The National Gallery of Art in Washington on Friday, 7 October 2022, in a press conference confirmed that the artwork was not painted by artist Johannes Vermeer.

News24 reports the discovery was made after a microscopic pigment analysis and advanced imaging technology was used.

Only 35 of Vermeer’s paintings remain, and they include well-known pieces like ‘The Milkmaid’ and ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’.

“Art historians have questioned the authenticity of two paintings by Vermeer held in the collection of the National Gallery,” according to The New York Times.

The museum conducted research on the Girl with the Red Hat and Girl with the Flute during the pandemic and according to Zachery Small of the New York Times, “curators, conservators, and scientists used powerful new technology to look beneath the paintings.”

Imaging technology has revealed whoever painted ‘Girl with a Flute’ “mishandled” the Dutch artist’s process.” 

The authenticity of ‘Girl with the Red Hat has been established.

PHOTO CREDIT: Francis G. Mayer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

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Kathryn A. Dooley, an imaging scientist at the National Gallery who worked on the project, revealed that the artist used “similar material in similar ways”, but “handled the paint differently”.

 “Girl with a Flute was made by an artist – perhaps a student, an apprentice in training or an amateur taking lessons from the master,” The Washington Post reported.

Read more on the topic here.