Johannes Vermeer

Dutch painter (1632–1675)

"Vermeer" redirects here. For other uses, see Vermeer (disambiguation).

Johannes Vermeer

Detail of the painting The Procuress (c. 1656), believed to be a self-portrait by Vermeer[1]

Born|

Johannes Vermeer

baptised 31 October 1632

Delft, County of Holland, Dutch Republic

Died| 15 December 1675(1675-12-15) (aged 43)

Delft, County of Holland, Dutch Republic

Known for| Painting
Notable work|

* Girl with a Pearl Earring
* The Art of Painting

Movement| Dutch Golden Age
Baroque
Spouse| Catharina Bolnes
Signature

Johannes Vermeer (/vərˈmɪər, vərˈmɛər/ vər-MEER, vər-MAIR, Dutch: [joːˈɦɑnəs fərˈmeːr]; see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. During his lifetime, he was a moderately successful provincial genre painter, recognized in Delft and The Hague. He produced relatively few paintings, primarily earning his living as an art dealer. He was not wealthy; at his death, his wife was left in debt.[2]

Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, and frequently used very expensive pigments. He is particularly renowned for making masterful use of light in his work.[3] "Almost all his paintings", Hans Koningsberger wrote, "are apparently set in two smallish rooms in his house in Delft; they show the same furniture and decorations in various arrangements and they often portray the same people, mostly women."[4]

The modest celebrity he enjoyed during his life gave way to obscurity after his death. He was barely mentioned in Arnold Houbraken's major source book on 17th-century Dutch painting (Grand Theatre of Dutch Painters and Women Artists, published 1718) and, as a result, was omitted from subsequent surveys of Dutch art for nearly two centuries.[5][a] In the 19th century, Vermeer was rediscovered by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who published an essay attributing 66 pictures to him, although only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him today.[7] Since that time, Vermeer's reputation has grown enormously.

## Pronunciation of name

[edit]

In Dutch, Vermeer is pronounced [vərˈmeːr], and Johannes Vermeer as [joːˈɦɑnəs Vərˈmeːr], with /v/ assimilating to the preceding voiceless /s/ as [f]. The usual English pronunciation is /vərˈmɪər/ vər-MEER, with /vɜːrˈmɪər/ vur-MEER, with a long first vowel, occurring in the UK.[8][9][10] /vərˈmɛər/ vər-MAIR is also documented.[8][9][11][12] Another pronunciation, /vɛərˈmɪər/ vair-MEER, is attested from the UK.[13]

## Life

[edit]

Delft in 1649, by cartographer Willem Blaeu The Jesuit Church on the Oude Langendijk in Delft, c. 1730, brush in gray ink, by Abraham Rademaker, coll. Stadsarchief Delft

Relatively little was known about Vermeer's life until recently.[14] He seems to have been devoted exclusively to his art, living out his life in the city of Delft. Until the 19th century, the only sources of information were a few registers, official documents, and comments by other artists; for this reason, Thoré-Bürger named him "The Sphinx of Delft".[15] John Michael Montias added details on the family from the city archives of Delft in his Artists and Artisans in Delft: A Socio-Economic Study of the Seventeenth Century (1982).

### Youth and heritage

[edit]

Johannes Vermeer was baptized within the Reformed Church on 31 October 1632.[16][17][b] His mother, Digna Baltens (c. 1596–1670),[21][c] was from Antwerp.[19] Digna's father, Balthasar Geerts, or Gerrits (born in Antwerp in or around 1573), led an enterprising life in metalworking, and was arrested for counterfeiting.[23][19] Vermeer's father, named Reijnier Janszoon, was a middle-class worker of silk or caffa (a mixture of silk and cotton or wool).[d] He was the son of Jan Reyersz and Cornelia (Neeltge) Goris.[e] As an apprentice in Amsterdam, Reijnier lived on fashionable Sint Antoniesbreestraat, a street with many resident painters at the time. In 1615, Reijnier married Digna. The couple moved to Delft and had a daughter named Gertruy who was baptized in 1620.[f] In 1625, Reijnier was involved in a fight with a soldier named Willem van Bylandt who died from his wounds five months later.[25] Around this time, Reijnier began dealing in paintings. In 1631, he leased an inn, which he called "The Flying Fox". In 1635, he lived on Voldersgracht 25 or 26. In 1641, he bought a larger inn on the market square, named after the Flemish town "Mechelen". The acquisition of the inn constituted a considerable financial burden.[26] When Reijnier died in October 1652, Vermeer took over the operation of the family's art business.

### Marriage and family

[edit]

