Girl with a Pearl Earring – Who is she?

The identity of the girl in ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ is the most debated about aspect of the painting, and there are many theories on the subject. Here are just a few that I found on-line and seem to be the most convincing;

 

• Vermeer’s eldest daughter, Maria – this theory has come about because scholars believe that Vermeer’s daughter, born in 1654, would have been about the same age of the girl depicted in the painting.
• The daughter of Vermeer’s principle commissioner – Vermeer’s main commissioner, Pieter Van Ruijven, had a daughter that would also fit the description of the girl in the painting and so is another suggestion as to the girl’s identity.
• Griet, the servant girl – Although no historical evidence supports the idea that Vermeer’s servant girl posed for the painting, this ides has been developed recently in Tracy Chevalier’s novel and also by the popular film staring Scarlet Johansson in 2003. Perhaps this is a romanticised theory of the identity of the girl in the painting and the story that now is associated with it.

Despite these theories; it seems evident that the answer will never become clear. However we must ask; is the identity of the girl entirely relevant? interesting certainly, but my personal opinion is that if Vermeer wished the viewer to know the identity of the girl he would have left some kind of evidence.

Vermeer and “la joven de la perla”

This painting is signed “IVMeer” but not dated. It is unclear whether this work was commissioned, and if so, by whom. In any case, it is probably not meant as a conventional portrait.

 After the most recent restoration of the painting in 1994 the subtle colour scheme and the intimacy of the girl’s gaze on to the spectator has been greatly enhanced.

In 1937, a very similar painting, Smiling Girl, at the time also thought to be by Vermeer, was donated by Andrew W. Mellon to the National gallery of Art in Washington.

In the historical novel, written by tracy Chevalier and called Girl with a pearl Earring Johannes Vermeer becomes intimate with a servant named Griet, whom he hires as an assistant and has sit for him as a painting model while wearing one of his wife’s pearl earrings.

View of Delft III

Vermeer’s View of Delft and his Vision of Reality, an article by dr. Arthur K. Wheelock, jr. and Kees Kaldenbach

Another complete article about Johannes Vermeer’s painting View of Delft. This time, the text offers us also some planes of the city and of the perspective in which the painting was done.

In the words of teh authors, the aim of teh article is to examine the nature of Vermeer’s image, both to understand the manner in which he created such a naturalistic impression and how he has transformed a topographical view into one that is powerful and audacious in the way Thoré-Bürger and others have described.

References:

- Vermeer’s View of Delft and his vision of reality [online]. [17-05-09]. WWW Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalden/verm/artibus-hist1982.htm

Understanding “Girl interrupted at her music”

Most Dutch genre painters favored scenes which included some specific action. In Jan Steen’s Music Master of about 1659 or Frans van Mieris’s The Duet of 1658, for example, figures are engrossed in each other and in the making of music. In each instance a young attendant enters the room, adding to the level of activity. Vermeer, in a number of paintings from the end of the 1650s, sought to achieve similar effects in his multifigured genre paintings. His results, however, were mixed at best. In Officer and Laughing Girl, The Glass of Wine, and The Girl with the Wineglass, his attempts at rendering an action, whether it be laughing, drinking, or smiling, resulted in rather forced and artificial poses.

In the Girl Interrupted at Her Music Vermeer arrived at a solution for this problem: the momentary interruption. This device allowed him to suggest movement without the need for specific gestures and facial expressions that conflicted with the essential stillness of his compositions. In this painting the gentleman and the girl make a compact group as his form gently enfolds hers. She, however, rather than concentrating on the music they hold, looks out at the viewer. Her expression is alert and expectant, but not forced. Light falls gently across her face and on her white headpiece, accenting her gaze.

Vermeer may have used this pose to emphasize the meaning of his painting. Music is often associated with love, an association that is reinforced in this instance by the painting on the back wall. This painting, perhaps by Caesar van Everdingen, also appears in A Lady Standing at the Virginals, and was initially included in Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. Its depiction of a cupid holding a card marked with a figure I is based on an emblem from Otto van Veen’s Amorum Emblemata, 1608. The emblem’s motto, “Perfectus Amor est nisi ad unum,” states that perfect love is but for one lover. The woman’s gaze out of the picture may thus have been intended to reinforce a didactic message. Interestingly, in A Lady Standing at the Virginals, the woman also looks out of the painting toward the viewer.

