Resumen de Thoré-Bürger - A Critical Rôle in the Art Market
On 31st October 1864 Sir Charles Eastlake, Director of the National Gallery, climbed to the fourth floor of 55 boulevard Beaumarchais in Paris, to call on a M. Burger (Fig.57). Eastlake was on the lookout for the paintings of an artist whose rare works were as yet unrepresented in the National Gallery -Jan Vermeer of Delft. The French critic and historian was the recognised authority on Vermeer, and already acclaimed as the 'rediscoverer' of the little-known Dutch artist. Burger was also well known for his pioneering archival researches and championship of the seventeenth-century Dutch school generally and for his critical reappraisals of several lesser known painters - but none more remarkable than the mysterious Vermeer, whom he dubbed his 'Sphinx'.' When Eastlake consulted him, it was also for his first-hand knowledge of the art market - what was where, and at what price.