In April 1653, Johannes Reijniersz Vermeer married a Catholic woman, Catharina Bolnes (Bolenes).[27] The blessing took place in the quiet nearby village of Schipluiden.[28] Vermeer's new mother-in-law, Maria Thins, was initially opposed to the marriage as she was significantly wealthier than he, and it was probably she who insisted that Vermeer convert to Catholicism before the marriage on 5 April.[g] The fact that Vermeer's father was in considerable debt also did not help in discussions on the marriage. Leonaert Bramer, who was Catholic himself, put in a good word for Vermeer and it was this that led Maria to drop her oppositions.[28] According to art historian Walter Liedtke, Vermeer's conversion seems to have been made with conviction.[27] His painting The Allegory of Faith,[29] made between 1670 and 1672, placed less emphasis on the artists' usual naturalistic concerns and more on symbolic religious applications, including the sacrament of the Eucharist. Walter Liedtke, in Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, suggests that it was made for a learned and devout Catholic patron, perhaps for his schuilkerk, or "hidden church".[30] At some point, the couple moved in with Catharina's mother, who lived in a rather spacious house at Oude Langendijk, almost next to a hidden Jesuit church.[h] There Vermeer lived for the rest of his life, producing paintings in the front room on the second floor. His wife gave birth to 15 children, four of whom were buried before being baptized but were registered as "child of Johan Vermeer".[31] The names of 10 of Vermeer's children are known from wills written by relatives: Maertge, Elisabeth, Cornelia, Aleydis, Beatrix, Johannes, Gertruyd, Franciscus, Catharina, and Ignatius.[32] Most of these names are those of saints; the youngest (Ignatius) was likely named after the Ignatius of Loyola.[i][j]

### Career

[edit]

Replica of the St. Luke Guildhouse on Voldersgracht in Delft

It is unclear where and with whom Vermeer apprenticed as a painter. There is some speculation that Carel Fabritius may have been his teacher, based upon a controversial interpretation of a text written in 1668 by printer Arnold Bon. Art historians have found no hard evidence to support this.[33] Local authority Leonaert Bramer acted as a friend, but his style of painting is rather different from Vermeer's.[34] Liedtke suggests that Vermeer taught himself using information from one of his father's connections.[35] Some scholars think that Vermeer was trained under Catholic painter Abraham Bloemaert. Vermeer's style is similar to that of some of the Utrecht Caravaggists, whose works are depicted as paintings-within-paintings in the backgrounds of several of his compositions.[k]

A View of Delft after the Explosion of 1654, by Egbert van der Poel

On 29 December 1653, Vermeer became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke, a trade association for painters. The guild's records make clear that Vermeer did not pay the usual admission fee. It was a year of plague, war, and economic crisis; Vermeer was not alone in experiencing difficult financial circumstances. In 1654, a terrible explosion, known as the Delft Thunderclap, occurred at a gunpowder store and destroyed a large section of the city.[36] Pieter van Ruijven and his wife, Maria de Knuijt, were Vermeer's patrons for the better part of the artist's career. In 2023, Maria de Knuijt was identified by the curators of the 2023 exhibition of Vermeer's works at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam as the main patron because of her long-standing and supportive relationship with the artist.[37] It seems that Vermeer turned for inspiration to the art of the fijnschilders from Leiden. Vermeer was responding to the market of Gerard Dou's paintings, who sold his paintings for exorbitant prices. Dou may have influenced Pieter de Hooch and Gabriel Metsu too. Vermeer also charged higher than average prices for his work, most of which were purchased by an unknown collector.[38]

View of Delft (1660–1661): "He took a turbulent reality, and made it look like Heaven on earth."[39]

The influence of Johannes Vermeer on Metsu is unmistakable: the light from the left, the marble floor.[40][41][42] (Adriaan Waiboer, however, suggests that Metsu requires more emotional involvement of the viewer.) Vermeer probably competed also with Nicolaes Maes, who produced genre works in a similar style. In 1662, Vermeer was elected head of the guild and was reelected in 1663, 1670, and 1671, evidence that he (like Bramer) was considered an established craftsman among his peers. Vermeer worked slowly, probably producing three paintings a year on order. Balthasar de Monconys visited him in 1663 to see some of his work, but Vermeer had no paintings to show. The diplomat and the two French clergymen who accompanied him were sent to Hendrick van Buyten, a baker who had a couple of Vermeer's paintings as collateral.

In 1671, Gerrit van Uylenburgh organized the auction of Gerrit Reynst's collection and offered 13 paintings and some sculptures to Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Frederick accused them of being counterfeits and sent 12 back on the advice of Hendrick Fromantiou.[43] Van Uylenburg then organized a counter-assessment, asking a total of 35 painters to pronounce on their authenticity, including Jan Lievens, Melchior de Hondecoeter, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, and Johannes Vermeer.

### Wars and death

[edit]

The Little Street (1657–1658) Memorial (2007) of Johannes Vermeer in Oude Kerk. Delft, Netherlands

In 1672, a severe economic downturn known as the Rampjaar struck the Dutch Republic, after French troops led by Louis XIV invaded the country from the south during the Franco-Dutch War. At the same time, troops from Münster and Cologne invaded the country from the east, causing more destruction. Many people panicked; courts, theaters, shops and schools were closed. Vermeer's sale of a painting[clarify] that year was his last.[28] Five years passed before circumstances improved. In 1674, Vermeer was listed as a member of the civic guards.[44] In the summer of 1675, Vermeer borrowed 1,000 guilders in Amsterdam from Jacob Romboutsz (grandfather of Hendrick Sorgh), an Amsterdam silk trader, using his mother-in-law's property as a surety.[45][46]

On 15 December 1675, Vermeer died after a short illness. He was 43 years old. He was buried in the Protestant Old Church on 15 December 1675.[l][m] In a petition to her creditors, Catharina Bolnes attributed her husband's death to the stress of financial pressures, and described his death as follows:

