(Delft 1632 - 1675)
Known as Jan Vermeer, Vermeer of Delft, or Johannes van der Meer, a Dutch painter. Few details of his life are known; he was probably a disciple of Carel Fabritius, and it is undeniable that he was familiar with the work of the Caravaggists. In 1653, he obtained the degree of master of the painters' guild in his hometown, of which he was dean in 1670. In April 1653, he married Catharina Bolnes and they had eleven children.
Everything indicates that he led a rather obscure life, and it is known that he simultaneously practiced painting and engaged in small-scale art trade.
Vermeer soon fell into obscurity, from which he would not emerge until the mid-19th century; but from that moment on, he has sparked a growing and passionate interest. He left only two dated canvases: The Procuress (1656) and The Geographer (1668), which are not precisely his best works. This absence of dates complicates the creation of a chronological catalog, a difficulty increased by the fact that certain paintings feature false dates and signatures and by the uncertainty surrounding his youthful works, which dealt with religious themes. This is why the evolution of the painter, and also the interpretation of his pictorial ideas, vary among historians. However, all agree that Vermeer is one of the great geniuses of painting.
He preferred to focus on bourgeois genre themes, laden with symbols and moral intentions, just as his contemporaries Metsu, Terborch, and Pieter de Hooghe did. This concern for reproducing the customs and environment of the Netherlands is reflected in his two known landscapes, The Little Street and View of Delft.
Vermeer surpasses other painters of this genre with his magnificent craftsmanship, the happy combination he achieves of the concrete with the abstract, and the depth of his pictorial feeling. He invents as if he were an illuminator, and to intensify the expression, he subtly distributes light. He chooses original colors that harmonize perfectly and that are revealed thanks to the whites: sapphire blue, lemon yellow, vermilion, red ochre. He sometimes applies them as if they were a viscous paste, with a consistency similar to porcelain, while at other times they are small granular touches that absorb light, and at other times, translucent glazes.
Vermeer enjoys a naked art. His interiors are reduced to a wall—adorned with a painting of symbolic meaning or with a map—, a table, and a window, always situated on the left through which light enters. Depth is suggested by the artifice of the arrangement of objects, and the composition obeys pure geometric traces. Life is only evoked by the presence of a person, often a young woman, or a couple, and large voids that surround those figures in silence. By using purely pictorial means, and thanks to an appearance of objectivity, he manages to create a poetic universe.
Some works by Vermeer belong to private collections in London, Paris, and New York, but the most important ones are kept in museums. Thus, in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, there are The Little Street, The Milkmaid, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, The Love Letter; in Berlin, The Officer and the Laughing Girl, The Pearl Necklace. In Boston, The Concert; in Brunswick, The Young Woman with a Wine Glass; in Dresden, The Procuress, The Woman with a Letter; in Frankfurt, The Geographer; in The Hague, Diana and Her Nymphs, View of Delft, Girl with a Pearl Earring; in London, My Wife Standing at the Virginal, The Couple with a Harpsichord; in the Louvre, The Lace Maker; in New York, Woman in the Window, The Flute Player, The Allegory of Faith; in Vienna, The Allegory of Painting; in Washington, The Girl Weighing Pearls, The Woman with the Red Hat.
Known as Jan Vermeer, Vermeer of Delft, or Johannes van der Meer, a Dutch painter. Few details of his life are known; he was probably a disciple of Carel Fabritius, and it is undeniable that he was familiar with the work of the Caravaggists. In 1653, he obtained the degree of master of the painters' guild in his hometown, of which he was dean in 1670. In April 1653, he married Catharina Bolnes and they had eleven children.
Everything indicates that he led a rather obscure life, and it is known that he simultaneously practiced painting and engaged in small-scale art trade.
Vermeer soon fell into obscurity, from which he would not emerge until the mid-19th century; but from that moment on, he has sparked a growing and passionate interest. He left only two dated canvases: The Procuress (1656) and The Geographer (1668), which are not precisely his best works. This absence of dates complicates the creation of a chronological catalog, a difficulty increased by the fact that certain paintings feature false dates and signatures and by the uncertainty surrounding his youthful works, which dealt with religious themes. This is why the evolution of the painter, and also the interpretation of his pictorial ideas, vary among historians. However, all agree that Vermeer is one of the great geniuses of painting.
He preferred to focus on bourgeois genre themes, laden with symbols and moral intentions, just as his contemporaries Metsu, Terborch, and Pieter de Hooghe did. This concern for reproducing the customs and environment of the Netherlands is reflected in his two known landscapes, The Little Street and View of Delft.
Vermeer surpasses other painters of this genre with his magnificent craftsmanship, the happy combination he achieves of the concrete with the abstract, and the depth of his pictorial feeling. He invents as if he were an illuminator, and to intensify the expression, he subtly distributes light. He chooses original colors that harmonize perfectly and that are revealed thanks to the whites: sapphire blue, lemon yellow, vermilion, red ochre. He sometimes applies them as if they were a viscous paste, with a consistency similar to porcelain, while at other times they are small granular touches that absorb light, and at other times, translucent glazes.
Vermeer enjoys a naked art. His interiors are reduced to a wall—adorned with a painting of symbolic meaning or with a map—, a table, and a window, always situated on the left through which light enters. Depth is suggested by the artifice of the arrangement of objects, and the composition obeys pure geometric traces. Life is only evoked by the presence of a person, often a young woman, or a couple, and large voids that surround those figures in silence. By using purely pictorial means, and thanks to an appearance of objectivity, he manages to create a poetic universe.
Some works by Vermeer belong to private collections in London, Paris, and New York, but the most important ones are kept in museums. Thus, in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, there are The Little Street, The Milkmaid, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, The Love Letter; in Berlin, The Officer and the Laughing Girl, The Pearl Necklace. In Boston, The Concert; in Brunswick, The Young Woman with a Wine Glass; in Dresden, The Procuress, The Woman with a Letter; in Frankfurt, The Geographer; in The Hague, Diana and Her Nymphs, View of Delft, Girl with a Pearl Earring; in London, My Wife Standing at the Virginal, The Couple with a Harpsichord; in the Louvre, The Lace Maker; in New York, Woman in the Window, The Flute Player, The Allegory of Faith; in Vienna, The Allegory of Painting; in Washington, The Girl Weighing Pearls, The Woman with the Red Hat.
