Van Meer's paintings. Priceless Dutchman

short life Vermeer (Vermer) of Delft(1632 -1675) lived in a city about which he should have dreamed, to which he should have fled... Delft, depicted on paintings by the Dutch artist Vermeer, - a city of refuge, a city of refuge: Vermeer's Delft dispels worries and restores peace. The artist is in the grip of the mysterious, slightly sleepy charm of the city on the river, which itself floats away like a children's boat. Vermeer's Delft is a ship city and a marina city.

Painting “View of Delft” (artist Jan Vermeer)

The real Delft was a workshop city, where people knew how to appreciate skilled manual labor, where they understood beauty, where they knew the value of order. Throughout Holland, Delft was famous for its lace craftsmen and earthenware craftsmen. Here a well-ordered life took shape, which was already unthinkable without music and art. In the lovingly thoughtful layouts of the Delft streets, Vermeer found his ideal compositional canon. And the Delft landscape, the blueness of the cloudless sky, the yellowness of the sandy shores suggested to Vermeer his delicate, lightened palette. Vermeer rejected the harsh brown coloring - a trace of uneradicated Protestant asceticism - as painful and unpicturesque.

Features of the paintings

Jan Vermeer was a strict master, and there lived an enchanted soul within him. In the genre painting of 17th century Holland, he looks like an artist both very typical and very lonely. The “Little Dutch” - genre painters of that time - immersed themselves in everyday life in search of moralizing themes. Along the way, they touched on risky and anecdotal topics. Vermeer looked for charm in everyday life. He describes a music lesson or trying on an earring with care and fascination. For Vermeer, this is a strict rite and a wonderful moment of life. To the Dutch burghers and soldiers such art must have seemed not too courageous and too strange. In turn. Vermeer saw them as louts. He poeticized the Delft girls, the Delft ladies, but barely outlined the Delft men, with contemptuous indifference, paying more attention to the man’s hat than to the man’s face. A brilliant portraitist paints portraits not of arrogant victors in the Spanish wars, but of lacemakers, harpsichordists, or even random soldier girlfriends. Vermeer's female image is everyday radiant, the image of a skilled woman, a craftswoman who illuminates life and secretly guides life. The smile of Wermeer girls is power, and the posture of Wermeer men is only the appearance of power. Genre Vermeer paintings are not alien to comedy and charming theatricality. There is a more general idea in them: the power of brute force in them seems to be abolished.

Painting “The Officer and the Laughing Girl” (artist Jan Vermeer)

Vermeer's images of the “eternally feminine” are compared with the image of sunlight. Sunlight is what is most striking in his paintings, although there are few landscapes among them, and most often the interior is depicted - the room of a burgher or a painter's studio. Sunlight Vermeer wrote as a virtuoso, but perceived as a prisoner. He used Rembrandt's discoveries and experiments for his own purposes and his own themes. Vermeer's light is the light of the morning; his lyrical philosophy is connected with the motif of morning light. Vermeer strives to depict both the morning light and the morning of light. Vermeer's light is a light that does not know the ugliness of the world. In Rembrandt's paintings there is a struggle between light and shadow. In Vermeer's paintings there is a play of light and things, light and surface, light and silhouette. These are truly the first joys of the world. In another era, obeying other impulses, Blok would write about the “sharp, incorruptible light of day.” The portrait poetry of the mature Blok, like the portraiture of the mature V. Serov, is permeated with daylight - sharp and incorruptible. The portraits of the mature Van Gogh are illuminated with a harsh and incorruptible light. They do not have that jubilant contact of light and the human face that creates the unique charm of Vermeer's portraits. In the “daytime” portraits of Serov or Van Gogh, light and face are hidden enemies, secret antagonists: the light overtakes, the face hides. In Vermeer’s “morning” portraits, light and face search for each other, just as a flower and a sunbeam search for each other. Vermeer's genre paintings are constructed in a similar way. The genre motif is indicated, but is drawn into the shadows, just as the officer sitting in the foreground opposite the smiling girl is drawn into the shadows. The girl's smile is not intended for him. Vermeer retells the vulgar prosaic situation in the poetic language of chiaroscuro. The artist was commissioned to paint a playful date. Such paintings were very popular in prim Holland of the 17th century. Vermeer fulfills the order, but does not think about what the customer is thinking about. Whatever Vermeer writes, he writes one thing: a meeting between a girl and light.

Painting “The Thrush” (artist Jan Vermeer)

The history of painting knows a great work created as an antipode to Vermeer. This is Van Gogh's Night Cafe, a painting depicting a night of light. While working in Arles, in the south of France, Van Gogh thought a lot about Vermeer and the 17th century. Judging by the letters to his brother Theo, he was saddened by the inability to achieve Wermeer's harmonies. Van Gogh's natural landscapes - the search for the lost morning. Van Gogh's palette is Vermeer's palette, which has become disharmonious. Blue-blue and yellow-lemon are at enmity with each other, exposing each other, delicate colors are strangely and frighteningly distorted. “Night Cafe” is an image of distorted humanity, distorted life. Van Gogh wrote that people here are going crazy and plotting murder. “Night Cafe” is an image of distorted light. Van Gogh was one of the first to describe the effect of electric lighting, shining ominously in the blue twilight of the night, and more dramatically than anyone after him. Van Gogh's electricity is a light fake, a light hoax. The painting expresses one of the main themes of the late Van Gogh - the attractive and repulsive power of false light. Van Gogh's distant predecessor Vermeer saw and managed to put into colors the true light, the undistorted light. How he could do this remains a mystery to him.

Painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (artist Johannes Vermeer of Delft)

Life and painting

About life Vermeer little is known. We don't even know his face. Vermeer's only self-portrait is full of strict and demonstrative innocence. Artist depicted at an easel, sitting with his back, painted, however, with remarkable purely Wermeer expressiveness. There is passionate tension, passionate impatience, passionate impulse in the pose. Meanwhile, the hand holding the brush is busy with careful, painstaking work.

Painting by John Vermeer of Delft “The Art of Painting”

(also known as "An Allegory of Painting", "The Artist's Studio", "The Artist and the Model")

In the combination of passion and painstakingness, Vermeer saw the secret of high skill. We find the same combination of passion and painstakingness in Vermeer’s “lacemaker.” The artist, a sophisticated esthete, works in the same way as a commoner girl. His ideas about life, about creativity, about beauty are also not distorted. Isn’t this the key to his art? Johannes Vermeer of Delft - artist who seeks and who creates an undistorted image in life. Terracotta cracks of an old brick wall, the yellowness of the face of a young pregnant woman, the luxurious colors of an almost Matissean carpet, the exquisite colors of an almost Renoirian toilet - all this is life, this is the challenge that life throws at the master painter. Vermeer spends a lot of effort to convey the exciting impressions of the day in the impeccable form of an ideal painting.

Painting “The Lacemaker” (artist Jan Vermeer)

The work of the master virtuoso was not and could not be productive. His contemporaries, the “little Dutch,” created their opuses in numerous series. Vermeer painted about 40 paintings. At the end of his life, far from reaching old age, Vermeer completely abandoned the work of a painter. Maybe he did it to support his family. Maybe his mental strength has run out. Let us not, however, feel sorry for him. Having died, Vermeer could console himself with the proud thought that he was leaving only masterpieces for his descendants.

Girl with a Pearl Earring 1660s, Mauritshuis, The Hague

This painting by the famous Dutch artist Jan Vermeer is also known as “The Head of a Girl.” And this is no coincidence. The master did not set himself the goal of painting a portrait of a specific person. He created a generalized image of a teenage girl who was about to turn into a young girl. A thin, barely noticeable line has just separated Vermeer’s heroine from her carefree childhood. And the child’s curiosity in his big shining eyes is mixed with unconscious female coquetry.
Vermeer tries to draw the viewer's attention to the face of his heroine. It was the only thing that interested the artist when creating the work. A yellow headband that hides her hair, a large pearl earring, a white collar - all these are just details that add nothing to the girl’s appearance. And the master’s plan was a success: for more than three centuries, youth itself has been looking at the viewer from this picture.

Girl trying on a necklace, 1662-1664

Lady at the Virginal 1670-1672

Lady at the Spinet 1670-1672

Virginal Lady and Cavalier, 1662-1665

Glass of wine 1661

Concert 1665

Young woman with a guitar, 1671-1672

Girl with a jug of water, 1662

Lady in Blue Reading a Letter, 1663

Lacemaker 1669-1670

Love Letter 1666

Woman busy with scales, 1663

An officer and a cheerful girl, 1657

Maid with a jug of milk, 1660

Lady and two gentlemen 1659

Girl writing a letter, 1665

Girl reading a letter by the window, 1657

Girl Asleep, 1657 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jan Vermeer van Delft

"Procuress", 1656 (detail)

It is believed that the character standing on the left is a self-portrait.

A deep poetic feeling, impeccable taste, and subtle colorism determine the work of the most outstanding of the masters of genre painting, the third after Hals and Rembrandt, the great Dutch painter - Jan Wermeer of Delft (1632-1675). Possessing an amazingly keen eye and filigree technique, he achieved poetry, integrity and beauty of the figurative solution, paying great attention to the transfer of the light-air environment. Vermeer's artistic heritage is relatively small, since he worked on each painting slowly and with extraordinary care. To earn money, Vermeer was forced to engage in the painting trade.

Marriage

There is an entry dated April 5, 1653, in which 21-year-old John Vermeer expresses his intention to marry Katharina Bolnes, the daughter of William Bolnes, a successful owner of a brick factory in Gouda. Her mother, Maria Thins, initially opposed the marriage. It seemed to her, who lived in complete prosperity, that due to the significant debts of the artist’s father, her daughter’s financial situation would be precarious. Her own family life was unsuccessful, her husband was distinguished by a violent, quarrelsome character, and the matter ended in divorce in 1649. Perhaps Maria Thins tried to protect her youngest daughter from a similar fate.

Vermeer performed by Colin Firth

The young people got married 2 weeks later, on April 20, in a small church in the suburbs of Delft. At first they lived in “Mechelen”, but in 1660 they moved to their mother-in-law’s house on Oude Langendijk, in the so-called “Papist Quarter”, where the Jesuit mission was located. The master in those years had a high income and could easily feed his ever-increasing family: Katarina gave birth to 15 children, four of whom died at a very early age. Although it should be noted that the means for a comfortable existence were not provided by the sale of paintings (the painter painted hardly more than two works a year). Wermeer was fed by the same Mechelen. “Side activities” of this kind were not uncommon in the practice of Dutch masters. This can be seen in the example of Jan Steen, who in 1654 rented the brewery “De hose” (“At the snake”) in Delft.

Relations with my mother-in-law gradually improved. Maria Thins had by this time divorced her husband Reiner Bolnes, the owner of a brick factory, and had significant income from real estate, valuables and assets. Having received the inheritance of her sister Cornelia, from 1661 she became the owner of land plots, among which were estates near Schonhoven (“Bon Repos”), rented out. Maria Thins's wealth is evidenced by the notarized inventory of her home. It included a huge inventory of furniture, dresses and household utensils, as well as eleven rooms, a basement and a barn.

Wermer's family lived in the lower rooms; on the upper floor the artist had a studio with two easels and three palettes.

Facade of Mechelen from an engraving of 1720

“...The workshop was a spacious square room, slightly shorter in length than the lower corridor. Now that the windows were open, the whitewashed walls, white and gray marble slabs on the floor with a pattern of square crosses seemed to fill it with light and air. Along the bottom of the wall, to protect the whitewash, there is a row of Delft tiles with cupids. Although the room is large, there is very little furniture in it: an easel with a chair placed in front of the middle window, and a table pushed towards the window in the right corner. In addition to the chair on which I climbed to open the window, there was another leather chair at the table, but without embossing - simply upholstered with nails with wide heads and decorated on top with carved lion heads. There was a small chest of drawers against the back wall behind an easel and chair. His drawers were closed, and on top lay a diamond-shaped knife and clean palettes. Next to the chest of drawers stood a desk littered with papers, books and engravings. Two more chairs, decorated with lion heads, stood against the wall next to the door. The room was very neat. It was very different from the other rooms: you could even think that you were in a completely different house. When the door was closed, there was almost no noise from children, the jingling of Katarina’s keys, the rustling of our brooms…” Tracy Chevalier “Girl with a Pearl Earring”

The heavy oak table, which appears in many of Vermeer’s paintings, also stood there, and the leather-upholstered chairs he often reproduced “lived” here. Maria Thins had several paintings in her possession, which Vermeer used as “claves interpretandi” (“keys to understanding”) for his own creations.