> ... during the ruinous war with France he not only was unable to sell any of his art but also, to his great detriment, was left sitting with the paintings of other masters that he was dealing in. As a result and owing to the great burden of his children having no means of his own, he lapsed into such decay and decadence, which he had so taken to heart that, as if he had fallen into a frenzy, in a day and a half he went from being healthy to being dead.[47]

Catharina describes how the collapse of the art market had damaged Vermeer's business as both a painter and an art dealer. She had to raise 11 children and therefore asked the High Court to relieve her of debts owed to Vermeer's creditors.[31] Pioneering Dutch microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who worked for the city council as a surveyor, was appointed trustee.[48] The house had eight rooms on the first floor, the contents of which were listed in an inventory taken a few months after Vermeer's death.[49] In his studio, there were two chairs, two painter's easels, three palettes, 10 canvases, a desk, an oak pull table, a small wooden cupboard with drawers, and "rummage not worthy being itemized".[50] Nineteen of Vermeer's paintings were bequeathed to Catharina and her mother. The widow sold two more paintings to Hendrick van Buyten to pay off a substantial debt.[51]

Vermeer had been a respected artist in Delft, but he was almost unknown outside his hometown. A local patron named Pieter van Ruijven had purchased much of his output, which kept Vermeer afloat financially but reduced the possibility of his fame spreading.[n] Several factors contributed to his limited body of work. Vermeer never had any pupils, though one scholar has suggested that Vermeer taught his eldest daughter Maria to paint.[52] Additionally, his family obligations with so many children may have taken up much of his time, as would acting as both an art dealer and inn-keeper in running the family businesses. His time spent serving as head of the guild and his extraordinary precision as a painter may have also limited his output.

## Style

[edit]

The Milkmaid (c. 1658), Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

Vermeer may have first executed his paintings tonally like most painters of his time, using either monochrome shades of grey ("grisaille") or a limited palette of browns and greys ("dead coloring"), over which he would apply more saturated colors (reds, yellows, and blues) in the form of transparent glazes. No drawings have been positively attributed to Vermeer, and his paintings offer few clues to preparatory methods.

There is no other 17th-century artist who employed the exorbitantly expensive pigment ultramarine (derived from natural lapis lazuli) either so lavishly or so early in his career. Vermeer used this pigment in not just elements that are naturally of this colour; he also used it early in a work, beneath subsequent earth colours such as umber and ochre, to subtly tint their shade.[53] This working method most probably was inspired by Vermeer's understanding of Leonardo's observations that the surface of every object partakes of the colour of the adjacent object.[54]

An example of Vermeer using ultramarine as an underpaint is in The Girl with the Wine Glass. The shadows of the red satin dress are underpainted in natural ultramarine,[55] and, owing to this underlying blue paint layer, the red lake and vermilion mixture applied over it acquires a slightly purple, cool and crisp appearance.

Even after Vermeer's evident financial breakdown following the so-called rampjaar (year of disaster) in 1672, he continued to employ natural ultramarine generously, such as in Lady Seated at a Virginal. This could suggest that Vermeer was supplied with materials by a collector and would coincide with John Michael Montias' theory that Pieter van Ruijven was Vermeer's patron.

Vermeer's works are largely genre pieces and portraits, with the exception of two cityscapes and two allegories. His subjects offer a cross-section of seventeenth-century Dutch society, ranging from the portrayal of a simple milkmaid at work, to the luxury and splendour of rich notables and merchantmen in their roomy houses. Besides these subjects, religious, poetical, musical, and scientific comments can also be found in his work.[56][57][58]

### Painting materials

[edit]

One aspect of his meticulous painting technique was Vermeer's choice of pigments.[59] He is best known for his frequent use of the very expensive ultramarine (The Milkmaid) and also lead-tin-yellow (A Lady Writing a Letter), madder lake (Christ in the House of Martha and Mary), and vermilion. He also painted with ochres, bone black and azurite.[60] The claim that he used Indian yellow in Woman Holding a Balance[61] has been disproven by pigment analysis.[62]

In Vermeer's oeuvre, only about 20 pigments have been detected. Of these, seven principal pigments that Vermeer commonly employed are lead white, yellow ochre, vermilion, madder lake, green earth, raw umber, and ivory or bone black.[63]

### Theories of mechanical aid

[edit]

Vermeer's painting techniques have long been a source of debate, given their almost photorealistic attention to detail, despite Vermeer's having had no formal training and despite only limited evidence that Vermeer had created any preparatory sketches or traces for his paintings.[64]

In 2001, British artist David Hockney published the book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, in which he argued that Vermeer (among other Renaissance and Baroque artists including Hans Holbein and Diego Velázquez) used optics to achieve precise positioning in their compositions, and specifically some combination of curved mirrors, camera obscura, and camera lucida. This became known as the Hockney–Falco thesis, named after Hockney and Charles M. Falco, another proponent of the theory.

