Everyone in Holland crazy about reality show asking artists to recreate 6 Vermeer works


Everyone in the Netherlands is crazy about a reality show that asks a group of artists to recreate 6 lost Jan Vermeer works. The show consistently and abundantly exceeds 20 percent share. And meanwhile, the Rijksmuseum exhibition has already sold out: 450,000 tickets sold.

In the Netherlands great success on television for a reality show dedicated to Jan Vermeer: it is called De Nieuwe Verm eer (“The New Vermeer”) and asks a number of creative and professional artists from all over the Netherlands to recreate six lost paintings by the great Dutch artist. These are documented works that existed in the past but for a variety of reasons have not made it to the present day. In the reality show, which is being aired in parallel with the major Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (which has already sold out: as many as 450,000 tickets have been sold and the museum is trying to figure out how to extend opening hours in the face of huge public success), two teams are pitted against each other in a paint-brush competition, and in each episode a winner is decreed. The artists must put aside their own style and literally try to get inside Vermeer’s head, while still receiving help from experts.

All works are judged by two experts on Vermeer’s seventeenth-century art: Pieter Roelofs and Abbie Vandivere. Roelofs is in charge of painting and sculpture at the Rijksmuseum, Vandivere is a restorer at the Mauritshuis (she worked on the restoration of the Girl with a Pearl Earring, among other things). The jury decides each week which work best resembles Vermeer’s flair. The paintings produced during the reality show will eventually be exhibited from March 20, 2023 at the Museum Prinsenhof Delft and the Mauritshuis in The Hague. Leading the program, however, is Dionne Stax, one of the best-known faces on Dutch TV.



The first three episodes of the reality show, already aired on the NPO1 network, have been a hit. Suffice it to say that the pilot episode registered 1.3 million viewers (in a country with a population of 17 million) securing 26.3 percent share and beating all competition, a result that was repeated on February 26 (1.285 million viewers and 24.8 percent share). Instead, the final will be aired on March 19. Could this be an exportable format to other European countries?

Everyone in Holland crazy about reality show asking artists to recreate 6 Vermeer works
Everyone in Holland crazy about reality show asking artists to recreate 6 Vermeer works


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