Right in the first essay, Lemay pulled me in with a painfully accurate description of what happened to me when I saw “Officer and Laughing Girl” at the Frick. Light entered my heart. I was so overcome I went back to it five times before I left the museum and resolved to buy a print at the gift shop.
The prints were just pictures. Nothing special. I left them behind and cherished the memory of what Vermeer did to me when I first saw him in person.