Jan Vermeer

Dutch painter

• Born: October 31, 1632 (baptized)
• Birthplace: Delft, Holland, United Provinces (now in the Netherlands)
• Died: December 1, 1675
• Place of death: Delft, United Provinces (now in the Netherlands)

Although most scholars firmly attribute fewer than thirty-five paintings to the hand of Vermeer, he is considered a master of seventeenth century Dutch painting and a major artist of the Western world.

Early Life

The city of Delft was both a commercial center and a provincial place at the time Jan Vermeer (yahn vehr-MAYR) was born. The city’s artistic traditions reflected the court of the House of Orange in The Hague, since the court had once been in Delft and city-court ties remained strong. Little is known of Vermeer’s early life. His father was a silk weaver who was also an art dealer and a member of the Guild of St. Luke, to which artists, dealers, and artisans belonged. He owned a large house, known as the “Mechelen,” which contained an inn in the market square of Delft.

The young Vermeer may not have inherited his father’s role as innkeeper, but he apparently took over the art dealership in 1652 and continued to buy and trade paintings until his death. Since Vermeer painted very few works annually, he would have needed the dealership to support his wife and the eight children who survived infancy. In April, 1653, he married Catharina Bolnes and reared all of their children in her faith, although Catholicism was not in favor in the United Provinces. A master in the Delft Guild of St. Luke, Vermeer was elected to its governing board and twice was elevated to the highest office as dean.

Few documents remain to testify to Vermeer’s training as an artist. Certainly, he would have been influenced by the paintings that his father—and later he himself—bought and traded. He would have visited the studios of other artists in Delft. He may have studied with the Delft painter Leonaert Bramer. Bramer served on the guild’s governing board and was a witness for Vermeer at the time of his betrothal to Catharina Bolnes. Bramer had traveled and knew the work of Michelangelo and his followers, the Haarlem Classicists, and Flemish artists. Vermeer’s appreciation of these works is known by the type of paintings he owned and also by his own paintings. Vermeer was also influenced by one of Rembrandt’s students, Carel Fabritius, who settled in Delft around 1650. Both Vermeer and Fabritius shared a common interest in perspective and optics, the close interaction of figure and environment, and light and shadow effects.

Vermeer’s early work consisted of biblical and mythological subjects, such as Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (c. 1654-1655) and Diana and Her Companions (c. 1655-1656). The Procuress (1656), Vermeer’s earliest dated painting, probably was intended to suggest an episode from the story of the prodigal son, a common theme in Dutch art. Indeed, many of his subjects in both early and mature works correspond to well-established iconographic tradition. His unique talents did not depend on the types of scenes he portrayed but rather the way in which he depicted them.

Life’s Work

Vermeer is known as a poetic painter whose mature work consists almost entirely of quiet, intimate interior scenes that contain one or, at most, two persons. The viewer almost has a sense of intruding on someone’s privacy when studying the carefully composed scene, for example, a picture of a young woman going about her daily tasks. The subject matter is restricted and the environment consists of the same or similar rooms. The entire scene is captured in such a luminous, pearl-like atmosphere that even the most commonplace task seems to take on extraordinary significance. A cool light envelops the forms, flowing smoothly over a soft patterned tablecloth, enhancing the crisp white linen of a woman’s headdress, picking out three-dimensional highlights on a metallic bowl, and finally dissolving itself in the velvety darkness of a heavy curtain fold.

In many ways, Vermeer’s approach to painting was not unlike that of other Dutch painters in the second half of the seventeenth century. They were interested in realism, in light and texture, and in an accurate depiction of three-dimensional space. Some were quite interested in their subjects’ psychological response to the environment. These artists recorded in great detail the ordinary objects of daily life—the ever-popular maps and paintings with which they decorated their interior walls, the textures of clothing and curtains, the polished gleam of a chandelier, the cool black-and-white checkerboard patterning of floors, and the way sunlight spread across a room from an open window. Like them, Vermeer’s apparent realism sometimes carries overtones of symbolism and reference with which viewers of the time could identify.