Unfortunately, this painting is in very bad condition. Only the still-life area preserves something of its original surface qualities. The birdhouse on the side wall is an addition painted later by someone else and was not part of Vermeer’s design.

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Essential Vermeer page: ....Understanding “Girl Interrupted in her Music “.
Extract of the book “Jan Vermeer”, by Arthur Wheelock. 1981 p.98. Access: 23 rd April 2009.
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/cat_about/interrupted.html#top

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Poetry: Girl interrupted at her music

When her mother entered the room, he did not

look up. The young girl’s pale skin turned

white as the shawl she wore. He was pointing

to a figuration of counterpoint, or so

he said. But there was something in the room

of the body giving off light, light was moving

toward the window instead of from its source.

And though his hand still clutched the back

of her chair, the mandolin was covered by sheets

of music, the glass of wine had not been

touched. Though the air in the room seemed

lighter by the old woman’s leaving, nothing

so heavy as speech would be uttered between them,

for there were still lessons to be learned,

what was to be played would soon be played out.

—-

Ira Sadoff. Vermeer: Girl Interrupted at her music in “The Virginia Quarterly Review”. Volume 52,  number 1. Pages:112-113 (Section “Poetry”). Access: 23 rd April  2009.
http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1976/winter/sadoff-vermeer-girl-interrupted/

Vermeer’s life

1632 Johannes Vermeer born in Delft, to Reynier Vermeer, a silk weaver, art dealer and owner of a small inn.

1641 Reynier Vermeer purchases the “Mechelen”, a large inn on the market square in Delft.

Late in the 1640’s Vermeer must have begun his apprenticeship since it took an aspiring artist six years of training before becoming a master.

1652 Vermeer’s father dies and he almost certainly inherits the business.

1653 In Dec, Vermeer married Catherina Bolnes, daughter of Maria Thins and registered as a master painter in the St. Luke’s Guild.

1662 Vermeer elected headman of the Board of the St. Lukes Guild, a trade association of artists.

1670 Again elected headman of the Board of the St. Lukes Guild, a trade association of artists.

1672 Vermeer moved his family to Maria Thins’ house on the Oude Langendijk when the art market collapsed after France invaded the Netherlands. Vermeer’s fortune deteriorated very quickly.

1675 Vermeer died and left his wife and eleven children with enormous debts.

1676 Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), the microscopist, was named executor for the Vermeer estate.

1677 Sale of Vermeer’s paintings to help satisfy the demands of creditors.

1800’s Vermeer is “rediscovered” by Joseph Thore. Thore traveled across Europe to find all of Vermeer’s works and his enthusiastic accounts brought Vermeer’s name to the public for the first time.

Vermeer. The complete works. Access: 21 st April 2009.
http://www.mystudios.com/vermeer/vermeer-bio.html

“Girl, interrupted”, an inspiration of a picture of Vermeer

Girl Interrupted at her Music is a painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. It was painted in the baroque style between the years 1660 and 1661, using oil on canvas.

The painting was the inspiration for the title of Susanna Kaysen’s memoir about her stay at McLean Hospital for psychiatric treatment, Girl, Interrupted. Girl Interrupted at her Music was an integral part of Kaysen’s mental recovery and understanding. The memoir was adapted into an Academy Award winning film by the same title, starring Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder.