Philip Steadman published the book Vermeer's Camera: Uncovering the Truth behind the Masterpieces in 2001, in which Steadman specifically claimed that Vermeer had used a camera obscura to create his paintings. Steadman noted that many of Vermeer's paintings had been painted in the same room, and he found six of Vermeer's paintings that would be precisely the right size if they had been painted from inside a camera obscura in the room's back wall.[65]

Supporters of these theories have pointed to evidence in some of Vermeer's paintings, such as the often-discussed sparkling pearly highlights in Vermeer's paintings, which they argue are the result of the primitive lens of a camera obscura producing halation. It was also postulated that a camera obscura was the mechanical cause of the "exaggerated" perspective seen in The Music Lesson (London, Royal Collection).[66]

In 2008, American entrepreneur and inventor Tim Jenison developed the theory that Vermeer had used a camera obscura along with a "comparator mirror", which is similar in concept to a camera lucida but much simpler and makes it easy to match colour values. Jenison later modified the theory to simply involve a concave mirror and a comparator mirror. He spent the next five years testing his theory by re-creating The Music Lesson himself using these tools, a process captured in the 2013 documentary film Tim's Vermeer.[67]

Several points were brought out by Jenison in support of this technique. First was Vermeer's hyper-accurate rendition of light falloff along the wall. Neurobiologist Colin Blakemore, in an interview with Jenison, notes that human vision cannot process information about the absolute brightness of a scene.[68] Another was the addition of several highlights and outlines consistent with matching the effects of chromatic aberration, particularly noticeable in primitive optics. Last, and perhaps most telling, is a noticeable curvature in the original painting's rendition of the scrollwork on the virginal. This effect matched Jenison's technique precisely, caused by exactly duplicating the view as seen from a curved mirror.

This theory remains disputed. While there is no historical evidence regarding Vermeer's interest in optics, Vermeer was in close connection with pioneer lens maker Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who was his executor after death.[69][70] The detailed inventory of the artist's belongings drawn up after his death includes no camera obscura, lens, nor similar device.[71][49][o]

## Works

[edit]

See also: List of paintings by Johannes Vermeer and Category:Johannes Vermeer

It is believed Vermeer produced a total of fewer than 50 paintings, of which 34 have survived.[73] Only three Vermeer paintings were dated by the artist: The Procuress (1656; Gemäldegalerie, Dresden); The Astronomer (1668; Musée du Louvre, Paris); and The Geographer (1669; Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt).

Vermeer's mother-in-law, Maria Thins, owned Dirck van Baburen's 1622 oil on canvas The Procuress (or a copy of it), which appears in the background of two of Vermeer's paintings. The same subject was also painted by Vermeer. Almost all of Vermeer's paintings are of contemporary subjects in a smaller format, with a cooler palette dominated by blues, yellows, and grays.Vermeer painted multiple artworks portraying a pure profile like the painting Woman with a Pearl Necklace, which was uncommon in Dutch art at the time.[74] Practically all of his surviving works belong to this period, usually domestic interiors with one or two figures lit by a window on the left.[75] They are characterized by a sense of compositional balance and spatial order, unified by a pearly light. Mundane domestic or recreational activities are imbued with a poetic timelessness (e.g., Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie). Vermeer's two townscapes have also been attributed to this period: View of Delft (The Hague, Mauritshuis) and The Little Street (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum).

A few of his paintings show a certain hardening of manner and are generally thought to represent his late works. From this period come The Allegory of Faith (c. 1670; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and The Love Letter (c. 1670; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).

## Legacy

[edit]

Théophile Thoré-Bürger

Originally, Vermeer's works were largely overlooked by art historians for two centuries after his death. A select number of connoisseurs in the Netherlands did appreciate his work, yet even so, many of his works were attributed to then better-known artists such as Metsu or Mieris. The Delft master's modern rediscovery began about 1860, when German museum director Gustav Waagen saw The Art of Painting in the Czernin gallery in Vienna and recognized the work as a Vermeer, though it was attributed to Pieter de Hooch at that time.[76] Research by Théophile Thoré-Bürger culminated in the publication of his catalogue raisonné of Vermeer's works in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1866.[77] Thoré-Bürger's catalogue drew international attention to Vermeer[78] and listed more than 70 works by him, including many that Thoré-Bürger regarded as uncertain.[77]

Upon the rediscovery of Vermeer's work, several prominent Dutch artists modelled their style on his work, including Simon Duiker. Other artists who were inspired by Vermeer include Danish painter Wilhelm Hammershoi[79] and American Thomas Wilmer Dewing.[80] In the 20th century, Vermeer's admirers included Salvador Dalí, who painted his own version of The Lacemaker (on commission from collector Robert Lehman) and pitted large copies of the original against a rhinoceros in some surrealist experiments. Dali also celebrated the master in The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table, 1934.

Han van Meegeren was a 20th-century Dutch painter who worked in the classical tradition. He became a master forger, motivated by a blend of aesthetic and financial reasons, creating and selling many new "Vermeers" before turning himself in for forgery to avoid being charged with capital treason for collaboration with the Nazis, specifically in selling what had been believed to be original artwork to the Nazis.[81]

On the evening of 23 September 1971, a 21-year-old hotel waiter, Mario Pierre Roymans, stole Vermeer's Love Letter from the Fine Arts Palace in Brussels, where it was on loan from the Rijksmuseum for the exhibition Rembrandt and his Age.[82]

To mark the 26th anniversary of the opening of an exhibition at Washington, DC's National Gallery of Art featuring Vermeer's work, Google honored Vermeer with a Google Doodle on 12 November 2021.[83]

A 2023 exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam featured 28 of Vermeer's works, the most ever shown together.[84] More than 650,000 people visited the exhibition, making it the museum's most visited exhibition.[85] Coinciding with the exhibition, the documentary film Close to Vermeer was released the same year. The film followed curators Gregor J. M. Weber and Pieter Roelofs as they sought loans of Vermeer's artwork from museums around the world.[86] Also released in 2023 was another movie about the exhibition at the Rijkmuseum: Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition. (External links to both movies are below.)