Earlier Flemish artists, such as Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck, had used extensive symbolism in their religious paintings. A taste for allegorical content continued in seventeenth century Dutch art. Sometimes the symbolism was obvious. In The Allegory of Painting (1666-1667), for example, Vermeer depicts an artist, seated on a stool and with his back to the viewer, painting his young model who wears a crown of laurel and holds both a trumpet and a heavy volume of Thucydides. She represents Clio, the muse of history, and Vermeer seems to suggest that she should be the artist’s inspiration and source of fame, since history painting was considered the highest category of art. The large map prominently displayed on the back wall implies that the country’s fame will be enhanced by the artist’s work. Vermeer’s clientele probably was limited to the more intellectual and refined person who would immediately have recognized and appreciated the implications of the painting.

Emblem books, popular throughout Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contained a moral that often was abstrusely presented. Thus, a letter or a musical instrument in a painting could often be identified with the emotion of love. In the same manner, Vermeer often included in his work a “painting within a painting”—a map or landscape or seascape on the wall that carried some reference to the main subject. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, who delighted in lively narrative carrying a didactic theme, Vermeer seldom indulged in storytelling and his references are much more subtle. In Vermeer’s famous The Love Letter (1669-1670), for example, in which the mistress has just received a letter given to her by a servant, the seascape on the back wall, showing a calm sea, was understood as an omen of good luck in love. This emotion is reinforced by the musical instrument held by the mistress.

Vermeer shared with others of his time a keen interest in the mirror and lens and optical devices, such as the camera obscura. By using this, an image could be focused on a surface opposite the light source. Thus, the artist could experiment with heightened contrasts of light and dark, enhancement of color, variations of perspective, and halation of highlights. It would appear from his paintings that Vermeer did not trace directly from the image but instead used the camera obscura as another means to explore expressive possibilities.

Realist that he was, Vermeer was nevertheless far from being merely an imitator of nature. More than his contemporaries, he is noted for his success in bringing a mood of intimacy to a scene, while at the same time setting up a psychological tension that compels the viewer to continued investigation of the canvas. Relatively recent theories of perspective fascinated Dutch artists of the time, but Vermeer utilized its expressive potential rather than a rigid formula. He also changed the scale of the same maps and wall paintings to fit a particular work. Sometimes his background is dark and sometimes quite light to fit a special artistic vision. No one is more successful than Vermeer in creating a psychological mood between subject and environment.

Scholars have often remarked on Vermeer’s special quality of pearly light. It does not startle with sudden contrasts, as is seen in some of the great Italian masters. It is nevertheless equally dramatic in the subtle way in which it envelops and defines each form, sparkles in highlights, and creates an interlocking perfection within the composition. This quality of light is beautifully demonstrated in View of Delft (c. 1660-1661). Larger than most of Vermeer’s works, the painting seems to draw the viewer into a crystal-clear atmosphere of a huge, cloud-filled sky and shimmering water against a background cluster of buildings. Although Vermeer adjusted perspective and scale in this scene, he followed a long Dutch tradition of topographic views of cities.

The Astronomer (1668) is one of the only two dated paintings by the artist and offers a good example of his mature style. It probably is a companion piece to The Geographer , and both show the rare male figure in Vermeer’s work, engaged in scholarly pursuits. The facile handling of lights and darks and the typical air of preoccupation in the subject matter represent Vermeer at his best. The gloves and maps so carefully represented reflect the intense scientific interests of the period.

The exact chronology of Vermeer’s works continues to cause lively debate among scholars, since only two paintings are dated. Generally, it can be ascertained that in the early works brushstrokes are not as free and expressive, planes of color are less sharply defined, there is a greater concentration on specific texture, and the focus of the composition is more centered. The Guitar Player , usually dated in the early 1670’s, indicates Vermeer’s greater freedom of technique in his later years.

Significance

The works of Vermeer are extremely popular. Museums fortunate enough to hold works by this artist treasure them immensely, and it is rare for a Vermeer painting to come on the art market. Despite these facts, the artist’s name was not widely known until the middle to late nineteenth century. Even though he was an official of St. Luke’s Guild twice, little is known about commissioned work by Vermeer and no certain record of possible students he may have had has been located. The earliest principal source of information on seventeenth century Dutch artists was a book written by Arnold Houbraken, published around 1720. It only mentions Vermeer’s name and birth date. Since the number of Vermeer paintings is so small and probably those who owned them were a select and sophisticated group of collectors, very little information about the artist and his contributions was widely disseminated.