“...I will forever remember the first impression that the hallway made on me: what a multitude of paintings! I stopped in the doorway, clutching my bundle and widening my eyes in amazement. I had seen paintings before - but not in such quantity and not in one room. The largest painting showed two nearly naked men wrestling. I didn’t remember such a story in the Bible and thought that it was probably a Catholic story. Other paintings were on more familiar themes: still lifes with fruit, landscapes, ships at sea, portraits. It seemed that they were painted by different artists. Which of them belong to the brush of my new owner? Somehow I imagined his paintings differently. Subsequently, I learned that the paintings were painted by other artists - the owner rarely left completed paintings in the house. He was not only an artist, but also an art dealer, and paintings hung on the walls in almost every room, even where I slept ... " Tracey Chevalier "Girl with a Pearl Earring"

Creation

Vermeer played by Colin Firth

Probably, Vermeer wrote little for the art market: for the most part he created his works for patrons and philanthropists who especially appreciated his art. This may explain the small number of works he created.
One of his patrons was Hendrik van Buyten, a baker. Perhaps it was he who met the French nobleman Balthasar de Monconi during his stay in Delft in 1663. He wrote in his diary: “In Delft I saw the painter Vermeer, who did not have a single work of his own. But one of them was shown to me by a local baker, who paid 600 livres for it, although it depicted only one figure - the price, in my opinion, was no more than six pistoles” (“a pistole” then corresponded to ten guilders).
Another patron of Vermeer was the Delft printing house owner Jacob Dissius, who lived nearby (on the same Marktfeld square) in his own house. An inventory of his property published in 1682 mentions nineteen paintings by Vermeer. The support of the collector, the wealthy Delft merchant Van Ruyven, who paid substantial sums for Vermeer’s paintings, was also very tangible. His collection included 21 (!) works by Wermeer.
The earliest works, with their large format, broad pictorial style, and interest in certain subjects, reveal Vermeer’s familiarity with the work of Amsterdam historical painters and Utrecht followers of Caravaggio. But again, one can only guess whether he studied in these cities or saw the works of artists in his native Delft.

Last years of life. Death

In the last years of the great Dutchman's life, his financial situation deteriorated sharply. He got into debt and was forced to take out loans. On July 5, 1675, Vermeer traveled to Amsterdam to obtain a loan of 1,000 guilders there.
The Franco-Dutch War, which began in 1672, during which French troops rapidly advanced into the northern part of the United Provinces, was a disaster for the artist. After the opening of the dams (an extreme measure designed to stop the advance of the French army), vast areas of the country were flooded, among them the lands near Schonhoven, leased by Maria Thins. As a result, the rent, which was a reliable source of income for the Wermer family, ceased to be received. Beginning in 1672, the year of the disaster, he could no longer sell paintings.
It is not known what happened, but it happened a week after St. Nicholas Day. Was it an infection that the pharmacist failed to treat? Cold? Acute melancholy, developing into depression? In Vermeer's last paintings, a certain carelessness and unsteadiness of the brush appear. Katarina had her own view of what happened: “Because of this war, he, who felt a great responsibility to the children, for whom he had no more funds, fell into such melancholy and such despair that in a day and a half he lost his health and died.” Wermeer was buried on December 15, 1675 in the Old Church of Delft in the family crypt. The remains of his child, who had died two years earlier, were removed and placed on top of his father's coffin.

Widow and children

Catharina Bolnes Vermeer performed by Essie Davis

Vermeer left behind 11 children, 8 of whom still lived in their parents' home. Katarina Bolnes was unable to pay off her debts. She was forced to transfer management of her land plots to the High Court in The Hague, renounce the right to inheritance and cede it to creditors.
3 months after the artist’s funeral, bailiffs came to the house to seize the property for debts. Everything that was in the house was divided into 2 parts - the property of Vermeer's widow could be sold in full, and the things that Katharina owned with her mother could not be sold, but half the price had to be paid for them. Thanks to this surviving inventory (it was first published in the magazine "Old Holland" in 2001), we know what the house looked like and what was in each of the rooms.

At this time, Katarina’s works remained with “The Artist’s Workshop” and “The Lady Trying on a Pearl Necklace.” On February 24, 1676, to pay off her debts, she gave the “Artist’s Workshop” to her mother. It was very difficult for Katarina to part with her husband’s paintings, because she herself is depicted in several of them.
Although Vermeer's reputation remained strong among collectors and his paintings were highly valued, Vermeer's family was forgotten immediately after his death. They were able to survive only thanks to the support of Maria Thins. During their 22 years of marriage, the Vermeers had 15 children. None of them inherited their father's talent or had an outstanding career.

Mary (1654-1713) married silk merchant Gillison Cramer at age 20.

Janis (b. 1663), with income from his maternal uncle's farm, was educated at a Catholic college in the south of the Netherlands. In 1678 he was injured in the explosion of a powder magazine in Delft, but recovered and later became a lawyer in Bruges. His son (Vermeer's grandson), also Janis, was brought up in Delft in the house of his aunt Maria, married a local girl and moved to Leiden, where he had 5 children (the artist's great-grandchildren).

Francis (1666-1713?) became a surgeon in Charloist, a village south of Rotterdam.

The rest of the daughters did not marry and mostly died in poverty.
For Katarina, 22 years of life with Vermeer were perhaps the happiest time in her life. After Vermeer's death, misfortunes did not leave her. Katarina was largely pregnant throughout their married life, and her husband's death left her with debts, a small army of underage children, and an aging mother. Maria Thins lived to be 87, outliving her son-in-law (she was about 70 when Vermeer died). Katarina herself survived her husband by 12 years. Unfortunately, only fragmentary records have survived from which it is possible to reconstruct her life during this period.
Basically these are promissory notes. At the end of December 1687, Katharina died. She was buried on January 2. The funeral was paid for by daughter Maria.

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Almost none of his remaining works can be guaranteed to be found in place - they travel from museum to museum, attracting thousands of spectators even with a solo performance.

Short life

Vermeer was born in Delft on October 31, 1632, lived only 43 years and died under strange circumstances. Contemporaries believed that the cause of his quick and early death was the artist’s nervous exhaustion associated with family problems and poverty.

Most famous work

Vermeer’s most famous and “touring” work is “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” owned by the Hague Museum. Sometimes her tours, for example, in Japan and America, drag on for years.

Jean Vermeer's painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring", circa 1665

Two centuries of obscurity

Until the mid-19th century, Vermeer's works were considered third-rate, collecting dust in storage rooms and ordinary private collections. The artist was “rediscovered” by art historians Gustav Waagen And Theophilus Thor-Burger, who mentioned a possible 66 works. It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that Jan Vermeer was recognized as the greatest artist of the Dutch Golden Age.

Symbols and signs

In Vermeer's works, symbols and signs play a huge role; he often uses them to encrypt biblical allegories, issues of morality, choice and love. So, for example, the scales in the hands of the heroine of the painting “Woman with Scales” symbolize God’s upcoming Judgment at the end of life, at which all thoughts and actions will be “weighed”.

Having many children

Jan Vermeer and his wife Katarina there were 15 children, and Katarina had even more pregnancies, sometimes children died as newborns.

Slowness

Vermeer, even during his lifetime, was one of the brightest artists of the “Dutch Golden Age” and definitely the most talented in the “Guild of St. Luke” (the largest association of artists in Delft), while being the least “prolific”. Throughout his life, he painted no more than 40 - 45 works (some of them have been lost), while his colleagues made money from portraits, drawing several of them a month. Merchants respected and loved Vermeer, often gave him orders, but were not happy with the pace. At the same time, Vermeer’s work was paid extremely highly by customers.

Works that can be seen

In total, 34 works by the artist are known to date, and there are at least three more, the authorship of which is attributed to Vermeer: ​​“Girl Seated at the Virginal”, “Saint Praxidia”, “Girl with a Flute”.

Painting "Girl with a Flute", 1665-1670, presumably by Johannes Vermeer

Wanted

One of the paintings, “The Concert,” was stolen on March 18, 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Nothing is known about her fate until now.

Detail from John Vermeer's painting "The Concert", circa 1663/1666.

Mother-in-law

Vermeer's mother-in-law - tough and strong-willed Maria Bolnes— gave consent to her daughter’s marriage to the artist only after Ian, born in a Protestant family, converted to Catholicism. Maria insisted that her daughter's family live in her house. All his life, Vermeer suffered from the difficult, assertive character of Maria, who influenced her daughter and did not like her son-in-law for his inability to earn money. Maria was especially dissatisfied with the “slowness” of her son-in-law.

Delft box

Some of the artist's interior works were originally painted for "boxes", a popular way of presenting paintings in Delft. The work was placed in a special box with candles, and holes were made in the box. Looking at the picture through them, one could see some three-dimensionality of space. One of these boxes has been preserved and is on display in the National Gallery in London.

Camera obscura

Jan Vermeer was one of the first artists to use a camera obscura in his paintings. Traces of camera use can be seen, for example, in the unnatural shine of metal objects and the unnatural whiteness of some parts.

Yellow jacket

One of the most common objects in the artist's works is definitely a yellow jacket with ermine trim. It was Katarina's holiday jacket, which the artist loved and requested for his models.

Katarina's image

Katarina can also be seen in Vermeer's works, although not as clearly and often as, for example, Rembrandt's Saskia(Vermeer was his follower and indirectly, through Karel Fabricius, student). We see pregnant Katarina in the painting “Woman with Scales.”

Genius of light

John Vermeer is considered an unsurpassed master of working with light; no one else has ever been able to repeat such a thorough, subtle and ingenious rendering of light and shadow. It is unknown what exactly allowed the artist to achieve such results: talent, technical devices, special paints that he made himself from very expensive pigments, or, apparently, a unique combination of all these factors.

Poverty

Vermeer died on the verge of poverty. The war that began in 1672 changed the market for paintings. They stopped buying them. Artists practically stopped receiving orders. In order to support his family and smooth out his mother-in-law’s dissatisfaction, Ian was forced to take out loans and sell almost all of his remaining works. In 1675, Vermeer died suddenly and without obvious reasons. After Mary's death, Vermeer's widow Katharina was forced to renounce her inheritance and pay off debts to creditors. Katharina will write in her diaries that “Jan died because he was ashamed of ruin.” In the surviving inventory of objects you can find many things used in the works of Jan Vermeer. Including Katarina's famous yellow jacket.

Who owns

Most of Vermeer's paintings belong to museums and private collectors in the United States. There is not a single work by this Dutch artist in Russia.

Fake and scandal

There have been numerous attempts to forge Vermeer's works. The loudest was the scandal that erupted in the 30s of the last century, when it was discovered that several works at once (one of them is the undoubtedly talented “Christ in Emmaus”) were not written by Vermeer, but were painted by the artist Han van Meegeren. By the time of exposure, Meegeren had managed to sell several works worth about $30 million in modern terms. At the same time, the “authenticity” of the works was recognized by many authoritative art critics and appraisers.

Han van Meegeren's Christ at Emmaus, which was passed off as a work by Johannes Vermeer.

Jan Vermeer is a talented Dutch artist, whose life, like his work, is surrounded by speculation and assumptions. The fact is that during Vermeer’s life, as well as for some time after his death, the master’s works did not arouse obvious interest, although they were immediately sold out. Many paintings were even lost. However, after some time, the attention of art critics was attracted by the creations of a forgotten genius, and now the name of Jan Vermeer is on a par with the names of painting geniuses.

Childhood and youth

Riddles appear directly from the beginning of the biography of John Vermeer of Delft. The artist received his last nickname from the name of the place of his supposed birth - the city of Delft. It is not known for certain where Vermeer came from (the artist was born on October 31, 1632), but information has been preserved that little Jan’s parents baptized him in Delft. The master loved this city, one of his paintings is called “View of Delft”. On the canvas, the artist managed to convey the beauty and tranquility of this place.

The father of the future artist owned his own inn and tavern, and also worked as a master of silk weaving. In addition, this man knew a lot about works of art and even resold some of them to merchants and collectors. Perhaps that is why Jan Vermeer at some point became interested in painting.

It is known that in 1653 the young man was accepted into the art guild of St. Luke. However, according to the conditions of membership in this society, before joining the guild, the artist had to study for six years with an experienced mentor. Who became such for Jan Vermeer is also not known.

Versions vary: according to one of them, Vermeer “trained his hand” under the guidance of Leonart Bramer, while according to another, the young man’s teacher was the more famous painter Gerard Terborch. Be that as it may, Vermeer was close friends with both masters.

Another well-founded assumption is the version that Carel Fabritius became Jan Vermeer’s teacher and mentor. There is information that this artist arrived in the city of Delft just at the time when the young painter was supposedly undergoing training. Also, the style of Vermeer's paintings (especially the early ones) was influenced by the work of Pieter de Hooch, whose work Jan liked.

