In Woman Reading a Letter the light falls on the letter itself, immediately drawing in the viewer’s eye – Vermeer uses light to guide our gaze. The fabrics in his paintings shimmer, and the shadows on the wall are as real as can be. ![]() Vermeer could capture light on objects like no other artist – and this ability has made his name famous all over the world. What words did the correspondence being read by the Woman Reading a Letter contain? Had it been sent by a lover?ĭiscover more about Vermeer's painting style By making scenes such as these the subject of his paintings, Vermeer succeeded in making the ordinary extraordinary again. We glimpse in the paintings just a single captured moment, all motion frozen as if in a photograph. His human subjects appear completely absorbed by what they are doing, as if deep in thought. He affords us a glimpse into the reality of what was, in his time, a new middle-class domain. Scenes from daily life in his home city of Delft became his specialism, through which he was able to demonstrate an ability to grab and hold the viewer’s attention with depictions such as that of a row of houses that many would have walked past without a second glance, or of someone performing a domestic task, or reading a letter. Vermeer is now best known for his intimate genre paintings portraying a main subject focusing on some everyday activity, and nearly always positioned near a window letting in daylight. In early paintings such as Diana and Her Nymphs, Vermeer brings biblical and mythological scenes to life in an almost theatrical manner. ![]() Vermeer’s early historical paintings reflect the influence the Utrecht Caravaggisti, a group of artists who were themselves influenced by the Italian painter Caravaggio, portraying their physically powerful human subjects in close-up, using powerful contrast of light and dark, in historical contexts and scenes. WHAT ARE THE DISTINCTIVE QUALITIES OF VERMEER’S WORK? Johannes Vermeer’s early painting style When Vermeer died, he was buried in Delft. As well as being a painter, Vermeer was an art dealer who bought and sold paintings and probably served as an expert on Italian art. Vermeer enrolled in the painters’ guild in 1653 and headed the organisation for several years. ![]() Vermeer was possibly an apprentice of the artist Carel Fabritius (1622–1654), also of Delft and known for paintings such as The Goldfinch. The serenity of the scenes he painted surely contrasts starkly with the reality of his bursting household. The artist married Catharina Bolnes (1631–1687), a Catholic, and they had 11 children together. Born in 1632, his father was a silk worker. Johannes Vermeer is justifiably known as the master painter of Delft, where he lived and worked his whole life. ![]() Van Ruijven owned no fewer than 20 Vermeers. Pieter van Ruijven (1624–1674), the Delft-born son of a brewer, was a keen collector of the artist’s work. Vermeer did sell his paintings during his own lifetime, however. The mystery surrounding his life and enduring anonymity about his work earned him the nickname ‘the Sphinx of Delft’. Vermeer was in fact relatively unknown until the mid-19th century. Vermeer’s most famous paintings are The Milkmaid and Girl with a Pearl Earring. His status as an artist is on a par with other Dutch masters such as Rembrandt van Rijn and Frans Hals. New online discovery tour: come along to explore his life and all his paintings with Stephen Fry and Joy Delima. Johannes Vermeer (1632 to 1675) is nowadays one of the most famous 17th-century Dutch painters.
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