Johannes Vermeer
Dutch
1632-1675.
Vermeer’s beauty lies not in his originality, for he was noted as being one of the least original painters of the Dutch Golden Age in terms of technique or presentation, but rather in his embrace of the common Dutch morals and values of the people of Delft.
The theatre of life was played out for Vermeer in the confines of a small but efficient one-window studio. This should be an encouragement to all of us who are painting in small studios- it is not how fancy the studio, but what you do in it that matters. Can you tell that all of the paintings are from the same place, and show that same brightly-lit leaded window? How beautiful are the edges and transitions of light and halftone. Vermeer’s reinvention of the space gives the viewer a clue as to what his studio and working methods would have been like.
Delft had acquired a reputation in its day as being the cleanest city in the Netherlands, in what was known as the cleanest country in all of Europe. This was an important consideration for a country that produced both cheese and milk. A visitor once remarked:
“I was amazed to find there a neatness (in whitewashed walls and other examples of Dutch cleanliness) to which my eyes had almost grown accustomed, for I had been a long time abroad.”
This statement, which affirms the cleanliness of Delft, can perhaps be seen in the in the arrangements and background of Vermeer’s work.
By today’s standards Vermeer would have been viewed as a regional painter- as he surely was in his won day. Johannes Vermeer was not even known outside of his hometown of Delft (population 15, 000). He was kept busy by steady commissions from only a few local patrons. He was painstakingly careful in execution and therefore produced only two or three paintings a year. His studio was kept private, nor were his paintings on display for prospective buyers, so he had little opportunity to garner new clients and expand his reputation.
Supporting eleven children must have been a difficult task by any means. A crushing economic calamity, followed by severe worry and anguish choked out Vermeer’s life when he was only 43. When he died, he left behind less than forty known works by which to judge his life’s efforts. Sadly, he also left his wife and eleven children with the burden of a large debt. Vermeer’s faithful wife pleaded with debt collectors in an effort to keep her husband’s paintings- especially her favorite “The Art of Painting”
When Vermeer died his reputation as an artist was smoothed over, and then overlooked- overlooked. His work slipped into a relative obscurity for the next 200 or so years. Why was he relegated to a footnote in history for 200 years and then only recently claimed as one of art history’s greats? Was he always great or only recently?