Sections
  • Best of Washington
  • News & Politics
    • Washingtonian Today
  • Things to Do
    • DC Welcome Guide
    • This Week
    • 100 Best Things to Do in DC
    • Neighborhood Guides
    • DC-Area Events Calender
    • Washingtonian Events
  • Food & Drink
    • 100 Very Best Restaurants
    • The Hot List
    • Brunch
    • New Restaurants
    • Restaurant Finder
  • Home & Style
    • Health
    • Parenting
  • Shopping
    • Gift Guides
  • Real Estate
    • Top Realtors
    • Listings We Love
    • Rave Worthy Rentals
  • Weddings
    • Real Weddings
    • Wedding Vendor Finder
    • Submit Your Wedding
  • Travel
    • DC Welcome Guide
    • Best Airbnbs Around DC
    • 3 Days in DC
  • Best of DC
    • Doctors
    • Apartment Rentals
    • Dentists
    • Financial Advisors
    • Industry Leaders
    • Lawyers
    • Mortgage Pros
    • Pet Care
    • Private Schools
    • Realtors
    • Wedding Vendors
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Subscription
    • Current & Past Issues
    • Features and Longreads
    • Newsletters
    • Newsstand Locations
Reader Favorites
  • 100 Very Best Restaurants
  • DC-Area Events Calendar
  • Brunch
  • Neighborhoods
  • Newsletters
  • Directories
  • Washingtonian Events
Washington’s Best
  • Apartment Rentals
  • DC Travel Guide
  • Dentists
  • Doctors
  • Financial Advisers
  • Health Experts
  • Home Improvement Experts
  • Industry Leaders
  • Lawyers
  • Mortgage Professionals
  • Pet Care
  • Private Schools
  • Real Estate Agents
  • Restaurants
  • Retirement Communities
  • Wedding Vendors
Privacy Policy |  Rss
© 2025 Washingtonian Media Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Skip to content
Washingtonian.com
  • Search
  • Subscribe
  • Menu
Washingtonian.com
  • Subscribe
Reader Favorites
  • 100 Very Best Restaurants
  • DC-Area Events Calendar
  • Brunch
  • Neighborhoods
  • Newsletters
  • Directories
  • Washingtonian Events
More
  • Subscribe
  • Manage My Subscription
  • Digital Edition
  • Shop
  • Contests
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
Sections
  • News & Politics
  • Food
  • Things to Do
  • Washingtonian Events
  • Home & Style
  • Editors’ Picks
  • Events Calendar
  • Health
  • Longreads
  • Parenting
  • Real Estate
  • Shopping
  • Travel
  • Weddings
  • Best of Washington
  • News & Politics
    • Washingtonian Today
  • Things to Do
    • DC Welcome Guide
    • This Week
    • 100 Best Things to Do in DC
    • Neighborhood Guides
    • DC-Area Events Calender
    • Washingtonian Events
  • Food & Drink
    • 100 Very Best Restaurants
    • The Hot List
    • Brunch
    • New Restaurants
    • Restaurant Finder
  • Home & Style
    • Health
    • Parenting
  • Shopping
    • Gift Guides
  • Real Estate
    • Top Realtors
    • Listings We Love
    • Rave Worthy Rentals
  • Weddings
    • Real Weddings
    • Wedding Vendor Finder
    • Submit Your Wedding
  • Travel
    • DC Welcome Guide
    • Best Airbnbs Around DC
    • 3 Days in DC
  • Best of DC
    • Doctors
    • Apartment Rentals
    • Dentists
    • Financial Advisors
    • Industry Leaders
    • Lawyers
    • Mortgage Pros
    • Pet Care
    • Private Schools
    • Realtors
    • Wedding Vendors
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Subscription
    • Current & Past Issues
    • Features and Longreads
    • Newsletters
    • Newsstand Locations
News & Politics

I’ve Been Visiting Two Paintings at the National Gallery of Art for Decades

And some weird things have been happening when I do.

Written by Fred Folsom
| Published on March 20, 2018
Tweet Share
Photographs of paintings courtesy of National Gallery of Art.
Photographs of paintings courtesy of National Gallery of Art.

By and large, people go to art museums to be amused. I’m an artist—when I go, I’m looking for something specific. Paintings with presence. When I see that spark, I return to study and wonder. These aren’t just really good paintings. They don’t bottom out. Ever. Weary of the parade of tourists, they may not respond to your first few dozen visits—maybe they never will. But over time, they can come to trust someone as quiet as they are. They have time.

In the National Gallery of Art’s Dutch Galleries is a portrait on a piece of wood about the size of a shingle. Vermeer’s “Girl With the Red Hat” catches a passing moment, a glance, on its way from here to somewhere else. It’s one of a handful of paintings I’ve visited twice a month for decades. It’s not an artist thing anymore—we’re old friends. I say hello and soak into the portrait, like a droplet into a sponge.

