For generations of scholars, Johannes Vermeer was an enigma. His paintings are celebrated as some of the best in history, but what written record remains revealed little about his interior life, connections, or the identity of the woman in his most iconic work, Girl with a Pearl Earring. That was until acclaimed art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon made a discovery that changed everything.

Now on October 8, Graham-Dixon returns to Intelligence Squared to shed light on his revolutionary new theory about the man and his masterpieces. Live on stage he will reveal how newly uncovered archival evidence from Delft and Rotterdam prompted an incredible discovery – and helped to uncover Vermeer’s hitherto unknown friendships, his ties to a radical underground movement, and the surprising true identity of the Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Far from the isolated genius of legend, Graham-Dixon will show that Vermeer was in fact deeply engaged in the intellectual and political currents of the Dutch Golden Age, forging connections with merchants, philosophers and Europe’s first peace movement.

Join us at Conway Hall as Graham-Dixon paints a dramatically new picture of Vermeer, illustrating his talk with detailed analysis of the artist’s masterpieces, including Girl with a Pearl Earring, A View of Delft and Woman Reading a Letter – and answering the great unresolved questions about him: why did he paint his pictures, and what do they mean?