Girl interrupted at her music.  Access: 21 st April 2009.
http://www.freebase.com/view/en/girl_interrupted_at_her_music
(In the wikipedia page, appears the same text at the date of the access)

—–

Related to this, I put an extract here of  “Review of Girl, Interrupted“ by Dan Schneider, 4/30/05 :

“The end of the book is particularly strong, and probably the best pure writing in the book. After telling us where the memoir title comes from- Vermeer’s painting Girl Interrupted At Her Music, SK ends the memoir this way:

…And the wall is made of light- that entirely credible yet unreal Vermeer light.
Light like this does not exist, but we wish it did. We wish the sun could make us young and beautiful, we wish our clothes could glisten and ripple against our skins, most of all, we wish that everyone we knew could be brightened simply by our looking at them, as are the maid with the letter and the soldier with the hat.
The girl at her music sits in another sort of light, the fitful, overcast light of life, by which we see ourselves and others only imperfectly, and seldom.”

—–

To read more, you can check the following pages:

- “Girl, Interrupted: The Book and the Film” Article by Sussana Kaysen. April 2000. American Psychiatric Association.

- Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted. A Comparison of the James Mangold Film and the Book. Article of Leslie Halpern. Dec 15, 2008.

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Characters in “The Procuress”

In this famour picture by Vermeer we can clearly distinguish four different characters. A whore, a procuress, a young man and anotherman drinking some spirits are the protagonists of the picture.

The whore is a young girl with fair features and clean clothes. She is ready to do her job with the young man in red who is touching her. She holds a glass of some spirits with which she intends to make her suitor go drunk. Whores were supposed to make their lovers go as drunk as possible at that time, and providing they got very drunk, sex was no longer an option for them. She seems to be posing very tranquil and she offers both the viewer and the young man a fair smile. She is presented as a sensitive young girl who is ready to make her job.

The young man in red is the suitor to the young whore in yellow. He is a young man -probably he is a soldier- that wants to have some sexual relationships with that girl. He is waring a red coat -maybe symbol of passion and sexual desire- and a large, black hat with which he is trying to cover the girl, as if he was willing to shelter her -probably meaning he wants to take on her in the bed. He also has his hand on her left breast, as though he was embracing her, and sexually possessing her -showing his clear intentions- at the same time.

The procuress is the woman in black. She is not easily recognised because she is not like most procuresses in other pictures. Her features are fair and she even looks like a man. She is paying heed to the economical transaction that is taking place in the picture. What is more, in early stages of the picture, she was receiving some money -this means she was more active- from the young suitor. Eventually, she is just lookign at him and making sure everything goes perfectly. However, the viewer should notice the malice in ehr eyes, meaning she is no fool and she knows how to deal with economical and sexual issues. In fact, the procuresses were frequently retired whores that had enoght money to lead their own business.

The man in black is much of a jester. He is a comical character that functions rather as the narrator of the story. As a matter of fact, he is looking at the viewer, as if he wanted to tell the story to whoever is examining it. He is aside the action and he wears black clothes so that he does not attract too much attention to himself. Many critics agree nowadays that he is a self-portrait of the very Vermeer. Actually, it was very common to find the painters of those “brothels” in their own pictures. Thus, Vermeer could be but following the current fashion.

Andrei Vázquez Latorre

Bibliography:

· http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/procuress.html.

· http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Vermeer/english/entremetteuse.html.

Objects in Vermeer’s “The Procuress”

Out of the matter of characters, the objects displayed throughout the place in the picture are also painted with mastery. The sublime and most minute details have been painted with tender and care. Thus, the effect the viewer has at first sight is that of a wonderful piece.

To begin with, the very glass the whore holds betwen her fingers is a finest representation on a “römer” glass, meant for iddle hands, this is, it is wider than normal glasses so that the cup does not slip out of the fingers. Secondly, the glass the man in black holds is very typical in 17th century paintings, and its details have been kept with tender mastery. Even the spirits within the glasses seem to have a social meaning. Usually, brothel wine was corrupted or adulterated candy syrup. On the other hand, beer was also a popular drink. The jester -the man in black- is probably drinking beer, as it is no clear what the young whore is having -or offering to her suitor.

Thirdly, the viewer is given a sight of a cittern, which the jester is holding in his arms. The cittern is not an alien instrument to Vermeer’s time’s pictures, in fact, it is a very common musical instrument which even Vermeer used quite a few times. The cittern represents sexual desire, and so it has been depicted so many times in order to give more strengh to that idea of sex in many similar pictures.

