Style Imitating Art | The Concert by Johannes Vermeer

Although I have many options in my closet to adequately represent this week’s art inspiration, this outfit came together in a rather serendipitous way.

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It was Marsha’s turn to choose our artwork. She found an article on Substack titled “The Most Beautiful Paintings Lost to History”, which discusses famous paintings that were stolen or lost, disappearing from public view possibly forever. Our inspiration painting is one that was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 17, 1990, in the largest property crime in history. It still remains unsolved and our painting still remains missing. 

The Artwork

The Concert by Johannes Vermeer

About the Artist: Johannes Vermeer

The second Style Imitating Art challenge that I ever participated in featured Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. I was really excited for a quick and easy cut and paste of the artist biography, only to discover that I didn’t share artist biographies for the first few rounds of my participation in this series. So I guess I’m going to learn and share some information about Mr. Vermeer right here and now.

Johannes Vermeer was born in October 1632 (the exact date is unknown but records indicate he was baptized on October 31) to Digna Baltens (daughter of Balthasar Geerts, a metalworker who was arrested for counterfeiting) and middle class silk worker Reijnier Janszoon (son of Jan Reyersz and Cornelia (Neeltge) Goris). Our artist’s parents were married in 1615 and moved to Delft in the South Holland province of the Netherlands, where their daughter Gertruy was baptized in 1620. In 1625, Reijnier got in a fight with a soldier who died from his injuries 5 months later. Shortly after this unfortunate incident, Reijnier began dealing in paintings. Then he leased an inn, The Flying Fox, in 1631. Ten years later, he purchased a larger inn, the Mechelen, in market square, which resulted in considerable financial burdens. For unknown reasons, Reijnier assumed the surname Vermeer around 1640. When he died in October 1652, his 20 year old son Johannes took over the family’s art business.

In April 1653, Johannes married Catharina Bolnes, daughter of Maria Thins, a wealthy divorced heiress who disapproved of her daughter’s union to a non-Catholic in debt. She likely insisted that Vermeer convert to Catholicism before the wedding and she ended up being the primary financial support for her daughter’s family. Johannes and Catharina had 15 children together. Four died before they were baptized. Of the eleven surviving children, ten names are known…Maertge, Elisabeth, Cornelia, Aleydis, Beatrix, Johannes, Gertruyd, Franciscus, Catharina, and Ignatius.

Not much is known about Vermeer’s personal life, training, or art career. During his lifetime, he experienced moderate local success as a genre painter but he made his living through art dealing. He produced relatively few paintings, possibly as many as 70, but only 34 existing works have been positively attributed to him. He worked slowly and carefully and was known to use very expensive pigments which likely limited the amount of works he produced. Vermeer died on December 15, 1675, after a short illness. He was 43 years old.

The little bit of celebrity he enjoyed during his lifetime quickly faded into obscurity after his death and he virtually disappeared from the annals of art history for 200 years. In the 1860s, a German museum director reignited interest in the works of Johannes Vermeer. In 2023, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam showcased 28 Vermeer works, the most ever shown together. It is the museum’s most visited exhibition to date.

About the Art: The Concert

The Concert is a 1664 oil on canvas painting by Johannes Vermeer. It measures 28.5 in × 25.5 in (72.5 cm × 64.7 cm). The painting depicts a man and two women playing music together in a luxurious and expensive room. This room appears frequently in Vermeer’s paintings and may likely be a room in his mother-in-law’s home. He depicts a famous painting hanging on the drawing room wall, The Procuress, a 1622 oil painting by Dirck Van Baburen, that was owned by Vermeer’s mother-in-law.

Although the painting has been stylistically dated as 1664, it wasn’t discovered and documented until 1780. In 1892, it was acquired by American art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner for $5000 ($184,054.95 in 2026) at a Paris auction. When the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was opened in 1903 in Boston, Massachusetts, The Concert was displayed there until its theft on the night of March 18, 1990, when thieves disguised as policemen stole the painting along with 12 others. To this day, none of the 13 stolen works have been recovered. The Concert was the most valuable of all the stolen works, estimated to be worth $250,000,000 today. The current value of all 13 stolen works exceeds $600,000,000 and is considered the highest value museum heist in history.

Helpful Links:

• Wikipedia: Johannes Vermeer
• Wikipedia: The Concert
• Wikipedia: Isabella Stewart Gardner theft
• The Most Beautiful Paintings Lost to History

About My Outfit

I had just worn this entire outfit (with different accessories) last week so it was fresh in my mind when Marsha shared her art choice. My attention was caught by the beautiful orange and blue tapestry that is draped over the table in the lower left corner of the painting. This same or similar textile appears as a curtain or drapery in other Vermeer paintings like The Art of Painting, The Allegory of Faith, and Lady Seated at a Virginal.

The pattern and color palette of that textile reminded me of the color scheme and batik pattern of this dress. So I restyled the identical outfit that I just wore but I changed my accessories. My first iteration included turquoise necklaces and earrings to highlight the tiny bits of blue in my dress. But I wanted to reflect the black and white checkered floor so I switched to black and white accessories instead. I added new seed bead earrings that have a treble clef design which seemed appropriate for the musical theme of the artwork. My ivory horn necklace coordinated perfectly.

These pumpkin orange linen trousers are a new addition to my wardrobe this summer. I really embraced the loose flowy pants trend this season and I’m feeling a bit sad to let it go for the winter months. As long as the temperatures permit, I’ll keep wearing these pants as the color is perfect for the transitional season. I’ve had this dress for a few years and have worn it about half a dozen times but this might be the first time I’ve photographed it. I was really pleased with how well the orange pants matched the dress for a beautifully saturated rich autumnal color palette.

The dress is sleeveless and with the coolness of fall settling in, I needed shoulder coverage so I wore this thrifted wrap blouse unwrapped. I love how the design on the blouse has the same kind of wispy feeling as the brushstrokes in the artwork. Finally, I bookended the outfit with a new black straw hat and my black Salt Water Sandals which have been working over time this summer. I shared a review of these sandals when I first got them back in May. I liked them immediately but now after a few months of wearing them frequently I have to say I freaking love them. They are really comfortable, the quality is great, and they work with everything in my wardrobe. I am thinking of investing in another pair next summer.

While not directly inspired the art, I think this outfit is a fun example of how fashion is art…if you want it to be!

I hope you all have enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. Be sure to check out how Marsha and Salazar have styled their outfits inspired by this stolen Vermeer painting. If you want to play along and create your own art inspired outfit, please submit your photos to Marsha (mlrbanks57@gmail.com) by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, and she will feature your outfit in her style gallery on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.

Until then, happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee