Vermeer: Colour Library

Martin Bailey in his opening paragaph says, 'Vermeer usually concentrates on just one or two figures caught in a silent moment of reflection. His interiors are set in elegant rooms , tastefully furnished and fastidiously arranged." Bailey believes that Vermeer may have enjoyed painting as an escape from the crowded life of the tavern he ran for a livelihood. Vermeer had married young fathered eleven children , and apparently died suddenly at the age of forty- three of stroke or heart- attack. He left behind many debts, for though he sold most of his works he did not produce a large number, and did not sell them at the highest prices. It would only be close to two hundred years after his death that Vermeer was understood to be more than a good local artist, and rather one of the great painters of all time. This volume contains color plates of each of his paintings. Bailey provides a short accompanying description of the picture. His analysis is helpful though not an extensive or deep one. It is nonetheless a great pleasure to look again at these silent, still pictures which seem often to suggest a world of peace, harmony, simplicity and beautiful order.

This slim volume on Vermeer contains all of his known paintings while excluding the well-known forgeries. Following a brief but informative introduction, each plate is presented in full colour, filling an entire page. A short description of each painting is provided on the opposite page, usually dealing with relevant history and technique but not providing over-much analysis. I would strongly recommend this book as an introduction to Vermeer's work. It provides background but does not attempt complicated analysis of the artist or his paintings, leaving the reader free to formulate his or her own ideas about what the artist is saying. The quality of the prints is excellent. I can not speak to the quality of the colour reproduction (as does another reviewer) because I do not have the originals for side-by-side comparison but paintings such as A View of Delft, or The Milkmaid are sharp and vibrant. While an art scholar might appreciate a more in-depth approach to this subject, I strongly recommend this to the casual reader or lover of art. For a very small price one can bask in the visual splendors of a master.

ISBN: 0894682199 may be a better choice, because it was highly prized and awarded like no other book about Vermeer. Colors here are rendered not very accurately. This book tends to show the light background in the upper left hand corner of the "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" painting as yellow. In fact, that background is multicolored in a kind of pinkish summary tone. Similar problems have other pictures, though all Vermeer's paintings are reproduced as plates.

There have been several historically based novels, as well as Biographies of noted artists in the last year. A common complaint has often been the lack of illustrations in general, and the very few color plates in particular. Full color plates are extremely expensive, and are often scarce in a work for that reason alone. Major books on an artists works can be extremely expensive, and almost prohibitively so, when what is desired is a companion reference to another book.The volume I comment on here pertains to Vermeer as it makes books like "Girl With A Pearl Earring", "The Music Lesson", and "Girl In Hyacinth Blue" more enjoyable. This comment is not meant to detract from any of the works mentioned. These great reference works allow the reader to quickly find full color illustrations of the paintings mentioned in the books, together with additional information on the pieces themselves. These books add to the reading experience, they supplement, they do not replace.There are dozens of these available on a variety of Artists. Caravaggio is another painter who has been written about extensively, and the books, even when they did have color plates, only a fraction of what was referred to in the book was shown. Often illustrations are offered in black and white, and while better than nothing, they are barely that, for these artists chose color, and to appreciate/understand their work, color is a prerequisite.The alternative is either very expensive coffee table books, or handfuls of airline tickets to globe trot to the location of the works. The latter is certainly the best, but for just under $10.00, these are much more efficient.