Very little is known of Vermeer’s childhood and youth. He was baptised in Delft in 1632 and from that date until his entry into the guild of Saint Luke at the end of 1653 there is virtually no information about his life. His first known painting is “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary”, painted around 1654-55 and now in the National Gallery of Scotland, which is of little interest compared to the works Vermeer painted during the second part of the decade, such as “The Little Street” and his famous “The Milkmaid” (both painted around 1657-58 and now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).

In 1660-61 (1659 according to some authors), Vermeer painted one of his undisputed masterpieces, “View of Delft” (The Hague, Mauritshuis), the pinnacle of 17th century Dutch landscape painting. Talking about this painting, some critics said that it is perhaps the first impressionist work in the history of painting, and Marcel Proust enthusiasticly said that it was “the most beautiful picture in the world”. “View of Delft” was chosen in 2006 by theartwolf as one of the 50 masterpieces of painting, and a brief analysis of the painting can be found on the linked page.

Vermeer: “The Milkmaid”, ca. 1657-58. Oil on canvas, 45.5 × 41 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum ·· Vermeer: “View of Delft”, ca. 1660. Oil on canvas, 98.5 × 117.5 cm. The Hague, Mauritshuis

During the decade that followed “View of Delft”, Vermeer reached his maturity, achieving a unique, delicate, precise, almost photorealistic style that focused on depicting everyday moments in small paintings that invite the viewer to approach the painting. This precision in Vermeer’s style has led several authors to suggest that the artist used a camera obscura to capture the scenes, which he would later reproduce in his paintings. However, this precision did not prevent Vermeer from simplifying his compositions as the decade progressed, eliminating the superfluous and concentrating on the essential. In his now ultra-famous “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, Vermeer opted for a completely black background, allowing the viewer to focus entirely on the woman depicted. In the diminutive but exquisite “The Lacemaker”, considered by Lawrence Gowing to be “the achievement of Vermeer’s maturity“, the artist opts for a neutral, almost abstract background that does not interfere with the soft tones of the young woman’s dress and the fabrics in the foreground.

Nor do we know much about Vermeer’s last years, until his death at the end of 1675, when he was buried in the Old Church in Amsterdam. In 1672 the Netherlands suffered the “Rampjaar“, or “The Year of Disaster”, a deep economic crisis caused by the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War. Between this year and his death, only two versions of “Woman at a Virginal” are attributable to the artist.

Vermeer: “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, ca. 1665. Oil on canvas, 46.5 × 40 cm. The Hague, Mauritshuis ·· Vermeer: “The Lacemaker”, ca. 1669-70. Oil on canvas, 24.5 × 21 cm. Paris, Louvre

After his death, Vermeer’s works were by no means among the most coveted by collectors. In 1696 the dealer Gerard Hoet auctioned a group of 124 paintings, including 21 by Vermeer. The information and descriptions of these lots are of great interest for identifying the artist’s paintings, including a number of possibly lost works, and we recommend reading the article from essentialvermeer.com about this auction. In summary, the 21 works by Vermeer fetched just over 1,500 guilders, while a painting by Gerrit Dou was auctioned for 6,000 guilders only twenty years later.

In retrospect, it is even more puzzling to learn that “Girl with a Pearl Earring” was auctioned for just over two guilders in 1881, although this price may have been due to the fact that the painting had not been identified as a work by the master, as Vermeer’s paintings were already somewhat admired in the late 19th century (the Metropolitan’s “Woman with a Water Jug” was auctioned for £404 in 1877, and in the late 19th century “Woman with a Lute” –now also at the Metropolitan- was sold for $6,000 to an American collector). Today, the admiration for Vermeer, coupled with the scarcity of his works, turn his paintings into “holy grails” for collectors. In 2004, “A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals“, a work of small size and dubious attribution, was sold at Sotheby’s for around $30 million.

G. Fernández · theartwolf.com