History of World Art II: Day 51

Johannes Vermeer (1632 -1675) was a Dutch painter who instilled interior scenes into exquisite glimpse of domestic middle class life in Holland. He was especially adept in his use of light which he used to compose his subjects many of which are seen through a portal, with curtains held back. According to the lecture most of his paintings are done in the same corner of his studio, which obviously got great light, which he used to great effect. He used bright colors, and the clean orderly Dutch interiors with crisp clean light make me think I can smell the cleanliness of lemons or summer flowers wafting through the open window.

He produced relatively few paintings and so was not wealthy when he died. He had 15 children which probably attributed to his lack of funds.

He had moderate success and was esteemed during his lifetime, but after his death he fell into obscurity and was left out of several important books on 17th century Dutch painters and thus omitted from surveys of Dutch art for almost two centuries. He was rediscovered in the 19th century by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger who published an essay attributing 66 paintings to him, 34 of which he is now believed to have painted. Today he is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.