## In popular culture

[edit]

See also: Johannes Vermeer in popular culture

Vermeer's reputation and works have been featured in both literature and in films. Tracy Chevalier's novel Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999) and the 2003 film of the same name present a fictional account of Vermeer's creation of the famous painting and his relationship with the equally fictional model.

Many artists are inspired by the famous painter. For example, culinary photographer Aimee Twigger draws on Vermeer's chiaroscuro for her gustatory journeys through recipes.[87]

## Gallery of selected works

[edit]

Main article: List of paintings by Johannes Vermeer

* The Girl with the Wine Glass (c. 1659), Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Brunswick, Germany

* The Music Lesson or A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman (c. 1662–1665), Royal Collection in London

* Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665), considered a Vermeer masterpiece, Mauritshuis in Den Haag

* Girl with the Red Hat (c. 1665–1666), National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

* Mistress and Maid (1666–1667), Frick Collection in New York City

* The Art of Painting or The Allegory of Painting (c. 1666–1668), Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna

* The Astronomer (c. 1668), Musée du Louvre in Paris

* The Geographer (1669), Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main

* Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid (c. 1670–1671), National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, Ireland

* The Allegory of Faith (1670–1672), Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

* Lady Seated at a Virginal (c. 1670–1672), National Gallery in London

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Vermeer was largely unknown to the general public, but his reputation was not totally eclipsed after his death: "While it is true that he did not achieve widespread fame until the 19th century, his work had always been valued and admired by well-informed connoisseurs."[6]
2. ^ Vermeer was baptized as Joannis.[18][16] Jan was the most popular version of the name among Calvinists. Joannis was a Latinazied form of Jan, which was preferred by Roman Catholics and upper-middle class Protestants.[18][16] However, Vermeer was born into a lower-middle class family.[19][20] Still, according to Montias, it is unlikely that his parents were Catholics "at this time [the time of Vermeer's baptism]," seeing that they "baptized him in the established church."[18] Throughout his life, Vermeer never used the name Jan. Nevertheless, "most Dutch authors, in the century since his rediscovery, have dubbed him Jan, perhaps unconsciously to bring him closer to the mainstream of Calvinist culture."[18][16]
3. ^ His mother was born in Antwerp. When she married Vermeer's father in 1615, she claimed to be twenty years old, but she may have "exaggerated her age by a year or so."[22] Digna's parents were married in Antwerp in 1596.
4. ^ His name was Reijnier or Reynier Janszoon, always written in Dutch as Jansz. or Jansz; this was his patronym. As there was another Reijnier Jansz at that time in Delft, it seemed necessary to use the pseudonym "Vos", meaning Fox. From 1640 onward, he had changed his alias to Vermeer.
5. ^ Neeltge remarried three times, the second time shortly after Jan's death, in October 1597.[24]
6. ^ In 1647 Geertruy, Vermeer's only sister, married a frame maker. She kept on working at the inn helping her parents, serving drinks and making beds.
7. ^ Catholicism was not a forbidden religion, but tolerated in the Dutch Republic. They were not allowed to build new churches, so services were held in hidden churches (so-called Schuilkerk). Catholics were restrained in their careers, unable to get high-rank jobs in city administration or civic guard. It was impossible to be elected as a member of the city council; therefore, the Catholics were not represented in the provincial and national assembly.
8. ^ A Roman Catholic chapel now exists at this spot.
9. ^ The parish registers of the Delft Catholic church do not exist anymore, so it is impossible to prove but likely that his children were baptized in a hidden church.
10. ^ The number of children seems inconsistent, but 11 was stated by his widow in a document to get help from the city council. One child died after this document was written.
11. ^ Identifiable works include compositions by Utrecht painters Baburen and Everdingen.
12. ^ He was baptized as Joannis, but buried under the name Jan.[relevant?]
13. ^ When Catharina Bolnes was buried in 1688, she was registered as the "widow of Johan Vermeer".
14. ^ Van Ruijven's son-in-law Jacob Dissius owned 21 paintings by Vermeer, listed in his heritage in 1695. These paintings were sold in Amsterdam the following year in a much-studied auction, published by Gerard Hoet.