In 1866, the French critic Théophile Thoré (the pseudonym of W. Bürger) wrote a series of articles praising Vermeer’s work with much enthusiasm. Within a short while, Vermeer’s popularity was such that his name was often mentioned in art-historical writing and many of his works that had heretofore been attributed to more fashionable artists were returned to him. His popularity also presented a fertile field for forgers; the famous trial, in 1945, of Hans van Meegeren on charges of forging Vermeer’s work spotlighted the avid interest of both scholars and the public in this artist.

The Impressionists of the late nineteenth century were greatly affected by Vermeer’s sensitivity to his subject and his handling of light and color. Several of the French Impressionists, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, considered Vermeer one of the greatest artists. There is little doubt that art historians will continue to probe the enigma that is Vermeer. It is even more certain that an increasing number of art lovers will discover and respond favorably to the works of the great master of Delft.

Bibliography

Alpers, Svetlana. The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. Essential reading for all students of seventeenth century Dutch art. Alpers relates Dutch painting to the primacy of visual representation, which confirmed seeing and representing over reading and interpretation as the means for a new knowledge of the world. Includes an excellent chapter on the works of Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Huerta, Robert D. Giants of Delft: Johannes Vermeer and the Natural Philosophers, the Parallel Search for Knowledge During the Age of Discovery. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 2003. An examination of the thirst for scientific and artistic knowledge during the Dutch golden age among Vermeer and his contemporaries, including scientist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. Describes how perception was influenced by the microscope and other discoveries in the science of optics. Includes illustrations, a bibliography, and an index.

Koningsberger, Hans. The World of Vermeer, 1632-1675. Rev. ed. New York: Time-Life Books, 1973. An excellent overview of Vermeer within the context of his time, especially useful as an introduction to the artist. Discusses works of earlier Dutch artists who pioneered in developing the Dutch golden age in art. Artistic tastes, influences of the time, and the contemporary art market are addressed in clear terms. Includes color plates.

Liedtke, Walter, Michael C. Plomp, and Axel Rüger. Vermeer and the Delft School. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001. A catalog from a highly acclaimed exhibition presented in 2001 at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and London’s National Gallery. Contains reproductions of sixteen Vermeer canvases accompanied by analyses of these works. Discusses the artistic life in Delft from 1200 to 1700, describing the work of Vermeer and other area artists and assessing these artists’ influence on Dutch culture.

Slatkes, Leonard J. Vermeer and His Contemporaries. New York: Abbeville Press, 1981. Slatkes, a recognized scholar in seventeenth century Dutch art, provides solid discussion to accompany the numerous full-color reproductions. Describes many artists of the 1650’s and 1660’s who were influenced by Vermeer. Includes a comprehensive summary of iconography and Dutch art in general. Useful for the undergraduate and the general reader.

Steadman, Philip. Vermeer’s Camera: Uncovering the Truth Behind the Masterpieces. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Some art historians have speculated that Vermeer used an optical devise to help him capture intricate and precise details in his paintings. In an effort to resolve this question, Steadman offers recent evidence to prove that Vermeer used a camera obscura. Steadman provides detailed descriptions of Vermeer’s artistic techniques and of the studio in which he created his paintings.

Vermeer, Johannes. The Paintings: Complete Edition. Introduction, catalog, and attribution by Ludwig Goldscheider. 2d ed. London: Phaidon Press, 1967. The notes to the plates are outstanding, referring to important iconological interpretations and suppositions on Vermeer’s use of optical means to enhance reality. Summarizes almost all significant earlier publications.

Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Jan Vermeer. New York: Abrams, 1988. Full-page color reproductions of Vermeer’s paintings enhance this book greatly. Each full-page plate has a facing page of interpretative text. An introductory section places Vermeer within the context of his time.

Wolf, Bryan Jay. Vermeer and the Invention of Seeing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. Examines Vermeer’s work in light of newly discovered and employed methods of observeration, including the camera obscura. Also explores Dutch genre painting. Includes illustrations, some in color, a bibliography, and an index.