Moreover, the viewer can find a big carpet that covers almost half the picture. This carpet represent a growing fashion in the 16th and 17th centuries of having those objects from Oriental lands that people used as ornamental tools. The carpet in the picture is drawn and painted with much care and has a magnificent look. The black coat from the jester covers part of the carpet to contrast its effect, for the carpet is very large and draws too much attention. The dark coat’s aim is to oppose the aesthetic and attractive strengh of the carpet and make the main attraction focus on the young couple. This coat has been added in a later stage of the painting.

Last but not least, the jug is presented also with a superb look. It is a fine piece of art in a lrger piece of art. The precision of the painting is astonishing and in no other Vermeer paiting could any find another object or piece of decoration as fine and detailed as the one presented in The Procuress.

Andrei Vzquez Latorre

Bibliography:

· http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/procuress.html.

· http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404706599.html.

“The Procuress” in Vermeer’s career and in its time

The Procuress is one of the three pictures that have a concrete date in Vermeer’s career as a painter. This information is given by the very painter on the low bottom of the picture: “i v Meer 1656″ -”ivM” in ligature. This makes the picture not only one of the most popular pictures by Vermeer which usually leads and represents his early stage, but also one of the pictures that can be taken to draw the line of evolution of Vermeer’s painting skills.

Another important aspect Vermeer took into account when painting is the topic and the implications of painting a “brothel”. Brothel painters usually included a self-portrait in the pictures and Vermeer, as critics say nowadays, is no exception. He is supposed to have painted himself in the skin of the jester, the man in black in the left side of the picture. Nevertheless, he has also included original elements in his picture. First of all, the very procuress is very different from the usual style of depicting them. They tend to be very old and decrepit, full of wrinkles and they are often much worried of the economic transaction. They also tend to show very rude manners and strict behaviour. On the other hand, Vermeer’s procuress is much calmer and seems relatively kind. Besides, she looks quite pretty. It is widely known that procuresses were very aware of the power of money and sex, and they were very sly. This is somehting that Vermeer has depicted fairly well, for the procuress in his paiting seems to be a sly, cunning woman.

Moreover, the very whore too seems to have something different and original in herself. Whores used to be very sensual, with exotic and erotic elements that dressed them superb, like that of Gerrit van Honthorst, though the one in Vermeer’s work is not so much of an exotic woman with big breasts. She wears a yellow dress with no neckline. She also has this white cap with delicate details. She is no common whore for a brothel picture.

On the other hand, The Procuress is a painting that marks the beginning of Vermeer’s true and best carrer. Later works are examples of his mastery over light and shadow. In The Procuress, Vermeer experiments with the chiaroscuro effect, as can be seen in below in the very picture. Also, although the warm colors used, which remind the viewer of Rembrandt and his followers -1650s-, and even maybe Maes, the picture, due to its topic and structure, is considered as a piece of the Utrecht Caravaggists. The resemblance between those -frequent in the 1620s- and The Procuress is clear, though the influence of Rembrendt is also clear.

Andrei Vázquez Latorre

Bibliography

· http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/vermeer/01-early/04procu.html.

· http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Vermeer_Delft/8.R.htm.

· http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/procuress.html.

· http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404706599.html.

The Painting in the 20th century

In 1742 the Elector of Saxony, August III, acquired this painting, which he believed to be a Rembrandt; the previous year he had bought The Procuress. During the Second World War both pictures were among Dresden’s works of art hidden for safety and consequently spared from the British bombing. In 1945 they were seized by the Red Army as booty and secretly taken to Moscow. When the question of returning Dresden’s pictures arose, the Soviet minister of culture wanted East Germany to allow two works to remain in Russia in gratitude. His choice, a masterpiece by Giorgione (c. 1476/8-1510) and Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, is evidence of the importance of this early Vermeer. This proposal was dropped and both Vermeer’s were among the paintings returned to Dresden in 1955.