15. ^ The inventory taken soon after Vermeer's death does not mention a camera obscura, although it does include mirrors, easels, palettes, canvases, and a possible maulstick. Gold, silver, jewellery, or musical instruments are not mentioned; it has been suggested that Catharina Bolnes might have removed any valuables from the house to conceal them from her creditors, or pawned the jewels and gold and silver.[72]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Boone, Jon. "The Procuress: Evidence for a Vermeer Self-Portrait". Essential Vermeer. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
2. ^ "Jan Vermeer". The Bulfinch Guide to Art History. Artchive. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
3. ^ Janson, Jonathan (5 February 2003). "An Interview with Jørgen Wadum". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
4. ^ Koningsberger, Hans (1977). The World of Vermeer. New York, USA: Time-Life Books. OCLC 755281576.
5. ^ Barker, Emma; et al. (1999). The Changing Status of the Artist. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 199\. ISBN 0-300-07740-8.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
6. ^ Blankert, Albert (2007). "Vermeer and his Public". In Blankert, Albert; Montias, John Michael; Aillaud, Gilles (eds.). Vermeer. New York, USA: Overlook. p. 164\. ISBN 978-1-58567-979-9.
7. ^ Janson, Jonathan. "Complete Vermeer Catalogue & Tracker". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
8. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011). Roach, Peter; Setter, Jane; Esling, John (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
9. ^ a b Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
10. ^ Upton, Clive; Kretzschmar, William A. Jr. (2017). The Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-12566-7.
11. ^ "Vermeer". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
12. ^ "Vermeer". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
13. ^ "Vermeer". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
14. ^ Janson, Jonathan. "Vermeer the Man and Painter". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
15. ^ "Vermeer: A View of Delft". The Economist. 1 April 2001. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
16. ^ a b c d Janso, Jonathan. "Vermeer's Name". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
17. ^ "Digital Family Tree of the Municipal Records Office of the City of Delft". Beheersraad Digitale Stamboom. 2004. Archived from the original on 23 February 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2009. "The painter is recorded as: Child=Joannis; Father=Reijnier Jansz; Mother=Dingnum Balthasars; Witnesses=Pieter Brammer, Jan Heijndricxsz, Maertge Jans; Place=Delft; Date of baptism=31 October 1632."
18. ^ a b c d Montias 2018, p. 64–65
19. ^ a b c Janson, Jonathan. "Vermeer's Life and Art (part one)". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
20. ^ "Johannes Vermeer". The Art Story. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
21. ^ Janson, Jonathan. "Vermeer's Family Tree". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
22. ^ Montias 2018, p. 17
23. ^ Montias 1989, p. 17–34.
24. ^ Montias 1989, p. 35–55.
25. ^ Montias 1989, p. 83.
26. ^ Huerta 2003, p. 42.
27. ^ a b Liedtke, Walter; Plomp, Michiel C.; Rüger, Axel (2001). Vermeer and the Delft school: [catalogue ... in conjunction with the exhibition "Vermeer and the Delft School" held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from 8 March to 27 May 2001, and at The National Gallery, London, from 20 June to 16 September 2001]. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 359. ISBN 0-87099-973-7.
28. ^ a b c Schneider, Norbert (2000). Vermeer: The Complete Paintings. Taschen. pp. 8, 13.
29. ^ "Johannes Vermeer: Allegory of the Catholic Faith (32.100.18)". The Met. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 20 July 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
30. ^ Liedtke 2007, p. 893.
31. ^ a b Montias 1991, pp. 344–345.
32. ^ Montias 1991, pp. 370–371.
33. ^ Montias 1991, p. 104.
34. ^ "Johannes Vermeer: Biography". National Gallery of Art. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
35. ^ Liedtke 2007, p. 886.
36. ^ Janson, Jonathan. "Delft in Johannes Vermeer's Time". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
37. ^ Bailey, Martin (7 February 2023). "Revealed: Vermeer's patron was, in fact, a woman—and she bought half the artist's entire oeuvre". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
38. ^ Nash, John Malcolm (1972). The age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Dutch painting in the seventeenth century. New York, USA: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-03-091870-4.
39. ^ Graham-Dixon, Andrew (2002). "The Madness of Vermeer". Secret Lives of the Artists. BBC Four.
40. ^ Waiboer, Adriaan E. (2007). Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): Life and Work (PhD). New York University. pp. 225–230.
41. ^ "Curator in the spotlight: Adriaan E. Waiboer, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin". Codart. Archived from the original on 13 September 2014. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
