Vermeer or not? New display lets visitors decide who painted almost identical artworks

Two almost identical paintings have been at one time attributed to the great Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer – but what is the relationship between them?

Visitors to a new display at Kenwood in London will be invited to draw their own conclusions on this intriguing question when two versions of a 17th-century painting, titled the Guitar Player, hang alongside each other for the first time in 300 years.

For many years, the paintings – one of which is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, while the other hangs at Kenwood – were believed to have been painted by the Dutch master. But in the 1920s, the consensus shifted.

The Kenwood painting, which is in much better condition and – crucially – is signed by the artist, was the original Vermeer, experts agreed. The Philadelphia version, in which the young woman wears her hair not in ringlets but tight braids, was widely accepted to be an 17th- or 18th-century copy.

The Guitar Player, c.1675-1725, from the Philadelphia Museum of Art collection. Photograph: Philadelphia Museum of Art

But is that the whole story? In 2023, a Dutch art researcher suggested that the Philadelphia painting might be the painter’s own copy of the image – potentially a sensational development for an artist with only 37 acknowledged surviving paintings.

As a result, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has been conducting further tests on their painting, while English Heritage, which manages Kenwood and its collection for the nation, has also tested its own Vermeer. While curators anxiously await those results, the two paintings will hang side by side in London for four months, allowing visitors to make up their own minds.

While the original impetus for the dual display was the painter’s 350th anniversary in December, says Wendy Monkhouse, English Heritage’s senior curator at Kenwood, “the emergence of the discussion [over the Philadelphia painting] raised the opportunity to be able to say: ‘OK, let’s really discuss this.’ Both on an expert level, and offering the public an opportunity to become detectives and to weigh the evidence.”

Comparing the works side by side offers the viewer “a rather beautiful confusion”, she says. “You can’t believe your eyes.”

The results of the analysis, expected within months, will be illuminating, whether or not they suggest Vermeer painted both works, Monkhouse says. “To have a copy of the Guitar Player by him would be extraordinary, because it would be unique. There is no other copy that he made. [But] if somebody else copied this painting, then what else did they paint in life? Because they’re too good to have just done the one painting.”

• Double Vision: Vermeer at Kenwood runs from 1 September 2025-11 January 2026 at Kenwood in London.