Despite having carefully limited numbers in order to give visitors the best experience possible, the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer exhibition finished as the most successful exhibition in its history with 650,000 visitors from 113 nations, over 16 weeks from 10 February to 4 June 2023.

Vermeer is the artist of peacefulness and intimacy. We wanted the visitors to enjoy it to the fullest. This was only possible by limiting the number of visitors. The Rijksmuseum is grateful for the generous loans from museums around the world that have enabled it to bring together more works by Vermeer than ever before. - Taco Dibbits, general director Rijksmuseum

From 7 June to 10 October, 6 paintings by Vermeer will remain on display in the Gallery of Honour of the Rijksmuseum. The Girl in the Red Hat (National Gallery of Art, Washington) and Young Woman at the Virginal (The Leiden Collection, New York) are temporarily shown together with the four works by Vermeer from the collection of the Rijksmuseum.

The exhibition featured 28 of the 37 works by the artist, including the Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid. 7 paintings had never before been on public display in the Netherlands, including the three paintings from The Frick Collection in New York and the recently restored Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. 650.000 art lovers from 113 nations visited the exhibition. 55% of the visitors came from the Netherlands.