Johannes Vermeer

The year was 1995. The place was the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The occasion was the exhibit of 21 of the known three dozen paintings by Johannes Vermeer, Dutch master of the seventeenth century. I missed the exhibit, too, but I have this 12 x 9 1/2 inch hard cover copy of that exhibit, plus all those essays about historical context, art techniques, probable interpretations of the paintings, and, oh yes, the paintings themselves. In one book. By my favorite artist. No, it's not the same, but I do have all these glorious paintings. What makes Vermeer such a beloved painter? Please look at "The Geographer," which is on the cover of the book. See the light bathe the subject? See the subject's intensity? Those are the two major traits that set Vermeer apart. He used the natural light as it fell into his studio and he began that moment of intensity just at a moment of stillness--a sort of psychological study. One such painting now made famous by both a novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Deluxe Edition and the movie, Girl With a Pearl Earring is "The Girl with the Pearl Earring." You might think it made a good biographical movie, but then you would be wrong. Why? Because we know almost nothing of Johnannes Vermeer. We don't know about his life except as it pertains to the time period in Delft, Holland, in the mid 1600's and beyond. All we know is what is recorded in contracts like marriage license. We don't know what he thought of art or how he started because he did not leave a word. So the book and the movie are examples of literary license--making up and adding to what little we know with grand imagination. A piece of truth in the film is this: Remember the scene outside Vermeer's house where one woman is sewing in a doorway? That is his house! We know because that scene is taken from one of his paintings! What we do know is the luminous quality of his art, that moment of tension, and also the allegorical meanings of his earlier paintings. One such example is "Woman Holding A Balance." Interpretations have changed over the years, but the consensus now is that of a favorite Vermeer theme of balance in one's life, no matter the setting. Holding this book in one's lap, quietly turning the pages and studying the paintings, reading the essays--now that's balance!

This book accompanied the legendary 1995-96 Vermeer show at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. that found itself caught up in the Gingrich - Clinton shutting-down-the-government imbroglio. Remember now? Vermeer has grown in popularity and in public awareness since this show. Recently, a totally fictitious movie was made around his paintings. It was named after the painting that became the focus of the movie, "The Girl With a Pearl Earring". It was a good story, but had nothing to do with the real people involved because we simply do not know. There are only a few dozen paintings by the artist still extant, but they all are wonderful and attract modern sensibilities because of their lines and perfect artificiality and their perfect reality. They present the exact kind of contradiction and puzzles we love nowadays, and because there are only a few dozen, the dilettante can study each of them in detail without becoming overwhelmed. This book has four fine papers that discuss aspects of what we know about the artist and his work. There is also a chronology and the catalogue of the exhibition, which had a very large sampling of the known paintings. The reproductions are fabulous including the details and the smaller reproduction of contemporary paintings with similar subjects by other artists. Excellent book to have on your shelf. It is always pleasant to gaze into these 17th century paintings and notice things and then notice new things.

This paperback edition ISBN: 0894682199 (also as clothbound under ISBN: 0300065582) by Johannes Vermeer (Contributors: Ben Broos and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. with Albert Blankert and Jorgen Wadum; Editor: Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr.) is a lavishly illustrated catalog with excellent reproductions for the first exhibition devoted solely to the works of Johannes Vermeer--the 17th-century Dutch painter who explored the psychological nuances of human endeavor--opening at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in November 1995 (Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis, the Hague, in March 1996). 232 pp., 127 illustrations including 60 color plates, 12.0 x 9.5 x 0.75 inches. ISBN: 061350710X is an entirely different book for children not even close to this one.

I never knew who Johannes Vermeer was until i saw Girl with a Pearl Earring the movie. I don't know a thing about art but this book has history on the artist, the art times in Delft Holland, and the paintings that Mr. Vermeer did when he lived. I think this book is very beautiful and if anyone wants to know something on the subject of art then i would tell you to actually get this. Use this book as your introduction into the art world/history; the subject. 40 dollars may seem like alot of money for anyone but this is worth the investment. Yes, the book contains many pictures-it too has the one titled, "Girl with a Pearl Earring." I try to use this book for inspiration; i recommend this 100% percent.

I was fortunate enough to have seen the now-legendary Vermeer exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. during the winter of 1995-96. 21 out of the 35 (or 36) extant paintings by Vermeer were included in the show, offering a unique opportunity to see the bulk of Vermeer's amazing works in a single space, something that no one has experienced since 1696, when @20 of his paintings were auctioned in Delft. Given the rarity and fragility of Vermeer's works, it is unlikely that such an event will ever be repeated. All who were unable to make it to the show, however, have this splendid book as a document of this unique event. This book will remain the standard work on Vermeer for many decades, and represents the fruit of several years' labor by art historians on two continents. Because so little is in fact known about Vermeer the man (in truth, we have no idea at all what Vermeer's education, interests, and personality were like), the catalogue essays fill this gap by contextualizing Vermeer's work within the history of Dutch painting, the development of perspective, and the fascinating tale of Vermeer's "rediscovery" in the 19th century and his richly-deserved rise to worldwide fame. The essays and catalogue entries may be too technical for some readers, as the authors have expended a lot of effort to reconstruct Vermeer's exact technique, something which can only be gleaned from careful study of the paintings themselves (no drawings by Vermeer have survived, nor have any statements he may have made about painting). This extensive scholarly apparatus, while illuminating and occasionally even riveting (the essay dealing with Vermeer's rediscovery is a great detective narrative!), tends to obscure the strange, even uncanny emotional charge that his images are suffused with. Vermeer's personal world - so limited in content yet unforgettably haunting and evocative - is one of stillness and peace suffused with tension. Each image contains remarkable spatial and temporal ambiguities that make simple scenes like a lady writing a letter while her maid looks away or two people standing near a piano (The Music Lesson) vibrate with dramatic tension. Sadly, the somewhat passionless writing encases the pictures (all of which are superbly reproduced) in a rhetoric that does not address the fundamental issue: What is it about these paintings that is so powerful that their maker was rescued from total obscurity and has inspired poetry, novels and countless studies? I was hoping to find some discussion of the psychological meaning of these images, but the traditional (overly scholarly and dry) art history within did nothing to help me understand my passion for the "Sphinx of Delft." That said, the book is a masterpiece of empirical research on the artist (barring some new discovery, it is unlikely that we will ever have any more facts about Vermeer and his world than can be read here), exquisitely designed, and distinguished with beautiful