42. ^ Stamberg, Susan (18 May 2011). "Gabriel Metsu: The Dutch Master You Don't Know". Morning Edition. NPR.
43. ^ Montias 1989, p. 207.
44. ^ Janson, Jonathan. "Vermeer's Delft Today: Schutterij and the Doelen". Essential Vermeer.
45. ^ Montias 1991, p. 337.
46. ^ "A Postscript on Vermeer and His Milieu", Auteur: John Michael Montias, Uitgever: Uitgeverij Atlas Contact B.V.
47. ^ Janson, Jonathan. "Vermeer's Life and Art (part four)". Essential Vermeer.
48. ^ Snyder 2015, pp. 268–271.
49. ^ a b Janson, Jonathan. "Inventory of movable goods in Vermeer's house in Delft". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
50. ^ Montias 1991, pp. 339–344.
51. ^ Montias 1989, p. 217.
52. ^ Binstock, Benjamin (2009). Vermeer's family secrets: genius, discovery, and the unknown apprentice. New York, USA: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96664-1. OCLC 191024081.
53. ^ [1] "Never to be repeated Vermeer exhibition stuns with scientific revelations", CNN
54. ^ Broos, Ben; Blankert, Albert; Wadum, Jørgen; Wheelock Jr., Arthur K. (1995). Johannes Vermeer. Zwolle: Waanders Publishers. ISBN 978-90-400-9794-2.
55. ^ Gaskell, Jonker & National Gallery of Art (U.S.) 1998, p. 157.
56. ^ "THE ASTRONOMER by Johannes Vermeer". www.essentialvermeer.com. Retrieved 26 April 2025.
57. ^ "THE ART OF PAINTING by Johannes Vermeer". www.essentialvermeer.com. Retrieved 26 April 2025.
58. ^ "THE ALLEGORY OF FAITH by Johannes Vermeer". www.essentialvermeer.com. Retrieved 26 April 2025.
59. ^ Kuhn 1968, pp. 154–202.
60. ^ "Pigment Analyses of Paintings: Dutch Painters". ColourLex.
61. ^ Kuhn 1968, pp. 191–192.
62. ^ Gifford, E. M. Painting Light: Recent Observations on Vermeer's Technique. In Gaskell, Jonker & National Gallery of Art (U.S.) 1998, pp. 185–199
63. ^ Janson, Jonathan. "Vermeer's Palette". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
64. ^ Sooke, Alastair (25 April 2017). "Why Vermeer's paintings are less 'real' than we think". BBC Culture. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
65. ^ Steadman, Philip. "Vermeer and the Camera Obscura". BBC. Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
66. ^ Steadman, Philip (2017). Vermeer and the Problem of Painting Inside the Camera Obscura. Berlin/Munich/Boston: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 76–86\. ISBN 978-3-11-054721-4.
67. ^ Andersen, Kurt (29 November 2013). "Reverse-Engineering a Genius (Has a Vermeer Mystery Been Solved?)". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 30 November 2013.
68. ^ Tim's Vermeer (2013) documentary – See 40:50 onwards
69. ^ Bryson, Bill (2014). A Short History of Nearly Everything. Lulu Press. ISBN 978-1-312-79256-2.
70. ^ van Berkel, K. (1996). "Vermeer, Van Leeuwenhoek en De Astronoom". Vrij Nederland: 62–67.
71. ^ Janson, Jonathan. "Vermeer and the Camera Obscura". Essential Vermeer. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
72. ^ Roelofs, Pieter (2023). "Closer to Vermeer: A Look Inside the Family Home of the Delft Painter". Exhibition for the 2023 exhibition "Vermeer" at the Rijksmuseum. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Hannibal Books, Veurne. pp. 42–99\. ISBN 978-94-6466-616-8.
73. ^ "Vermeer was brilliant, but he was not without influences". The Economist. 12 October 2017.
74. ^ Schwartz, Gary (2017). Vermeer in Detail. Ludion. ISBN 978-1419727641.
75. ^ Lania, Nicole (21 January 2021). "5 Unbelievable Facts About Vermeer's Use of Light". Perfect Picture Lights.
76. ^ Gaskell, Jonker & National Gallery of Art (U.S.) 1998, pp. 19–20.
77. ^ a b Gaskell, Jonker & National Gallery of Art (U.S.) 1998, p. 42.
78. ^ Vermeer, J.; Duparc, F. J.; Wheelock, A. K.; Mauritshuis (Hague, Netherlands); National Gallery of Art (1995). Johannes Vermeer. Washington: National Gallery of Art. p. 59\. ISBN 0-300-06558-2.
79. ^ Gunnarsson, Torsten (1998). Nordic Landscape Painting in the Nineteenth Century. Yale University Press. p. 227\. ISBN 0-300-07041-1.
80. ^ "Interpretive Resource: Artist Biography: Thomas Wilmer Dewing". Art Institute Chicago. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
81. ^ Julius, Anthony (22 June 2008). "The Lying Dutchman". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
82. ^ Janson, Jonathan. "Vermeer Thefts: The Love Letter". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
83. ^ "Celebrating Johannes Vermeer". Google. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
84. ^ Cumming, Laura (12 February 2023). "Vermeer review – one of the most thrilling exhibitions ever conceived". The Observer. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
85. ^ "Vermeer tentoonstelling Rijksmuseum breekt bezoekersrecord". NOS (in Dutch). 4 June 2023.
86. ^ Sheila O'Malley, Review of "Close to Vermeer"
87. ^ "Refugee camp image wins food photo contest". BBC News. 28 April 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2022.

