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Biographical Information:
Vermeer, a 17th century Dutch painter, is known for the photographic realist representation of his interior scenes. His father was a silk weaver and innkeeper who seems to have done some dealing in art. The same year that Vermeer married Catharina Bolnes, in 1653, he also entered the Delft Guild of St. Luke. In 1662/63 and 1670/71 he was an official of the guild. Very little is known about the artist, except that he was born in Delft in 1632 and worked and lived there until his death at 43. Some of his work show the influence of Carel Fabritius, the most brilliant of Rembrandt's pupils; other pictures suggest his contact with the Utrecht School. But none of this really explains the genesis of his style, so daringly original that his genius was not recognized until a century ago.
In 1655 when his father died he seems to have taken over the tavern, and by 1672 he was also dealing in worlds of art and acting as a appraiser. Vermeer seems to have been a slow, careful craftsman. Fewer than 40 paintings can be attributed to him, and of these only 2 have authentic dates: "The Procuress" of 1656 and "The Astronomer" of 1668.
Vermeer’s twenty years of activity can be divided into three stylistic groups. The first group, which would date from 1655 to 1660, can be formed around the 1656 "Procuress". At least two paintings can be dated earlier: "Diana and her Companions" and "Christ at the House of Mary and Martha". All three have a sense of form, color, and composition that can be related to early Italian baroque painting.
Vermeer’s well-known "Little Street in Deft" with its close and geometrically arranged spatial composition and soft coloristic harmonies, probably dates from about 1660. The more monumental and equally famous "View of Delft" - the only 2 cityscapes still existing today - is linked to Vermeer’s experimentation with the camera obscura, a forerunner of the modern camera. The sharpness of vision found in "The View of Delft" and the slight spatial distortions and compressions account for the unique qualities of this unusual painting.
Such works as the "Woman Weighing Pearls", the "Head of a Girl", the "Woman with a Red Hat", and the "Young Girl with a Flute" can be placed in Vermeer’s middle period, when the painter began to concentrate on single figures. The striking and unique quality of these works lies in their protophotographic nature. Vermeer was exposed to developments in photography as one of the leading European lensmakers was Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, a Delft contemporary. The organization of his paintings is a combination of great detail for the individual objects, the placement of that object within a precisely formulated, geometrical space, and finally an awareness of the naturalistic modulations of light never before realized by any other artist.
Vermeer’s genre scenes have hardly any narrative. Single figures, usually women, engage in simple, everyday tasks; when there are two as in "The Letter" (1666) they do no more than exchange glances. They exist in a timeless still-life world. The cool, clear light that filters in from the left is the only active element, working its miracles upon all the objects in its path. Looking at "The Letter", it feels as if a veil has been pulled from our eyes; the everyday world shines with jewel-like freshness, beautiful as we have never seen it before. No painter since Jan van Eyck saw as intensely as this. But Vermeer, unlike his predecessors, perceives reality as a mosaic of colored surfaces – or perhaps more accurately, he translates reality into a mosaic as he puts it on canvas. Rectangles predominate, carefully aligned with the picture surface, and there are no holes, no undefined empty spaces. The interlocking shapes give to Vermeer’s work a uniquely modern quality within 17th century art.
His last paintings are of a lesser quality. This is also the period of Vermeer’s financial difficulties. "The Letter" and the "Allegory of the New Testament" both have a forced, contrived sense of space, especially when compared with his classical phase of the 1660s. The weakening of his style is most noticeable in the "Girl with a Guitar".
In his greatest works Vermeer achieves a high degree of skill in spatial representation and a perfection of his technique for depicting his subjects. A sense of timelessness is conveyed through the illumination of a balanced and harmonious reality, enhanced by Vermeer’s mastery of color and brushwork.
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Artists Works:
Vermeer III, Jan
VERMEER VAN DELFT, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer, Jan
...more works by Vermeer, Johannes
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Museum Resources:
Mark Harden's texas.net Museum of Art
The Frick Collection
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Commercial Resources:
Art of Europe
Art of Europe
S.V. Voevodin
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In the News:
Rembrandt 2000
Janna Dekker and Jan van Leeuwen Photographs: Contemporary Dutch Still Lifes
The Glory of the Golden Age
California Classic: Realist Paintings by Robert Bechtle
The Impressionists at Argenteuil
FRANK BENSON: AMERICAN IMPRESSIONIST
The Still Lifes of Evaristo Baschenis: The Music of Silence
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Related Information:
Art of Europe
Johannes Vermeer of Delft & Jewish Calligraphy
Personal web page
ReNatssance
ReNATssance Art
The Frick Collection
Vermeer, Jan
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