George Deem

Extended Vermeer: The Woman in Blue

Date:	2002
Medium:	Oil on canvas
Size inches:	40 x 28
Size cm:	101.6 x 71.1
Signature:	Signed and dated lower right
Location:	New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut

New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut. Gift of the Estate of George Deem. Accession Number 2013.54.40

Reference
Vermeer, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, c. 1662-64. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The windows are from A Lady Standing at a Virginal, 1670- 72, National Gallery, London. The extended completion of the map to the right is from Officer and Laughing Girl, 1658-60, The Frick Collection, New York.

Variant Titles. Extended Vermeer No. 2 -- The Woman in Blue, the title used at the Jonathan Edwards College Exhibition at Yale University in 2003.The painting was identified as Extended Vermeer, 2002 when it was exhibited at Pavel Zoubok Gallery, November-December 2004, and in the New/Now: George Deem exhibition at the New Britain Museum of American Art, February 9 - April 17, 2005.

Extended Vermeer:The Woman in Blue, 2002 and Woman in Blue, 2000, are companion pictures. When exhibited together, align the map finials in each picture, and hang Woman in Blue, 2000, six inches to the right of Extended Vermeer: The Woman in Blue, 2002, measuring edge of frame to edge of frame.

Inscribed by the artist on the reverse.

September 2001
Sharon Springs, New York

Doing nothing.
Now that you are alone doing nothing think of what you can do.
Vermeer's Woman in Blue Reading a Letter.
This painting does nothing but present itself. There is no corner of the room, there are no floor patterns, there are no windows, there is no ceiling, there is no beginning and no end to this painting.
You have nothing to do but look at this painting.
Start an extension.
Starting an extension includes extending all four sides of the painting or it will not read logically. Add a floor, extend the wall to the right, add a window to the left. Continue the chair on the left. Remove the table. Continue the chair on the right and make it sit on the floor. Go slowly and look at what is going on.
Go slowly and realize what is going on.
Keep the center image dominant.
Localize the "Woman in Blue" in the center of the stretched canvas. 18 x 16. 40 x 28.
There now is a rectangle 18 x 16 in the center of the canvas that is 40 x 28.
Woman in Blue.
Extended Vermeer: The Woman in Blue.
I always thought
Chopin wrote music
for one person, as
opposed to Brahms
and Beethoven, who wrote
for many people.
(George Deem, excerpt from unpublished manuscript "September 2001")

The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York

Exhibition date:	January 15 - March 27, 2011
Works Shown:	The Art of Painting Woman in Blue Artist and Model Extended Vermeer: The Woman in Blue Matisse School of Dance Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, Again

Yale University Jonathan Edwards College Master's House

Exhibition date:	January 16 - March 16, 2003
Institution:	Yale University
Works Shown:	The Art of Painting, diptych The Art of Painting (Study) Extended Vermeer Extended Vermeer: The Woman in Blue George Washington Vermeer Love Letter, The Love Letter, The (Study) Painting Perspective Red Chair, The Signature Vermeer Detail 2002 Vermeer's Chair Vermeer's Chandelier 1986 Vermeer's Easel Vermeer's Jug Vermeer's Music Lesson with the Figures Removed Vermeer's Window Woman in Blue Woman with a Water Pitcher

New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut

Exhibition date:	February 9 - April 17, 2005
Works Shown:	A Stool, A Chair, and a Map The Art of Painting, diptych The Art of Painting (Study) Artist's Studio Artist's Studio (Study) Clio Europa Extended Vermeer: The Woman in Blue Painting Perspective Pearl Necklace Vermeer Detail 2003 Woman in Blue

Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York

Exhibition date:	November 18 - December 18, 2004
Works Shown:	A Stool, A Chair, and a Map The Art of Painting, diptych The Art of Painting (Study) Artist's Studio Artist's Studio (Study) Clio Europa Extended Vermeer: The Woman in Blue Pearl Necklace Signature Vermeer Detail 2002 Vermeer Detail 2003 Vermeer's Chandelier 1986 Vermeer's Jug Vermeer's Window Woman in Blue