### Sources

[edit]

* Gaskell, Ivan; Jonker, Michiel (1998). Vermeer Studies. Washington: National Gallery of Art. ISBN 0-300-07521-9.
* Huerta, Robert D. (2003). Giants of Delft: Johannes Vermeer and the Natural Philosophers: the Parallel Search for Knowledge During the Age of Discovery. Bucknell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8387-5538-9.
* Kuhn, H. (1968). "A Study of the Pigments and Grounds Used by Jan Vermeer". Reports and Studies in the History of Art. National Gallery of Art. OCLC 888369661.
* Liedtke, Walter A. (2007). Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-300-12028-8.
* Montias, John Michael (1989). Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History. Princeton University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv301fz1. ISBN 0-691-00289-4. JSTOR j.ctv301fz1. S2CID 242041929.
* Montias, John Michael (1991). Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History (reprint, illustrated ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00289-7.
* Montias, John Michael (2018). Vermeer and His Milieu A Web of Social History. New Haven, Connecticut, USA: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-18859-1.
* Snyder, Laura J. (2015). Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing. New York, USA: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-07746-9.

## Further reading

[edit]

Library resources about
Johannes Vermeer

* * *

* Resources in your library
* Resources in other libraries

* Kozloff, Max (2011). Vermeer: A Study. Rome: Contrasto. ISBN 978-88-6965-279-0.
* Kreuger, Frederik H. (2007). New Vermeer, Life and Work of Han van Meegeren. Rijswijk: Quantes. pp. 54, 218 and 220 give examples of Van Meegeren fakes that were removed from their museum walls. Pages 220/221 give an example of a non–Van Meegeren fake attributed to him. ISBN 978-90-5959-047-2. Archived from the original on 29 August 2010. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
* Liedtke, Walter (2009). The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer. New York, USA: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-1-58839-344-9.
* Liedtke, Walter A. (2001). Vermeer and the Delft School. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-973-4.
* Proto, Neil Thomas. (2025) Johannes Vermeer, Provocateur: Risk and Courage in Dissent FriesenPress.
* Schneider, Nobert (1993). Vermeer. Cologne, Germany: Benedikt Taschen Verlag. ISBN 3-8228-6377-7.
* Sheldon, Libby; Costaros, Nicola (February 2006). "Johannes Vermeer's 'Young woman seated at a virginal". The Burlington Magazine (1235) (vol. CXLVIII ed.).
* Singh, Iona (2012). "Vermeer, Materialism and the Transcendental in Art". from the book, Color, Facture, Art & Design. United Kingdom: Zero Books. pp. 18–40.
* Steadman, Philip (2002). Vermeer's Camera, the truth behind the masterpieces. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280302-6.
* Wadum, Jørgen. Contours of Vermeer. In Gaskell, Jonker & National Gallery of Art (U.S.) 1998, pp. 201–223
* Wheelock Jr., Arthur K. (1988) [1981]. Jan Vermeer. New York, USA: Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-1737-8.

## External links

[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Johannes Vermeer.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Johannes Vermeer.

* Online Exhibition of Johannes Vermeer
* 500 pages on Vermeer and Delft
* Johannes Vermeer, biography at Artble
* Essential Vermeer, website dedicated to Johannes Vermeer
* Johannes Vermeer in the Encyclopædia Britannica
* Vermeer Center Delft, center with tours about Vermeer
* Vermeer's Mania for Maps, WGBHForum, 30 December 2016
* Pigment analyses of many of Vermeer's paintings at Colourlex
* Location of Vermeer's The Little Street Archived 15 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine
* Vermeer exhibition at the Rijkmuseum, 10 February – 4 June 2023, The New York Times review, The New York Times article, The New York Review of Books review, Laura Cumming, "Vermeer review—one of the most thrilling exhibitions ever conceived", The Guardian, 12 February 2023.
* Seeing Beyond the Beauty of a Vermeer, The New York Times Magazine, May 25, 2023
* Close to Vermeer 2023 documentary movie directed by Suzanne Raes
* Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry Exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 22 October 2017 – 21 January 2018.

* v
* t
* e

Johannes Vermeer

Paintings|

* List of works
* Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (c. 1655)
* Saint Praxedis (c. 1655)
* Diana and Her Companions (c. 1653–1656)
* The Procuress (1656)
* A Girl Asleep (c. 1657)
* Officer and Laughing Girl (c. 1657)
* The Little Street (c. 1657–1658)
* The Milkmaid (c. 1657–1658)
* Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (c. 1657–1659)
* Girl Interrupted at Her Music (c. 1658–1659)
* The Girl with the Wine Glass (c. 1659–1660)
* The Wine Glass (c. 1660)
* View of Delft (c. 1660–1661)
* Woman with a Water Jug (c. 1660–1662)
* Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1662–1663)
* Woman with a Lute (c. 1662–1663)
* Woman Reading a Letter (c. 1663)
* The Concert (c. 1664)
* Woman with a Pearl Necklace (c. 1664)
* The Music Lesson (c. 1662–1665)
* Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665)
* A Lady Writing a Letter (c. 1665)
* Girl with a Red Hat (c. 1665–1666)
* Study of a Young Woman (c. 1665–1667)
* Mistress and Maid (c. 1667)
* The Art of Painting (c. 1666–1668)
* The Astronomer (c. 1668)
* The Geographer (c. 1668–1669)
* The Lacemaker (c. 1669–1670)
* The Love Letter (c. 1669–1670)
* Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid (c. 1670–1671)
* The Allegory of Faith (c. 1670–1672)
* Lady Seated at a Virginal (c. 1670–1672)
* Lady Standing at a Virginal (c. 1670–1672)
* A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals (c. 1670–1672)
* The Guitar Player (c. 1672)

Formerly attributed|

* Girl with a Flute (c. 1665–1670)
* A Lady Playing the Guitar (1680s)

Scholarship|

* Théophile Thoré-Bürger
* Jonathan Janson
* Walter Liedtke
* John Michael Montias
* Laura J. Snyder
* Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

Portrayals|

* The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used as a Table (1934 painting)
* Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999 novel)
* Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003 film)
* Girl with a Pearl Earring (2008 play)

Related|

* Maria Thins (mother-in-law)
* Maria de Knuijt and Pieter van Ruijven (patrons)
* Han van Meegeren
* Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
* Delft School (painting)
* Tronie
* Dutch Golden Age painting
* Hockney–Falco thesis
* Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft
* Vermeer Centre
* All the Vermeers in New York (1990 film)
* Writing to Vermeer (1999 opera)
* Chasing Vermeer (2004 novel)
* Vermeer's Hat (2008 history book)
* Tim's Vermeer (2013 documentary film)

Category

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Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Australia

Artists|

* ULAN
* RKD Artists
* KulturNav
* Städel

People|

* Netherlands
* Trove
* Deutsche Biographie

Other|

* SNAC

*[c.]: circa
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