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Johannes Vermeer

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This article is about the Dutch painter. For other meanings, see Vermeer (disambiguation).
Milkmaid (1658-1660)
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Milkmaid (1658-1660)

Johannes Vermeer or Jan Vermeer (October 31, 1632 - buried on December 15, 1675) was a Dutch painter who lived and worked in Delft. He has also 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. Although his choice of subject matter, colors, and composition was similar to that of certain contemporaries (especially Pieter de Hooch), Vermeer achieved a timeless, monumental quality in his paintings that places it on a level all its own. His total output was extremely small by the standards of the time, with perhaps 50 attributed paintings in all, of which approximately 35 have survived. His latterday high regard is a recent phenomenon; for many years all but forgotten, he was "rediscovered" in the mid-19th Century by the French writer, critic, and activist Thore-Burger. His reputation and stature has been on the ascent ever since.

Contents

Life

Little is known about Vermeer's life, outside of basic facts provided by contemporary records and legal documents. He was born the son of an innkeeper in Delft in 1632. In 1653, at the age of twenty-one, Vermeer converted to Catholicism and married a Catholic woman, Catharina Bolnes, who came from a more prosperous bourgeois family. Catholics were an unpopular religious minority in Protestant Holland, and Vermeer and his wife moved into the house of his mother-in-law, Maria Thyns, in the "Papist Corner" of the town where Catholics congregated. Vermeer spent the rest of his life in his mother-in-law's house, and had eleven surviving children with Catherina (four others died in infancy). That same year, he was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke, the painters' guild, which meant he was recognised as a professional artist, although he was not able to pay his full membership dues until 1656.

By 1657 Vermeer had a wealthy patron, Pieter Claesz van Ruijven, who purchased many of his paintings. Although Vermeer seems to have painted relatively few works, they sold for high prices. He supplemented his income by working as an art-dealer selling the works of other artists, and was assisted by support from his mother-in-law. In 1662 he was elected one of the headmen of the Guild of St. Luke, as he was for a second time in 1670, a sign of success and respectability.

However, Vermeer's income dropped greatly after 1672, when a French invasion of Holland caused a general economic downturn and saw demand for luxury items like paintings collapse. With a large family to support, Vermeer was forced to take out a considerable loan in 1675. He died that same year at the age of forty-three.

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.

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.

Influence of other painters

Works

View of Delft (1660-1661)
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View of Delft (1660-1661)

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:

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.

Vermeer in other works

Hollywood Movie

Girl with a Pearl Earing

External links

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