One day, the painting looked different. Sort of 3-D, like a candlelit diorama set into the wall. The effect wasn’t profound but certainly was curious. I walked to the back of the room and watched as people came and went. No one seemed to notice. Down in the cafeteria, I had a slice of pizza and some coffee, then returned to the Vermeer, determined to describe the effect for myself.

The painting wasn’t so much three-dimensional—more as if someone flipped a playing card at it, the card would disappear into 17th-century Delft and land in the girl’s lap. Her tentative glance was the hinge that opened that trans-temporal window. Vermeer, working with busy little sable brushes, rendered a loophole in time. Whatever the cause, the effect was unintended. He wasn’t a wizard—he was a frantic guy working three jobs to support a household of 13 people.

I needed to talk with someone, so I called Arthur Wheelock, the National Gallery’s curator of Northern Baroque paintings and an authority on Vermeer and Rembrandt. We met in the West Building’s rotunda. Avoiding the word “magical,” I asked: “Are you aware of anything, er, odd about ‘Girl With the Red Hat’?”

“No, what do you mean?”

I struggled: “Have you ever had an unusual experience with it?”

He said, “Years ago, when she was downstairs under restoration, we had an affair.”

I said, “That bitch!”

“Fred,” he consoled me, “it was before she knew you.”

Another regular companion is Rembrandt’s self-portrait from 1659. Over time, intense study has turned to pondering. I trust Rembrandt. Nothing fast and facile like Frans Hals or Rubens. You can feel him holding his breath, placing a touch of paint just so, smudging it with his little finger, stepping back for a squint, then whittling with the point end of his brush.

It’s a desolate portrait. Rembrandt was a disgraced bankrupt. His eyes are direct and honest. He is at once formidable and so very tender.

I’d been looking at the front of that masterpiece for 35 years, until one day Rembrandt sighed. Not quite a sound—more something felt. He was there. Silent thunder. Dear God, he’s painted himself in there. Don’t move, don’t blink, don’t breathe. My metabolism dropped—then stopped. For a moment, a glimmer of his life penetrated eternity. Intimate beyond whispering. The way someone softly clears his throat to announce himself. He was there, then gone.

Distracted, I drifted into the hall and wandered around. Had to get back to work. At Seventh and H, the light turned red. Rush-hour traffic came to a stop at Florida, and I turned off the engine.

Rembrandt and Vermeer sometimes touched holiness. Whatever it cost them, they paid full price.

This article appeared in the March 2018 issue of Washingtonian.

More: BaroquecuratorFirst PersonFrans HalsGirl With the Red HatJohannes VermeerNational Gallery of ArtNetherlandsPaintingPeter Paul RubensRembrandtVermeer
Join the conversation!
Share Tweet
Fred Folsom
Fred Folsom

Washington artist Fred Folsom ([email protected]) has studied Old Master paintings for 50 years.

Most Popular in News & Politics

1

MAP: Road Closures for Trump’s Military Parade

2

The Smithsonian Says It Will Decide Who Runs Its Museums, Thanks; Trump’s Parade Will Close Some DC Streets for Days; and a Maryland Bear Got a Ride to a Park in Virginia

3

Man Jumps From AU Radio Tower in Apparent Suicide

4

Smaller Crowds, Big Emotions for Army’s 250th: What We Heard Around DC

5

The Latest on the June 14 Trump Military Parade in DC

Washingtonian Magazine

June Issue: Pride Guide

June Issue: Pride Guide

View Issue
Subscribe

Follow Us on Social

We'll help you live your best #DCLIFE every day

Follow Us on Social

We'll help you live your best #DCLIFE every day

Related

Tommy McFly on “Almost” Coming Out to Singer Sara Bareilles

How Congressman Joe Courtney’s Parents Met Working for the FBI

DC’s Jazz in the Garden Returns With Seven Concerts This Summer

Why the Black Panthers Once Went Searching for Author Marita Golden

More from News & Politics

Trump Mobile phone

5 Things to Know About the New Trump Smartphone

PHOTOS: Army 250 Festival and Parade

Trump’s Damp Military Parade Overshadowed by Weekend of Political Violence, Protests; Dems Turn Out Early for Virginia Primary; Washington Post Journalists Hacked

How Would a New DC Stadium Compare to the Last One?

PHOTOS: “No Kings” Protests Draw Thousands in DC Area

Smaller Crowds, Big Emotions for Army’s 250th: What We Heard Around DC

Man Jumps From AU Radio Tower in Apparent Suicide

Unelected Storms Menace Trump’s Tank Parade, Kennedy Center Boss May Run for California Governor, and WorldPride Tourism Didn’t Meet Expectations

© 2025 Washingtonian Media Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Washingtonian is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Privacy Policy and Opt-Out
 Rss
Get the best news, delivered weekly.
By signing up, you agree to our terms.
  • Subscribe
  • Manage My Subscription
  • Digital Edition
  • Shop
  • Contests
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs