Johannes Vermeer: biography
Johannes Vermeer, son of the weaver and art merchant Reyner and Digna Baltens was baptized in the Nieuwe Kerk of Delft on 31 October 1632. Johanees inherited his father’s business in 1652 and the following year, year – 1653 – he joined the Guild of St. Luke as a master painter. Unfortunately, there is little information about his artistic training, but his apprenticeship must have begun prior to 1650. The data about his relationships with other artists are also vague and scanty. Leonard Bramer (1596-1674) was the witness at his wedding to Catharina Bolnes in April 1653 after he had converted to Roman Catholicism and Gerard Ter Broch (1617-1681) cosigned a document with him that same year. However, nothing is known about the types of relationships Vermeer had with these artists even though there is documentary evidence of much contact between Bramer and the Vermeer family around the middle of the century. In a poem written in 1667 Arnold Bon said that Vermeer had been a pupil of Carel Fabritius (1622-1654), but there is no documentary proof of this. The painting collection of the Utrecht school of Maria Thins may have played an important role in his early career since the paintings from that period are quite distant from the styles popular in Delft. Mrs. Thins was his mother-in-law and distant relation of the painter Abraham Bloemaert. After an initial period dedicated to Biblical and mythological subjects, a little before 1660 he turned to genre paintings; he may have been influenced by the arrival of Pieter de Hooch and Jan Steen in 1654 and 1655, respectively. His unique interpretation of themes that were well consolidated in Dutch painting tradition, soon led him to become one of the most esteemed and sought after artists in the city. In spite of the lack of documented proof, Vermeer must have been quite famous by some time around 1660, since he became one of the directors of the Guild of St. Luke in 1662-1663. Following the invasion of Holland by Louis XIV and the subsequent economic crisis, the painter’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. He died three years later leaving his wife and ten children with a mountain of debts.
Johannes Vermeer: the works
Officer and Laughing Girl
1657 circaOnce again we see a domestic setting with light coming from the left. Vermeer portrayed a young girl and an officer sitting at a table. The painting belongs to a moralistic genre of domestic scenes that were very popular in mid-seventeenth century Holland; the subjects were quite often amorous behavior and courtship. The girl holds a glass of wine in her hands, the main focus of the painting that emphasizes the intimacy between the two protagonists. With respect to other paintings of similar subjects Vermeer, who never painted his scenes in typical tavern settings, reduced the figures to a couple intent on courtship.
The Kitchen-Maid
1658-1660 circaIn a bare and simple room, a young woman is pouring milk into an earthenware bowl. The light coming from the window highlights her white cap and the bright yellow of her bodice. Interested primarily in rendering the subject’s state of mind, Vermeer created a bond between the bare space and the robust figure of the girl. On the floor there is a warmer that alludes to the desire for kindness and thoughtfulness on the part of the beloved which is emphasized by the cupids on the tiles at the base of the wall. These elements are related to the maid’s human warmth rather than to romantic love.
Girl Drinking Wine with a Gentleman
1660-1661 circaDrinking, as a part of the courtship ritual, played an important role in Vermeer’s paintings. As in other paintings such as Officer and Laughing Girl, it is the glass of wine offered to a young woman that is main theme of this picture of two young people seated at a table with light coming through a leaded window on the left. The couple has just set aside the zither and musical scores, or perhaps they are getting ready to sing after the girl finishes her wine. The man is standing next to her with a hand on the pitcher ready to refill the glass. The gentleman looking at a lady while she drinks, as he holds a bottle in hand can also be found in a painting by Gerard ter Borch – however in that picture the man has an arm around the girl’s shoulder, clearly revealing his intensions.
View of Delft
1661Vermeer painted the port of Delft form the south, while the city in the background is bathed in sunlight. This view is related to the tradition of topographical painting that often placed the city beyond a large body of water, even though the vivacity of Vermeer’s painting distinguishes it from all earlier views of the city. He put the foreground into shadow forcing the viewer to focus his attention on the urban landscape in the background. The painting is quite unusual in the corpus of his works, since he was more interested in domestic scenes than landscapes.
Young Woman Reading a Letter
1663-1664 circaIn the exact middle of the painting is a woman, dressed in blue, reading a letter in a room, with the usual map on the wall. She is standing between the table and chair in the foreground, and the tablecloth chromatically blends with her jacket. Although she seems immobile, it is the swirls on the map in the background that allude to her intense feelings. The subject of reading a letter, popular in seventeenth century Dutch art, is traditionally linked to love. In Vermeer’s painting the woman has interrupted her toilette to read the mysterious missive that probably came from her beloved.
Young Lady with a Pearl Necklace
1664 circaA young woman wearing a yellow dressed trimmed with ermine is looking into the mirror as she puts on a pearl necklace. On the table next to her we see a powder puff and basin. Women at the toilette was a popular theme in Dutch painting of the era, and it seems that Vermeer used a small painting by Frans van Mieris as his model, even though his figure is less sensual than the prototype. Vermeer’s girl has been identified as the personification of Vanity even though the serenity of the setting suggests a more positive interpretation. Both the mirror and the pearl necklace are rather ambivalent elements from the symbolic standpoint.
Head of a Young Girl
1665 circaThe girl in the painting looks at the observer with liquid eyes and a semi-closed mouth. Her head is covered with bright yellow and blue turban, a feature that was totally uncommon in Dutch fashions of the time and could not be seen in any of Vermeer’s portraits from the ‘Fifties. Although it had been identified as a portrait of the artist’s daughter, Marie, and hence dated after 1670, it was actually done around 1665 the period that he delicately shaded the flesh tones, and coated them with a thin transparent layer.
Lady Writing a Letter
1665 circaIn a room filled with soft light, a smiling young woman interrupts her writing and looks at the viewer. The theme of a woman writing a letter was not unusual in Dutch painting and is traditionally linked to love. On the back wall there is a painting of a still-life with musical instruments, other elements linked to love. Although it is not dated, the composition, the technique and the woman’s dress with a yellow bodice and ermine trim, recur in many of Vermeer’s paintings. This would make a dating around the mid-sixties quite plausible and that would also be confirmed by her hairstyle, a braided chignon tied with a star-shaped bow that was very fashionable in the third quarter of the seventeenth century. The woman could be Catharina, the artist’s wife who was just slightly over thirty years old at the time.
Allegory of Painting
1666-1667 circaAn invisible hand seems to raise the heavy, colored drapery to reveal a scene with an artist painting the portrait of a woman dressed in blue, Clio, the Muse of History. The literary source of the painting could be Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia that was published in Dutch in 1644. As usual, the floor is covered with diagonally laid tiles that are shown with great perspective skill. On the table, and the right edge of the painting are two books, probably manuals on perspective drawing that Vermeer knew well and were probably in his own library. In order to create a convincing perspective arrangement of space Vermeer – like many of his contemporaries – stuck a pin attached to a string into the canvas at the vanishing point.
The Astronomer
1668The subject of this painting, influenced by XVII century scientific discoveries, is quite common in Dutch and Flemish art of the period. In the usual domestic setting, with light coming from the left, Vermeer depicted the young scholar surrounded by his instruments. The painter must have been guided by a scholar with some knowledge of astronomy because, like the companion painting The Geographer (Frankfurt, Städelsche Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie) – for which he used the same model – it reveals a sophisticated knowledge of cartographical instruments and books. The learned “prompter” has been identified as Antoine van Leeuwenhoek, the naturalist from Delft who invented the microscope and who, in 1676 was appointed trustee of Vermeer’s estate.
The Lacemaker
1669-1670 circaThe young woman is busy at her worktable with pins and bobbins. The very close view, the small size and her concentration on her work create a strong feeling of intimacy. In the Dutch literary and painting traditions, the industriousness of the lacemakers was a symbol of domestic virtues and Vermeer highlighted this with the book with the parchment and ribbon cover which, although lacking any particular signs, is almost certainly a prayer book or Bible.
A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal
1672-1673 circaA woman smiles at the viewer as she stands playing a spinet. Her elegant dress, with the stiff satin skirt, the sophisticated and well-furnished room with paintings on the wall and even the marbleized musical instrument with its painted cover denote wealth and prosperity. A crystalline light shines in through the window and illuminates the gilded frame of the landscape painting on the wall that is rendered with swift brushstrokes of lead and tin based yellow, that makes the satin dress sparkle. To achieve greater clarity in his rendering of shapes Vermeer resorted to a simplified technique as we can see in the velvet upholstery of the chair in the right foreground. Here he used several thin layers of blue paint over gray-blue base with lumps of ceruse that show through the subsequent coats. The Cupid we see in the painting in the middle of the wall is based on Otto van Veen’s book of symbols Amorum Emblemata (1608) along with the motto “He who loves must only love one person.”