Jan Vermeer

Vermeer's habit of leaving his paintings undated and a lack of documentary evidence about his life have caused some difficulties with the identification of his work. Vermeer's career seems to have been uneventful and not especially successful. His widow was declared bankrupt in the year following his death. His work was neglected until rediscovered and popularized in the 19th Century, but only about 40 paintings have been positively attributed to Vermeer. Jan Vermeer was born in Delft in 1632, during the Dutch Golden Age, to a middle-class Protestant family. He converted to Catholocism and married Catharina Bolnes on April 5, 1653. In December of that year he was enrolled as a Master Painter of the Guild of St. Luke which would indicate he began his apprenticeship at age 15. Vermeer painted mostly women in domestic interiors. His work is characterized by a preoccupation with light, perspective and poetic meaning behind the objects he chooses to paint. The other genre painters of his day had a moral lesson to teach. Vermeer conveyed a simple moment in time. He bathed a room in sunlight and the artist painted it reverantly stroking each object and defining each shape with light. Some scholars believe he used the camera obscura to fill his canvases with shimmering flecks of light. Vermeer had a talent for seeing surface patterns and surface depth at the same time. This allowed him to create compositions of harmony and order. His seemingly ordinary objects have poetic meaning which was a reflection of the importance of symbolism at the time. Jan Vermeer had a great influence on the Impressionists. Van Gogh said of his painting "Girl in a Turban", "this strange painters palette consists of blue, lemon yellow, pearl gray, black and white". Renoir considered "The Lace Maker" one of the best pictures in the world.

Jan Vermeer Images:
A Woman Weighing Gold,c.1657
Girl With A Pearl Earring
Street in Delfi
The Artist’s Studio
The Lacemaker
The Milkmaid
The Milkmaid,c.1656
Vue De Delft