Painting

When Jan's father died, the young man had to take over the affairs of the tavern, which remained the family's main source of income. Although Vermeer by that time already held an honorary position in the art guild of St. Luke (and in fact led it), this brought practically no income.

At the same time, the artist’s paintings were loved by art connoisseurs and quickly found buyers. Soon Vermeer found permanent patrons and patrons of the arts: Hendrik van Buyten, a local baker, and Jacob Dissius, the owner of a printing workshop.

According to various information, the collections of these people contained more than two dozen works by the artist. However, it remains unclear whether Vermeer wrote on commissioned themes, or simply granted van Buyten and Dissius the right to be the first to acquire new creations.

It is noteworthy that Jan Vermeer was famous not only as a talented artist, but also as an expert and connoisseur of art objects. People turned to him to find out or confirm the authenticity of certain paintings. However, the artist did not pass on his own talent to anyone - historians and art critics agree on the version that Vermeer never had students.

A distinctive feature of the works of Jan Vermeer are considered to be carefully painted interiors and details of city landscapes. But the artist preferred to depict human images only in portraits; if a human figure appeared in a landscape, it was, as a rule, quite insignificant.

One of the striking examples of “interior” painting is considered to be the painting “The Artist’s Workshop,” painted by the master in 1666. This is a late work in which Vermeer managed to convey the atmosphere of the master’s workplace. It is believed that Jan Vermeer painted the image of the artist from himself. Also examples of a perfectly conveyed interior atmosphere are the paintings “Girl Reading a Letter at the Window” and “The Milkmaid”.

In addition, Vermeer was a master of the so-called “love” painting. This feeling became the main motive of many of the artist’s paintings. Simple everyday scenes perfectly convey the peace and harmony of the characters and the setting. His wife often became a model and muse for Jan Vermeer; an example of this is the painting “The Officer and the Laughing Girl.”

The artist also painted his children: presumably the painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” is a portrait of the artist’s daughter. Also, the work entitled “Portrait of a Young Girl” is considered to be another image of Vermeer’s daughter. It is noteworthy that both portraits (also solely based on the guesses of modern scientists) were painted by the artist using a camera obscura.

Personal life

The family life of Jan Vermeer was happy. In 1653, the artist married a girl named Katharina Bolnes. The situation was complicated only by the bride’s mother’s rejection of her daughter’s beloved. The fact is that Katarina’s family adhered to Catholicism, while Vermeer was a Protestant.

But soon, seeing the attitude of Jan Vermeer towards his daughter, the woman gave in and agreed to the wedding. However, until the end of her life, Maria Bolnes, Vermeer’s mother-in-law, never came to terms with her daughter’s choice, considering Jan to be too soft and an unbusinesslike person. Katarina gave her husband 15 children. Unfortunately, four died in infancy.

Death

The last years of Jan Vermeer's life were darkened by poverty. The artist, who until that time had not known financial problems, was faced with the need to take out loans, ask for loans and make ends meet. This immediately affected his morale: the master began to get sick, Vermeer’s health suffered greatly. There is also a version that Jan Vermeer’s discord with his beloved wife also played a significant role, but there is no confirmation of these assumptions.

There is still debate about the reasons for the artist’s death: the exact diagnosis or the circumstances of his departure could not be ascertained. Presumably, Jan Vermeer passed away due to severe nervous exhaustion, which completely undermined the painter’s health. This happened on December 15, 1675. The artist was only 43 years old. Vermeer rests in the family crypt in his native Delft.

20 years after the death of Jan Vermeer, in 1696, an auction was held at which 21 works by the artist were put up. Some of them were lost over time, and now scientists and art historians talk about 16 recognized paintings by Vermeer. Another 5 paintings are still the subject of controversy and are not officially recognized as the work of the master.

Forgers took advantage of this situation with pleasure, imitating the work of John Vermeer. The most famous “imitator” is Han van Meegeren, who made his name on forgeries.

Vermeer's works gave inspiration to other talented people. Thus, a number of documentaries and feature films, the opera “Letters to Vermeer” by composer Louis Andriessen, as well as the novel “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, subsequently filmed by director Peter Webber, are dedicated to his paintings. This film, which tells about the life of Jan Vermeer, starred,.