Martin Bailey, (1995) In Essential Vermeer. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://www.essentialvermeer.com

Understanding “A Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window”

This painting is part of a group of works painted by Vermeer in the late 1650s which mark the start of his mature period. Other works of this period include Officer and Laughing Girl (New York, The Frick Collection), The Milkmaid (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), and The Glass of Wine (Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemaldegalerie). In these paintings the artist depicts the corner of a relatively large room which is lit through a window on the left side. This compositional formula is inspired by the work of Pieter de Hooch (upper right), who nonetheless differs from Vermeer in locating his figures closer to the foreground. Vermeer’s figures at this period are smaller than those in his earlier works, while his technique is more precise.

The figure in the background of this simple and ordered interior rests his head on his hand in a melancholy attitude, while in the foreground a young woman takes a wine glass which an elegantly dressed man hands to her. The young woman’s smile and the man’s attitude indicate that we are witnessing a scene of seduction, and that the girl is largely accepting her admirer’s advances.

Also starting at this period is a greater attention to the way in which light falls on the objects and different materials, highlighting the textures (second upper right). Along with the characteristically self-absorbed character of his figures, the most famous characteristic of Vermeer’s work is its lifelikeness, the result of a complex and exquisite exercise in the transformation of reality. Some aspects of this painting allow us to approximate the way in which the artist achieved these ends. The lower frame of the window, for example, directs the spectator’s gaze towards a chair which extends the gaze further so that we arrive at the strongly, illuminated letter which the young woman is holding. The reflection of the girl in the window emphasizes the importance of the letter, which becomes the psychological axis of the painting. As in other works by Vermeer, the chair acts to clarify the spatial relations between the elements in the room, in this case the table and the end wall. The open window which reflects the girl’s face projects a slight shadow on the wall, echoing its shape and also helping to define the location of the girl’s face. The angle of the fruit bowl and the girl’s forearm are parallel and thus visually related, so that we connect the golden sleeve of the girl with the large green curtain on the right. This type of formal relation between the elements in the painting defines its visual rhythms, which the spectator becomes aware of in a slow and gradual process.

We know from x-rays that initially the end wall, just above and to the right of the young woman, had a painting of Cupid (the same one that appears in A Lady Standing at the Virginals), but that Vermeer eliminated this element in the final composition. This image would have made it clear that the content of the letter which the woman is reading is of an amorous nature. In its initial form, the vanishing point of the perspective would have been in the center of the lower part of the painting of Cupid, which would therefore have been a very important element in the painting. It is revealing of Vermeer’s working method that when he removed the painting he did not alter the scene further, other than adding the curtain on the right to balance the visual weight of the other side of the composition. The ability to express the emotions of his figures in a particular situation is one of Vermeer’s most unique characteristics. In this case, his decision to remove the painting of Cupid from the end wall results in an exceptionally evocative scene; nothing distracts us from the painting’s message, which is the idea of communication with an absent loved one.

At the time when this painting was created in the late 1650s, Vermeer was in the process of changing his pictorial technique. Although in some earlier paintings we see the appearances of small dots of light, this technique, which functions to momentarily detain our gaze on specific areas of the painting, becomes ever more widespread in his work. The technique, which was possibly inspired by the images produced by an instrument known as a camera obscura and also has precedents in the work of artists such as Willem Kalf or Willem van Aelst would soon become one of Vermeer’s most distinctive characteristics.

The idea of including a curtain in the painting which seems to form part of the space occupied by the spectator has numerous precedents and became popular in Dutch art around the mid-17th century (lower right). This device was partially inspired by reality, as we know from inventories and from paintings of picture collections that some paintings, in particular the most important ones or those that depicted nudes, were covered with cloths.

There are also precedents for this in religious painting, indicating that curtains also added an effect of mystery and surprise to a scene, and contributed to its lifelikeness in that it confused the painted with the real space. The use of a cloth for illusionistic ends has an important classical precedent which Vermeer undoubtedly knew of Pliny the Elder’s anecdote in his Natural History in which he recounts that the Greek painter Zeuxis wished to prove his artistic superiority to his rival Parrhasius’ and thus painted some grapes which were so realistic that some birds attempted to peck at them. Parrhasius’ response was to paint a curtain over the picture which he did with such skill that Zeuxis tried to pull it back.

