letter, with her maid. Sir Alfred Beit Collection. I have opened the window to show another painting by Vermeer, one of the two landscapes which he painting. This one is entitled A Street in Delft. The picture is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
The opened window is not from the Alfred Beit Vermeer, it is from another Vermeer interior, a very early painting by Vermeer entitled Girl at a window reading a letter. This picture is now in (Dresden).
The open window is the green part.
The picture on the wall behind the two women is my own addition to Vermeer's interior. I have replaced the picture he used in his painting with a picture of Aeolus the wind god. This picture of Aeolus is a favorite of mine. It is an illumination in a book in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. The illumination is a miniature and my version of it is painted exactly to size. You met me at the airport in Evansville one December day when I was on a trip from Italy and very aware of how cold the American winter is by contrast. I was surprised that you were wearing no overcoat, only a scarf over your jacket, and your scarf and your hair were blowing in the wind. This image of you was part of my wanting you to have this painting. Because I have opened the window, I have let the wind into Vermeer's interior. The curtain has blown up over the window. It is a green wind.
Green Vermeer has been exhibited, in an exhibition of my paintings and drawings, at The Indianapolis Museum of Art, December 8, 1974 - January 19, 1975. ... The painting was reproduced in the catalogue for that exhibition. ... The detail of the window, with the view of the street in Delft, is reproduced on the back cover of the catalogue. (George Deem, letter to William Gumberts after his acquisition of the painting Green Vermeer, July 8, 1978)

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)

Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana

Exhibition date:

June 23 - August 5, 1979

Works Shown:

An American Rug Artist in His Studio, The (diptych) Caravaggio Saint Matthew, The Caravaggio Saint Matthew, The (Glazing Chart Color Study) Composition in Red and Black (Rubens Vermeer) Girl Before a Mirror (Picasso/Vermeer) Girl with Red Hat Off (Portrait of Essie Borden) Glass Bouquet Guitar and Bottle: Picasso 1919-Deem 1979 Green Vermeer Hollywood Van Gogh MacDowell Colony Rita Vermeer Schoolroom 1979 Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles Woman in Green with Vermeer's Lacemaker

Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science, Evansville, Indiana

Exhibition date:	March 16 - May 13, 1984
Institution:	Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana
Works Shown:	Green Vermeer

Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science, Evansville, Indiana

Exhibition date:	April 24 - June 5, 1988
Institution:	Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana
Works Shown:	Green Vermeer