Vermeer’s Palette

The number of pigments available to the 17th c. Dutch painter were few indeed when compared to those available to the modern artist. While the current catalogue of one of the most respected color producers (Rembrandt) displays more than a hundred pigments, less than 20 pigments have been detected in Vermeer’s oeuvre. Of these few pigments only ten seemed to have been used in a more or less systematic way.

In Vermeer’s time, each pigment was different in regards to permanence, workability, drying time, and means of production. Moreover, many pigments were not mutually compatible and had to be used separately. The following study examines the history and origin of each pigment and how they were employed by Vermeer and his contemporaries as well as essential aspects of the artist’s palette.

Some of Vermeer’s pigments:

Azurite
Azurite mineral is usually associated in nature with malachite, the green basic carbonate of copper that is far more abundant. Azurite was the most important blue pigment in European painting throughout the middle ages and Renaissance by contrast, despite the more exotic and costly ultramarine having received greater acclaim.

Vermeer seems to have used azurite in light grays and mixtures of green where the brilliance of ultramarine would not have been appreciable. Like other painters of the time, Vermeer may have used azurite as a base color on which the far more costly natural ultramarine was painter over, for economical reasons

Green Earth

The name green earth  is applied to several different minerals, but most importantly in medieval painting is the light, cold green of celadonite, found chiefly in small deposits in rock in the area of Verona, Italy. Today the color is chiefly a durable mixture of chromium oxide, black, white and ochre, since the natural product is scarcely obtainable.

In Vermeer’s painting green earth was  found mixed with white-lead and a little lead-tin yellow in the lighter tones of the trompe d’oile curtain of Vermeer’s early Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window.

Raw Umber

 Ochre containing manganese oxide and iron hydroxide. Colored earth is mined, ground and washed, leaving a mixture of minerals – essentially rust-stained clay. Burnt umber is produced by heating umber.

The best variety is sold under the name of Cyprus umber, which comes chiefly from the Harz mountains. Painter have used umber to paint the shadows of flesh tones replacing green earth widely used in the medieval times. Umbers with  greenish tinge are highly valued by artists. Rembrandt and Rubens used umber extensively  in their underpaintings.

The artist has long appreciated the variety of cool and warm hues, which serve as a valuable shadding tool in any sort of painting technique. When umber is used transparently or semi-transparently on a light or medium toned ground it produces a warm brown but not “hot” ground. However, when it is mixed with white  in varying quantities, a range of very greenish and silvery  grays are produced.

Lead-Tin Yellow

Natural ultramarine blue could be considered the king of Vermeer’s palette, lead-tin yellow would justly be called   its queen. What is now commonly called lead-tin yellow has had several different names in the past. Italian manuscripts have described a color, giallolino, which is identical to lead-tin yellow. In northern parts of England the term massicot  was used to describe the same pigment. The current name lead-tin yellow is self explanatory. It is a result of the components of the pigment lead and tin which combine to form a yellow hue. Due to its high lead content, it is very poisonous and has been replaced by safer products. Used between 13th and 18th centuries, but most common from 15th to 17th centuries.

White Lead

White has always played an important part in the art and craft of painting. The great part of pigments on a progressive scale of gray would fall into the medium dark to dark category. Only lead-tin yellow is by itself light pigment. In order to portray the light areas which are for indispensable to convey the sense of natural illumination, white must be added to heighten most of the darker pigments.

Vermeer, as all other painters of the time, used it extensively to lighten other colors and as the principle component used to depict the characteristic white-washed walls (see right below) seen in so many of his paintings. Vermeer was also aware that the rendering of surface textures enhances the visual significance of various material realities he portrayed.

Information taken from:

  Essential Vermeer

Lady writing a Letter with her Maid

While the mistress concentrates on writing, the maid looks out of the window. Another Vermeer shows the mistress and maid theme: The Love Letter, but in this the interaction between the women is the subject, whereas here the women look in opposite directions.

The composition moves the eye towards the women from both sides. from the right we see a chair and a rich oriental rug covering the table; the chair invites us in, while the table is a barrier. From the left the sequence is a dark curtain, the window, and an exquisitely rendered translucent curtain that seems to be painted from light itself. The mistress is dressed in a starched blouse, rendered with sharp polygons of white, and pearl jewelry. On the floor in front of the table is a seal and sealing wax for completing the letter, and also a crumpled sheet, which may be an initial version of the letter she is writing, or it may be the letter to which she is responding.

The large painting on the wall behind the women is The Finding of Moses, the same painting as in The Astronomer, but not the same size. This indicates that somebody must be rescued and cherished, but it is not clear who that is.