Paintings

• Around 1653-1654 - “Diana with her companions”
• Around 1654-1656 - “Christ in the house of Martha and Mary”
• 1656 - "Procuress"
• Circa 1656-1657 - "Sleeping Girl"
• Circa 1657-1659 - "Girl reading a letter at the window"
• Circa 1657 - "The Officer and the Laughing Girl"
• Circa 1660 - "The Milkmaid"
• Circa 1663-1664 - "Woman holding scales"
• Circa 1665-1667 - "Girl with a Pearl Earring"
• 1668 - "Astronomer"

It is one of the largest paintings by the artist and one of his two landscapes.

The picture is very clearly divided horizontally into four parts: embankment, water, buildings, sky. Moreover, for each part Vermeer used a special technique. For example, to convey the shine of water, he used the technique of pointillism, and to depict stone, uneven granules of paint were mixed.

Vermeer showed the city from the southeast of the Schee River canal. The time of action is morning, the sun is in the east, the clock on the Schiedam Gate shows 7 o'clock. The painting depicts about 15 people.

Proust wrote about this painting by Vermeer, which he saw in the Hague Museum on October 18, 1902, to his friend the art critic J.-L. Vaudoye: “Ever since I saw the View of Delft in The Hague, I realized that I had seen the most beautiful picture in the world” (letter dated May 2, 1921). In the novel The Captive, the hero of In Search of Lost Time, Bergotte, dies at an exhibition, admiring the yellow wall in this painting.

In 1696, the subsequently famous veduta was sold for only 200 guilders. In 1822, Mauritshuis bought it for 2,900 guilders.

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Excerpt characterizing the View of Delft

As soon as Pierre laid his head on the pillow, he felt that he was falling asleep; but suddenly, with the clarity of almost reality, a boom, boom, boom of shots was heard, groans, screams, the splashing of shells were heard, the smell of blood and gunpowder, and a feeling of horror, the fear of death, overwhelmed him. He opened his eyes in fear and raised his head from under his overcoat. Everything was quiet in the yard. Only at the gate, talking to the janitor and splashing through the mud, was some orderly walking. Above Pierre's head, under the dark underside of the plank canopy, doves fluttered from the movement he made while rising. Throughout the yard there was a peaceful, joyful for Pierre at that moment, strong smell of an inn, the smell of hay, manure and tar. Between two black canopies a clear starry sky was visible.
“Thank God this isn’t happening anymore,” thought Pierre, covering his head again. - Oh, how terrible fear is and how shamefully I surrendered to it! And they... they were firm and calm all the time, until the end... - he thought. In Pierre's concept, they were soldiers - those who were at the battery, and those who fed him, and those who prayed to the icon. They - these strange ones, hitherto unknown to him, were clearly and sharply separated in his thoughts from all other people.
“To be a soldier, just a soldier! - thought Pierre, falling asleep. – Enter into this common life with your whole being, imbued with what makes them so. But how can one throw off all this unnecessary, devilish, all the burden of this external man? At one time I could have been this. I could run away from my father as much as I wanted. Even after the duel with Dolokhov, I could have been sent as a soldier.” And in Pierre’s imagination flashed a dinner at a club, at which he called Dolokhov, and a benefactor in Torzhok. And now Pierre is presented with a ceremonial dining box. This lodge takes place in the English Club. And someone familiar, close, dear, sits at the end of the table. Yes it is! This is a benefactor. “But he died? - thought Pierre. - Yes, he died; but I didn't know he was alive. And how sorry I am that he died, and how glad I am that he is alive again!” On one side of the table sat Anatole, Dolokhov, Nesvitsky, Denisov and others like him (the category of these people was as clearly defined in Pierre’s soul in the dream as the category of those people whom he called them), and these people, Anatole, Dolokhov they shouted and sang loudly; but from behind their shout the voice of the benefactor could be heard, speaking incessantly, and the sound of his words was as significant and continuous as the roar of the battlefield, but it was pleasant and comforting. Pierre did not understand what the benefactor was saying, but he knew (the category of thoughts was also clear in the dream) that the benefactor was talking about goodness, about the possibility of being what they were. And they surrounded the benefactor on all sides, with their simple, kind, firm faces. But although they were kind, they did not look at Pierre, did not know him. Pierre wanted to attract their attention and say. He stood up, but at the same moment his legs became cold and exposed.