When he resigned I remember thinking Gerald Ford was the saviour of the nation

When he resigned I remember thinking Gerald Ford was the saviour of the nation." They never met, though once, while he was filming JFK, Nixon went past in a limo, waving over to the crew imperially as though he were running for office. No one waved back."I can't say I ever liked Richard Nixon, even after having made the movie," Stone says. "But I empathised with him." He depicts Nixon as a lonely, socially gauche man with a giant inferiority complex about his humble origins, a burning resentment of Jack Kennedy, the golden boy, and an unnerving Cheshire Cat grin that, as someone points out in the film, often seems not to be in the same place as its owner. Saint Praxedis, a copy after the Florentine Felice Ficherelli, has a striking motif. Praxedis, a Roman Christian, was sanctified because she collected the blood of martyrs.

In this painting she is seen with a decapitated co-religionist. It's not so long since the first painting in the show, the Saint Praxedis, was recognised as a Vermeer. Michael Kitson of the Courtauld Institute saw the true authorship of this canvas in 1969. His attribution was at first contested, but today it looks natural and justified. Furthermore, the picture helps us to understand the three allegorical or religious paintings of Vermeer's early years, so unlike the quiet interiors for which he was subsequently celebrated.The paintings are the Saint Praxedis, then Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, and Diana and Her Companions All were completed in 1655-56.

Scholars have found many details, usually tantalising, about Vermeer's professional dealings, but his character and the large outlines of his career remain mysterious. Though this is the definitive Vermeer exhibition it is still possible that other works from his hand will be rediscovered. He was born in Delft in 1632, lived there for most, if not all of his life, worked as an artist and died in 1675 at the age of 43. He produced only about two paintings a year, no doubt the reason why he left a widow in desperate debt. Here is the ideal place for a Vermeer exhibition, and the present retrospective is as good an account of the artist as will ever be seen.

To study this show is an enclosed and meditative experience. No more than 35 paintings are currently given to Vermeer, and of this number 23 are on display The missing pictures are in general too fragile to travel. At the Mauritshuis there are no drawings or preparatory sketches for the paintings, for none are known In fact our knowledge of Vermeer is scant in most ways. It is not a large museum and its separate rooms are never grandiose. Sensitively maintained and restored, the gallery gives an intimate view of the "Golden Age" of culture in Holland. Staff at Nanterre have to contend with complaints from TB to acute alcholism.