What happened after Vermeer’s death?

After Vermeer’s death his widow Catharina undertook a series of legal and financial actions, probably to prevent bankruptcy. These are recorded in extensive documents. On 27 January 1676, she pledged two paintings by her late husband to the baker Hendrik van Buyten, in lieu of payment of ‘the sum of 6 I 6 guilder and 6 stuivers …owed to van Buyten far delivered bread.’

Two weeks later, on 10 February, Catharina contracted to sell ’26 pieces, large paintings and small, far the sum of 500 guilders’ in order to satisfy another of her shopping bills. It has often been maintained that these twenty- six paintings must have been works by Vermeer. It seems most unlikely, however, that Catharina would have sold twenty-six of her late husband’s works for the sum of 500 guilders, when only two weeks earlier the mere pledge of two of them satisfied a creditor with a 600 guilder claim. The documents suggest that she owned only a very few paintings by Vermeer, and that she took every measure possible to retain ownership of them. This would explain why, on 24 February, she sold ‘a painting by …her late husband, representing the Art of Painting’ to her own mother, Maria Thin, ‘in partial settlement of her debt’.

A few days later, on 29 February, an inventory was made of the contents of the house on the Oude Langedijk, probably because of a threatening bankruptcy. Catharina’s property was listed separately from her mother’s. It included some framed drawings, and twenty-four paintings-among them   heads by Fabritius and Hoogstraten, ‘a large painting of Christ on the cross’, ‘alle containing a bass fiddle with a death’s-head’, and another representing ‘Cupid’. The last three are surely the same paintings Vermeer depicted in the background of some of his own works. Significantly, no paintings by Vermeer himself are mentioned. “

None of these measures were effective: on 30 April the High Court of Delft declared Catharina bankrupt. She stated that she was ‘charged with the care of eleven living children. Her husband, having been able to earn little or nothing in the years since the war with the King of France, was forced ‘to sell at a great loss the paintings he had bought and in which he traded, in order to feed the aforementioned children, thereby falling so deeply into debt that she was unable to satisfy all her creditors (who are not willing to take into consideration her great losses and bad luck caused by the war).’

In the autumn the biologist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, not yet famous for his work with the microscope, was appointed trustee ofher estate. Angry objections were voiced to Catharina’s prior disposal of paintings to certain creditors, such as her mother, which was interpreted as prejudicial to the interests of the other creditors. Despite strong protest, her mother was instructed to relinquish The Art of Painting for sale at auction.

from:
by Albert Blankert, Vermeer: 1632-1675, London, 1978, pp. 10-11

Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

“One of the things I love about Vermeer’s women, I guess it’s what I love about his gaze, is that . . . [it's] the gaze of someone who’s inviting us to recognize that even the simplest women have an interior life.”

Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

 

Poems in Honour of Vermeer

On Woman with Balance

Here I stand, the Last Judgement hanging
over my shoulder, and Christ pointing –
“You go here.   You go there.”
The poor souls believe,
obey without question,

But notice, if you will, that I am poised
before the lighted window,
that the scales in my hand are empty –
nothing here,  nothing there –
and another kind of weighing,
Who am I? Is this who I am?

There is no answer,
never an answer.
Only the brush against the canvas,
a trying this,  a trying that
and then the reckoning.

by Mary K. Stillwell

 

On Woman Asleep

No, not asleep, but nearly so,
as close to my bed as I can get,
my body folded down
into the closest chair,
the evening stretching
before my closed eyes
like a thickly painted canvas,
playing over and over, the laughter,
the quickening light from the hearth,
the dappled corners where dark
caresses arm, leg, breast
through heavy clothing,
the music I tap my foot to
when I do not dance,
but oh, how I love to dance!
Day and night, light and shadow,
dance and rest, these are the rhythmes,
men and women, making whole.

by Mary K. Stillwell

On The Art of Painting

I rather think him an ass,
the way he’s posed me here
with these props, the trumpet stand
the laurel wreath, this book,
as though I’m looking over my own shoulder,
deep in meditation,
the way he sits all morning
on his own squares looking
and mixing, looking
and marking, looking.
“Just there,” he repeats
each time a stray thought
of moon carries me out over the water,
or scent of grass lifts me
onto the new green floor of spring.