Alejandro Vergara, (2003) In Essential Vermeer. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://www.essentialvermeer.com

The Art of Painting

The Art of Painting has all the characteristics of Vermeer’s artistic genius, but, moreover, it stands apart from his other works. In this painting we see a seventeenth-century Dutch interior that is illuminated by diffused light and exquisitely painted details.

It is believed that this painting was really important to Vermeer, as it remained in his possession until his death. Even when the family was left in financial straits, it was not sold. After the death of the painter, his widow passed the ownership of the work to her mother, with this title work “a piece of painting by her late husband in which was depicted The Art of Painting“.  This title presents an artist depicting a woman who is dressed as Cleo, the muse of history.

The painting shows us an everyday scene that takes place in a room filled with objetcs (a map, tapestry, and a chandelier). The artist is dressed in an elegant costume and is looking carefully to his model. In her head a crown of laurel can be seen, an object that represents honour, glory, and eternal life. In her hands she is holding a trumpet and a thick book, objects which represent fame and history.

Information taken from: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/verm_2.shtm

A Virtual Tour of Vermeer´s House

The multimedia encyclopedic web site on Johaness Vermeer and his life in Delft, allows us to visit Vermeer´s home and his studio.  There is a complete  study of the architectural floor plans, and you can enter the house in 3D to see the full inventory of all household objects.

Source of information: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalden/

Vermeer’s Camera Obscura

It is claimed that over 100 years of speculation and controversy  the great seventeenth-century Dutch artist, Johannes Vermeer, used the camera obscura to create some of the most famous images in Western art.

The so-called Vermeers Camera web site tries to uncover the truth about the painter’s possible knowledge of seventeenth-century optical science to develop his style and choice of subject matter.

In order to support the idea that Vermeer experimented with new technology , there are some interesting materials available in the web-page.

To begin with, we can find two books. The first one: Vermeer’s Camera: afterthoughts and a reply to critics, by Philip Steadman (27/03/2002), which thought it got a generally kind critical reception, there have been a few dubious notices by Vermeer scholars and curators of 17th century Dutch painting.

The book shows how it is possible to reconstruct the three-dimensional spaces seen in ten of Vermeer’ s paintings of domestic interiors, using a method of ‘inverse perspective’ (roughly speaking, a reversal of the normal procedures of perspective drawing).

Here you have some of the pictures shown throughout the pages:

Figure 10: Map of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands by Claes Jansz Visscher (left) compared with Vermeer’s painted version in ‘Allegory of Painting’ (right). (The ornamental borders showing views of Dutch towns are omitted in both cases.)

The second book, also written by Philip Staedman, is a brief chapter sypnoses with added images not found in the book. It starts with a review of how the camera obscura worked  throgout history and then we are moved into the subject of Vermer´s use of it, giving detailed examples and reconstructions of his paintings with great precision in order to demonstrate how the painter set up a camera obscura. Eventually,  the book concludes with a discussion of the influence of optical images on Vermeer´s work.

The following images belong to chapter 6 of the book:

And finally, the most striking among the materials is  the three-dimensional computer models produced by Mr Yasuo Furuichi of Yokosuka City, Japan.

The images remain his copyright. Mr Furuichi has produced a short movie entitled ‘Before the Glass of Wine’, from which a series of stills are illustrated here. He is now working on models of all the pieces of furniture appearing in Vermeer’s paintings, which he is storing in ‘Vermeer’s warehouse’. He plans to make reconstructions of the three-dimensional spaces shown in some of those pictures where the floor tiles are not visible, and which were not reconstructed in ‘Vermeer’s Camera’ for that reason.

These are some of the models you can find in this section:

Perspective Method

In the very same page of the previous article, that is, a multimedia encyclopedic web site on Johannes Vermeer and his life in Delft, we can find a short explanatory video about how Vermeer worked with the perspectives.

