Johannes Vermeer

Lore & Background

Vermeer was baptized within the Reformed Church on 31 October 1632. His mother, Digna Baltens, was from Antwerp; his father, Reijnier Janszoon, was a middle-class worker of silk or caffa who later dealt in paintings and leased an inn. After his father's death in October 1652, Vermeer took over the family's art business. In April 1653, he married Catharina Bolnes, a Catholic, and likely converted to Catholicism before the marriage. The couple moved in with her mother, Maria Thins, in a house at Oude Langendijk, where Vermeer lived for the rest of his life, producing paintings in the front room on the second floor. His wife gave birth to 15 children, four of whom were buried before being baptized.

Vermeer became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke on 29 December 1653, not paying the usual admission fee. He was elected head of the guild in 1662 and reelected in 1663, 1670, and 1671. He worked slowly, probably producing three paintings a year on order. Pieter van Ruijven and his wife, Maria de Knuijt, were his patrons for most of his career; in 2023, Maria de Knuijt was identified as the main patron. Vermeer's style shows similarity to the Utrecht Caravaggists, and he may have been influenced by the fijnschilders from Leiden. He charged higher than average prices for his work.

Reader's Guide

Vermeer's modest celebrity during his life gave way to obscurity after his death. He was barely mentioned in Arnold Houbraken's 1718 major source book on 17th-century Dutch painting and was omitted from subsequent surveys for nearly two centuries. In the 19th century, he was rediscovered by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who published an essay attributing 66 works to him; today only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him. Since that time, his reputation has grown enormously. He is particularly renowned for making masterful use of light in his work. Almost all his paintings are set in two smallish rooms in his house in Delft, showing the same furniture and decorations in various arrangements, often portraying the same people, mostly women. His use of very expensive pigments and careful, slow working method contributed to his distinctive style. The 1672 economic downturn known as the Rampjaar struck the Dutch Republic, affecting his later years.

Did You Know?

• Vermeer's father was involved in a fight with a soldier in 1625; the soldier died from his wounds five months later.
• Vermeer's painting The Allegory of Faith, made between 1670 and 1672, placed less emphasis on naturalistic concerns and more on symbolic religious applications.
• In 1663, diplomat Balthasar de Monconys visited Vermeer to see his work, but Vermeer had no paintings to show.
• Vermeer's mother-in-law, Maria Thins, was initially opposed to his marriage because she was significantly wealthier than he.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer (October 1632 – December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life." — Johannes Vermeer "Arshile Gorky in: 'A visit to the Metropolitan Museum with Gorky', Ethel Schwabacher, 1947; as quoted in "Arshile Gorky, – Goats on the roof", ed. by Matthew Spender, Ridinghouse, London 2009, p. 357." — Johannes Vermeer "Arshile Gorky in: 'A visit to the Metropolitan Museum with Gorky', Ethel Schwabacher, 1947; as quoted in "Arshile Gorky, – Goats on the roof", ed. by Matthew Spender, Ridinghouse, London 2009, pp. 357-58." — Johannes Vermeer "Germaine Greer. The Obstacle Race (1979) Chapter V: Dimension, p. 105." — Johannes Vermeer