Art Guide · Painters
Johannes Vermeer
1632–1675
Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age from Delft. Only about 35 of his paintings survive; he is known for quiet interiors lit by window light and for Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Last updated: · Iconica Society editors
Life
He was baptised in Delft in 1632 and spent his whole life there. He took over his father’s art-dealing business, joined the Delft painters’ guild of St Luke in 1653 and later served among its governors.
The war and economic crisis of 1672 ruined the art trade. He died in 1675, aged 43, in debt and leaving eleven children. He was then all but forgotten for two centuries, until the French critic Théophile Thoré-Bürger rediscovered him in the 1860s.
Style
Vermeer worked slowly and carefully, which is why so few works exist. Most show one or two figures in a room lit from a window on the left. His lavish use of costly ultramarine, made from lapis lazuli, and the tiny dots of paint he used for glints of light are his hallmarks. Whether he used a camera obscura is still debated.
Key works
Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665) and View of Delft (c. 1660–61) are in the Mauritshuis in The Hague; The Milkmaid (c. 1660) is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Key works
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Frequently asked questions
How many paintings did Vermeer make?
Between 34 and 37 surviving paintings are attributed to him.
Was the Girl with a Pearl Earring a real person?
Nobody knows. It is not a portrait but a “tronie”, a study of an intriguing face and costume.