Here it is foul, the odor of paint
and cleaner, dusty drapes,
clothing oily with use.  Yes,
I tap my foot without thinking,
drying leaves slide from my hair,
my eyes find the window,
the close bird, the sky.  Let
him have his art, his black hat,
this room, this fixed time.
Notice he keeps his back to you,
and that in holding me here
he sets me free to dream.

by Mary K. Stillwell

 

On The Little Street

I’m the one in the doorway,
to the right, and this is my favorite time
to mend, morning just greeting cobblestone,
air still chill.   Early sun calls us
all outside to wash our walks,
sweep our passageways,
stitch our seams,  to start our day
as clean and orderly as the sky,
housekeeping as necessary as vine,
tendrils threading over brick.

by Mary K. Stillwell

A little Synposis and Opinios about the film Girl with the Pearl Earing

Synopsis:

Delft, Holland, 1665. After her father, a tile painter, is blinded in a kiln explosion, seventeen-year-old Griet must work to support her family. She becomes a maid in the house of Johannes Vermeer and gradually attracts the master painter’s attention. Though worlds apart in upbringing, education and social standing, Vermeer recognizes Griet’s intuitive understanding of color and light and slowly draws her into the mysterious world of his paintings. Vermeer is a perfectionist, often taking months to finish a painting. His shrewd mother-in-law, Maria Thins, struggles to maintain the family’s lavish lifestyle on the income from his painstakingly meager output. Seeing that Griet inspires Vermeer, she takes the dangerous decision to allow their clandestine relationship to develop. Plunged into a chaotic Catholic household run by Vermeer’s volatile wife Catharina, surrounded by an ever-increasing brood of children, Griet is increasingly at risk of exposure or worse. Twelve-year-old Cornelia, a mischievous girl who sees more than she should, quickly grows jealous and suspicious of Griet and is determined to cause trouble. Alone and unprotected, Griet also contends with the attentions of Pieter, a local butcher boy, and Vermeer’s patron, the wealthy and lascivious Master van Ruijven, who is frustrated that his money does not buy him control over the artist. While Griet falls increasingly under Vermeer’s spell, she cannot be sure of his feelings for her. The Machiavellian van Ruijven, sensing the intimacy between master and maid, gleefully contrives a commission for Vermeer to paint Griet alone. The result will be one of the greatest paintings ever created, but at what cost

Different Opinions about the film:

• “A terrifically realised film, startlingly emotional and wonderfully visceral. “(Joe Utichi.FilmFocus)
• “Girl with the Pearl Earring is about the liberating and inspiring experience of being seen. ( Jeffrey Overstreet. Looking Closer)
• “You don’t have to know much about the artist Johannes Vermeer to be enchanted by “The Girl With the Pearl Earring.” (Linda Cook. Quad City Times)ç

“Esta no es una cinta sobre el drama de las relaciones humanas sino sobre la belleza de la pintura, el poder de los sentimientos y la intensidad creadora de los artistas” (Flavio J. Arosemena. Doncinema.com)

If you want to know everything about your favourite films you can visit the following site:

 

Rottentomatoes

Tracy Chevalier. Questions about Girl with a Pearl Earing.

On Thursday we talk about Tracy Chevalier and we read a short interview. I thought that it was really interesting how a writer can write such a brilliant story taking as inspiration sorce a painting. For that reason, I decided to search more information about Tracy Checalier. So, there is an interviw about her novel Girl with a Pearl Earing which I think that can be quite interesting.

Questions about Girl with a Pearl Earing

• What inspired you to write about the girl in Vermeer’s painting?
  
  I have had a copy of that painting for a long time. I love it because it is so beautiful and mysterious. The expression on the girl’s face is ambiguous – sometimes she looks happy, sometimes sad, sometimes innocent, sometimes seductive. I was always curious about what she was thinking, and one day I wondered what Vermeer did to her to make her look like that. I began to understand that the painting is more than a picture of the girl, but also a portrait of the relationship between the painter and the model. I thought there must be a story behind her look, but when I found out that we don’t know who the model for the painting was, I realized I would have to make up the story myself.
• Why did you make the girl a servant?
  
  In the painting the girl’s clothes are very plain compared to other women Vermeer painted, and yet the pearl is clearly luxurious. I was fascinated by that contrast, and it seemed clear to me that the pearl was not hers. At the same time, I also felt she knew Vermeer well, as her gaze is very direct and knowing. Some historians think she was his eldest daughter, but I don’t think that’s a look a daughter would give her father – it’s too seductive. So I thought, Who else would be close to him but not related? And I thought of a servant.
• How much of the story is true? Did Griet really exist?
  
