From the museum website, 9 February 2009
The Art of Painting by Johannes Vermeer was on loan from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, after nearly four years of conservation treatment. It was installed with four paintings from the Gallery’s permanent collection: Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance, A Lady Writing, and Girl with the Red Hat; and Girl with a Flute, attributed to Vermeer. The Art of Painting could not be included in the 1995-1996 exhibition Johannes Vermeer because of its fragile paint structure at the time. It was last seen in the United States in the 1949-1950 exhibition Art Treasures from the Vienna Collections.
Support
Juliet and Lee Folger/The Folger Fund
Publication
Johannes Vermeer: The art of painting
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. with the assistance of Mari Griffith
Brochure accompanying an exhibition held in 1999-2000 in Washington (National Gallery of Art)
Washington (National Gallery of Art) 1999
No ISBN.