GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING at the de Young Museum of Art, San Francisco

Poster for the Girl with a Pearl Earring Exhibit at the de Young Museum, San Francisco

I read the book. I saw the movie.  And now I have seen the painting!  The Girl With the Pearl Earring by Vermeer is the focus of a wonderful exhibit of Dutch paintings from the Mauritshaus Museum in Amsterdam which I saw recently at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. Billed as the Dutch Mona Lisa, the girl (who has never been identified) looks over her shoulder out of the painting, seeming to invite the viewer into her world.  The exhibit includes dozens of remarkable paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt and other Dutch masters, organized by theme–a room each for portraits (formal and informal), landscapes (featuring huge skies over the flat water and land), still lifes (with flowers in brilliant detail), scenes of everyday life, and more. The paintings document the richness of Dutch life in the 17th Century.  The exhibit ended at the de Young on June 2nd but travels to the High Museum in Atlanta for the summer and will be at the Frick Museum in New York October 22, 2013–January 19, 2014.  See http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/mauritshuis for more information about this exhibit.

Tower Viewing Area

After viewing the painting exhibit and an accompanying exhibit of prints from the same period–exquisite etchings, drypoints, engravings and mezzotints by Rembrandt and others–we went to the museum cafeteria for a delicious lunch, which we ate on the enclosed outdoor patio facing the sculpture garden.  I had cream of parsnip soup, which was very tasty.  Everything on the menu had a Dutch theme–to coordinate with the Mauritshaus exhibit.

Pond in front of the de Young Museum (viewed from Tower)

One of the special features of the de Young Museum is the Tower and its 360 degree view of San Francisco from its 9th floor viewing area.  It was a beautiful sunny day, so after lunch, we took the elevator up to the top of the tower and got a spectacular view of the city.  Immediately across the plaza in front of the museum we could look down the living roof garden of the science museum.  These two museums, which share a parking garage under the plaza, are among the jewels of Golden Gate Park.

Sculpture and Shadows at de Young Museum

The de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park are the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.  To find out more about these museums and their many exhibits both permanent and temporary, go to www.famsf.org.