Johannes Vermeer by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

Adding to his image as an isolated figure are the fact that Vermeer’s teacher is unknown, and that he evidently had no pupils. Although Vermeer’s work was known to other connoisseurs in Delft and the neighboring court city of The Hague, and a few of his paintings sold to individuals farther afield (Antwerp and Amsterdam), most Dutch painters turned out hundreds of pictures for a much broader market. Indeed, as much as half of Vermeer’s output was acquired by the local collector Pieter van Ruijven. The main reason for this is that he produced a small number of pictures, perhaps about forty-five (of which thirty-six are known today), primarily for a small circle of patrons in Delft. Wheelock Jr., National Gallery of Art, Washington.With Rembrandt and Frans Hals, Vermeer ranks among the most admired of all Dutch artists, but he was much less well known in his own day and remained relatively obscure until the end of the nineteenth century. Waiboer, National Gallery of Ireland, DublinĪrthur K. Organized byīlaise Ducos, Department of Paintings, Musée du Louvre, ParisĪdriaan E. Rather than a stylistic innovator, he emerges as an agent of metamorphosis. This dynamic rivalry played its part in the remarkable quality of their respective works in this context we might be tempted to think of Vermeer as just one painter among others, but in point of fact this reciprocal contact tended to render his temperament sharper and more individual.

Although they were painting in different cities of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, their pictures show marked similarities of style, subject, composition, and technique. Through comparisons with the works of other artists of the Golden Age-among them Gerrit Dou, Gerard ter Borch, Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch, Gabriel Metsu, Caspar Netscher, and Frans van Mieris-the exhibition brings to light Vermeer’s membership of a network of painters specializing in the depiction of everyday life while admiring, inspiring, and vying with each other.

Yet Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) did not attain his level of creative mastery in isolation from the art of his time. The myth of the solitary genius has done the rest. “The Sphinx of Delft”: coined by French journalist and art critic Théophile Thoré-Bürger when he revealed Vermeer to the world late in the 19th century, this famous expression has served mainly to promote an enigmatic image of the painter. Organized in partnership with the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the exhibition will present Vermeer’s great masterpieces and those of his contemporaries.

Johannes Vermeer by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.