With five masterpieces by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) from Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is preparing for "the greatest exhibition of all time" with works by the painter from Delft.

For "Vermeer" the Berlin picture gallery "The Glass of Wine" (ca. 1659-61) and the "Young Lady with a Pearl Necklace" (ca. 1662-64) are on their way, the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Dresden packs "At the Couple" (1656) and "Girl reading a letter at the open window" (ca. 1657–58), the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main contributes "The Geographer" (1669).

The museum wants to regulate the rush expected in Amsterdam from February 10th to June 4th with time slots. "We want it to be beautiful," said curator Gregor Weber of the dpa in Berlin. Larger crowds of people should be avoided in front of Vermeer's often small-format pictures.

The museum calculates with around half a million interested people. At the show of Rembrandt's late works seven years ago, it was already "very crowded" with 525,000 visitors.

For the exhibition, those responsible have brought together 28 of the only 35 paintings by the Dutch master worldwide. Some works are too fragile to transport, others are bound to a specific location in the museum by specifications such as legacies from donations.

All seven Dutch Vermeers and some of the loans were analyzed for the exhibition using new technical methods. It was found, for example, that the work "Servant with milk jug" from around 1658-1660 from the Rijksmuseum collection conceals a shelf with jugs and a fire basket under the white wall on the right-hand side.

According to Weber, the exhibition also wants to show that Vermeer "was not just a tinkerer who spent six months painting a picture". Rather, he "thought for four months and then painted for a month". The first drafts of the later meticulously worked out works were sketched "often very quickly" by Vermeer.