Internet Source:  http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalden/

Vermeer’s Birth House

The multimedia encyclopedic is a very complete web site on Johannes Vermeer and his life in Delft.

By going to this page http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalden/ and pushing Vermeerś Birth House you will find a research overview of little known facts about the house were the painter was born. What is more, there are very interesting photographs and documents supporting the information given.

Vermeer Centrum Delft

The Vermeer Centre offers a visual voyage of discovery through the life, work and city of Johannes Vermeer. The visitor steps into 17th century Delft, sees samples from Vermeer’s oeuvre, goes in search of his mentor and the stories behind the paintings.

If you want to meet the master of light and feel yourself in Vermeerś times, have a look to this website where the visitor will be very well-informed about the latest news on the painter.

Here you have some of the points of interest available on the page:

The Vermeercentrum

The Painter Vermeer

Visitor information

Now at the Vermeercentrum

Exhibits

Education

Tours and Activities

Shop and Café

Organisation

Press

WEBSITE: http://www.vermeerdelft.com/195.pp

“The Man Who Made Vermeers” (2008)

Jonathan Lopez is the author of  The Man Who Made Vermeers (2008), a research work on Han van Meegeren and the illicit trade across Europe during the interwar period. The development of  this book took Lopez to the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain and the United States.

You will find more information on his work here. I also recommend you to read the interview with the author in Essential Vermeer.com.

Readers’ reviews:

• An Artist’s Journey. Blog by Laurel Neustadter.
• Benjamin’s Review. Goodreads.

Newspaper and magazine reviews:

• Los Angeles Times. Review by Christopher Knight.
• Chicago Tribune. Review by Wendy Smith.
• A’n'B VIBE. Review by Meghan Masterson.
• Contentions. Review by Terry Teachout.

Other reviews:

• Raincoast Books.

Audio files:

• ODEO
• ABC. Late Night Live.

Who was Han van Meegeren?

Han van Meegeren (1889 – 1947) was a Dutch painter and portraitist, considered one of the best art forgers of the last century. He is remembered by his faked Vermeers. Meegeren spent seven years on forging some of the world’s most famous artists including Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Boch and, of course, Johannes Vermeer.

Nowadays, we may check the authenticity of a picture by applying forensic and even digital techniques. But Meegeren was able to fool the experts of his time. Why?

1. Vermeer’s work was practically unknown to the general public at the beginning of the 20th century, so very few people knew how a Vermeer look like.
2. Most art galleries kept their collections in protective storage shortly before and during the Second World War. Thus, experts could not compare a genuine Vermeer painting with one of Meegeren’s.

At the same time, Han van Meegeren was extremely meticulous in his art forgeries. He studied the biographies of the Dutch masters from the Golden Age along with their trademark techniques and catalogues. Godley (1951) provides a detailed description of the forgery process:

“Van Meegeren bought authentic 17th century canvas to paint on, and mixed his own paints from raw materials (such as lapis lazuli, white lead, indigo, and cinnabar) using old formulas to ensure that they were authentic. In addition, he used badger hair paintbrushes, similar to those Vermeer was known to have used. He came up with a scheme of using phenolformaldehyde to cause the paints to harden after application, making the paintings appear as if they were 300 years old. After completing a painting, Van Meegeren would bake it at 100 °C (212.0 °F) to 120 °C (248.0 °F) to harden the paint, and then roll it over a cylinder to increase the cracks. Later he would wash the painting in black (India) ink to fill in the cracks.”

These facts made the fraud more difficult to detect. By the time Meegeren was found, he owned out of the equivalent of several million of dollars!

Woman Reading Music

Woman Playing Music

The Girl in Antique Costume

Smiling Girl

The Lacemaker

Girl with the Blue Bow

More information on Han van Meegeren:

• The Meegeren Website
• Essential Vermeer.com
• The Art Forgeries of Han van Meegeren
• A Fraud’s Life.
• El hombre que estafó al Tercer Reich. “Historias con historia”, blog by Iñaki (in Spanish)

References:

• Wikipedia. Han van Meegeren
• Wikipedia. Art forgery.