Johannes Vermeer

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This article is about the Dutch painter. For other meanings, see Vermeer (disambiguation).

Johannes Vermeer or Jan Vermeer (October 31, 1632 - buried on December 15, 1675) was a Dutch painter, who lived and worked in Delft. He is also sometimes referred to as Vermeer of Delft or Johannes van der Meer. Alongside Rembrandt, Vermeer is the best known painter of the Dutch Golden Age, and his paintings are admired for their transparent colours, careful composition, and brilliant use of light.

1 Technique
2 Themes
3 Influence of other painters
4 Works
5 Forgeries
6 Vermeer in other works
7 Hollywood Movie
8 External links

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Technique

Vermeer produced transparent colours by adding the paint onto the canvas in loosely granular layers, a technique called pointillé (not to be confused with pointillism). David Hockney, among other historians, has speculated that Vermeer possibly used a camera obscura to achieve precise positioning in his compositions, and this view seems to be supported by certain light and perspective effects which would be the result of lenses and not the naked eye; however, the issue is disputed by many other historians.

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Themes

Vermeer painted mostly domestic interior scenes, and even his two known landscapes are framed with a window. His works are largely genre pieces and portraits, with the exception of two cityscapes.

His paintings cover all layers of society, at one time portraying a simple milkmaid at work, at other times works show the luxury and splendour of rich notables and merchantmen in their roomy houses. Religious and scientific connotations can be found in his works.

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Influence of other painters

Carel Fabritius (1622–1654) who spent his final years in Delft. Vermeer's ideas about perspective, and his tendency to paint everyday themes were possibly influenced by Fabritius.
Italian painter Caravaggio (1573–1610), indirectly through Dutch followers.
Leonart Bramer, another painter from Delft, and witness to his marriage.
Vermeer owned a Dirk van Baburen painting, which appears in two of Vermeer's paintings.

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Works

Image:Jan Vermeer van Delft 001.jpg Today, 34 or 37 paintings are clearly attributed to Vermeer, although in 1866, Thoré Burger attributed a list of 66 pictures to him. The known paintings are:

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (1654-1655) - Oil on canvas, 160 x 142 cm, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Saint Praxidis (c. 1655) - Oil on canvas, 102 x 83 cm, Private Collection
Diana and Her Companions - The Hague, Mauritshuis (1655-1656) - Oil on canvas, 98,5 x 105 cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague
The Procuress (1656) - Oil on canvas, 143 x 130 cm, Gemäldegalerie Zwinger, Dresden
Girl reading a Letter at an Open Window (1657) - Oil on canvas, 83 x 64,5 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
A Girl Asleep - New York, Metropolitan Museum - 1657
The Little Street - Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum - 1657/58
Officer with a Laughing Girl (c. 1657) - Oil on canvas, 50,5 x 46 cm, Frick Collection, New York
The Milkmaid (c. 1658) - Oil on canvas, 45,5 x 41 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
A Lady Drinking and a Gentleman (1658-1660) - Oil on canvas, 39,4 x 44,5 cm,Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Girl with the Wineglass (c. 1659) - Oil on canvas, Herzog Anton-Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig
Girl Interrupted at her Music (1660-1661) - Oil on canvas, 39,4 x 44,5 cm, Frick Collection, New York
View of Delft (1659-1660) - Oil on canvas, 98,5 x 117,5 cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (1663-1664) - Oil on canvas, 46,6 x 39,1 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
A Lady Writing a Letter (1665-1666) - Oil on canvas, 45 x 40 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington
The Music Lesson - London, Buckingham Palace - 1662/65
Woman with a Lute near a Window (c. 1663) - Oil on canvas, 51,4 x 45,7 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Woman with a Pearl Necklace (1662-1664) - Oil on canvas, 55 x 45 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Woman with a Water Jug (1660-1662) - Oil on canvas, 45,7 x 40,6 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665) - Oil on canvas, 46,5 x 40 cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague
The Concert (1665-1666) - Oil on canvas, 69 x 63 cm, stolen in the night of March 18, 1990 from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, - Boston
A Woman Holding a Balance (1662-1663) - Oil on canvas, 42,5 x 38 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington
Portrait of a Young Woman (1666-1667) - Oil on canvas, 44,5 x 40 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Allegory of Painting or The Art of Painting - Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum - 1666/67
Mistress and Maid - New York, Frick Collection - 1667/68
The Astronomer - Paris, Louvre - 1668
Girl with a Red Hat - Washington, National Gallery of Art- 1668
The Geographer - Frankfurt am Main, Städelsches Kunstinstitut - 1668/69
The Lacemaker - Paris, Louvre - 1669/70
The Love Letter - Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum - 1669/70
Lady writing a Letter with her Maid - Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland - 1670
A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman (1662-1665) - Oil on canvas, 73,3 x 64,5 cm, Buckingham Palace, London
The Allegory of Faith - New York, Metropolitan Museum - 1671/74
The Guitar Player - London, Iveagh Bequest Kenwood House - 1672
Lady Standing at the Virginals - London, National Gallery - 1673/75
Lady Seated at the Virginals - London, National Gallery - 1673/75

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Forgeries

Han van Meegeren (1889–1947) was a Dutch painter who worked in the classic tradition. Originally to prove that critics were wrong about his qualities as a painter, he decided to paint a fake Vermeer. Later, he forged more Vermeers and works of other painters, to make money. Van Meegeren fooled the art establishment, and was only taken seriously after demonstrating his skills in front of police witnesses. His aptitude at forgery shocked the art world and hence made it even more difficult to assess the authenticity of works attributed to Vermeer.

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Vermeer in other works

Vermeer's View of Delft features in a pivotal sequence of Marcel Proust's The Captive.
The book and film Girl, Interrupted take their title from the painting Girl Interrupted at her Music.
The book and film Girl with a Pearl Earring are inspired by the painting of the same name, and present a fictional account of its creation by Vermeer and his relationship with the model.
The book Girl in Hyacinth Blue is inspired by the painting of the same name, and the 2003 made-for-TV film Brush with Fate is based on the book.
The liqueur Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream Liqueur was inspired by and named after Vermeer and its bottle is embossed with his signature and has a logo incorporating the Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Salvador Dalí, who greatly admired him, painted the master in The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table, 1934.
The 2003 children's novel Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett describes the theft of A Lady Writing a Letter and has the authenticity of Vermeer's paintings as a central theme.