  Griet did not exist. We don’t know who the girl in the painting is, nor any of the other models for Vermeer’s works. So I made up that she was his servant. But I tried to stay true to the facts that we do know about his life. Vermeer did grow up in Delft and lived there all his life. He was Protestant but married a Catholic woman, Catharina Bolnes, and probably converted. They had 11 children, and another 4 who died in infancy. They lived with his mother-in-law Maria Thins in the Catholic quarter of town. Though the house doesn’t exist any more, there is a list of its contents that was attached to his will, so we know what rooms were in the house, what furniture they had and what else they owned. They had a servant called Tanneke. Vermeer was an art dealer and there were paintings all over the walls. He was in debt quite a lot. It is likely that he painted very slowly. Antony van Leeuwenhoek, inventor of the microscope and much interested in lenses and other optical devices, including the camera obscura, was the executor of Vermeer’s will and very likely a friend.Other than that, there is so much we don’t know that I had to fill in. Primarily we don’t know what he was like as a person. There are no letters to or from him, and few references to him in writings of the time. That is what I had to create: was he a nice man? Was he quiet or a talker? Did he prefer to be around men or women? Did he spend a lot of time at home or go out drinking every night? Was he a gossip or loyal to his friends? Which was more important to him: family or work? All these questions I had to answer myself.

  In the end I based his character on what I saw as a contradiction in his life: he painted such quiet, calm paintings and yet he had 11 children! How could he have managed that, other than to feel ruthless about his paintings to the point of separating out his working life from his daily life. Hence he cut off his studio from his wife and family, and that caused the problems I wrote about.
  

• How long did it take you to write it?
  
  It took me eight months to research and write the book. That is very quick for me, but on the day I began research I discovered that I was pregnant, and I decided that I must finish the book before the baby came – I wasn’t sure if my brain would remain the same once I had a baby!I also wanted the book to feel as if it were written in one sitting (so that you would want to read it in one sitting), and in order to do that I really needed to write the book in one chunk of time rather than divided up pre-baby and post-baby. So I had just eight months. It meant that I made some practical aesthetic decisions: it would be a short book, told from one person’s point of view, and the structure would be linear – I didn’t have the time to be experimental. In a way, though, those decisions also mirrored Vermeer’s aesthetic of simplicity and understatement, so it worked out very well.
• How did you research the book?
  
  I began by looking at a lot of paintings – not just Vermeer’s, but other Dutch artists’ paintings of the time as well. There was a fashion then for paintings of everyday life, and looking at them built up a kind of visual reference for me. Then I began to read – about Vermeer, about painting, about the history of the time. It helped that there had been a major Vermeer exhibition a few years back and a number of books about this sort of thing had just come out. Then of course I went to Delft, also to Amsterdam, to see for myself. Finally I wrote the book, going back to sources to answer questions along the way.
• Do you paint, or have you ever modeled for a painting?
  
  I took a painting class while I was researching the book. I was really terrible at it. I have never modeled for a painting but I did talk to a friend who is a portrait painter about the relationship that can develop between painter and model.
• Do you have any training as an art historian?

          Nope. I’m a novice, just like you.

• How did you decide on names for your characters? How are they
  pronounced?Many of the names are of known people: Vermeer’s wife was called Catharina, her mother was Maria Thins, and the children’s names are all recorded, so I didn’t have to make any of those up. As for Griet herself, I wrote down female Dutch names I came across as I was doing research. One day I wrote down Griet and knew that was it: short, tidy, definite. It’s short for Margriet, and a year after the book was published I discovered that Margriet means “pearl” in Dutch. Amazing, eh?
• Does Griet love Vermeer? Does Vermeer love Griet?
  It’s difficult to answer this. (I know, you’d think the writer would know!) In many ways the point of the book is that whatever they may feel, they don’t analyze it or expect to act on it, nor do they expect anything from each other. Griet knows it’s an impossibility and never dares to anticipate what Vermeer might feel for her. And Vermeer – well, he may feel something for her but in the end his passion for the perfect painting is stronger.

 

If you want to know more about Tracy Chevalier and her works you can vistit the following site in which you can find the complete interview.

Tracy Chevalier
 

Vermeer the Ignored Artist

Vermeer ,as well as his comtemporary Rembrandt, was underestimated but also ignored.Vermeer was modestly successful as a painter/art dealer, well-respected in Delft, but never gained much of a reputation outside. After his death, he was forgotten almost entirely.and it was n the nineteenth century when he was “rediscovered”.Since that moemet on, he has been considered one of the finest painters ever.

I didn’t know too much about Vermeer and the only painting that I had seen was that of ‘The Girl with the Pearl Earing’.Now that I know more about him and have had the choice of appreciating the beauty of some of his masterpieces I wander myself how could such wonderful paintings be sitting there in Delft withouth attracting any kind of attention.

According to which I have read there are several hypothesis :

1. Vermeer had few or no students to spread the word about the prowess of their master.
2. Vermeer’s paintings were mostly “private” paintings, not high-profile public commissions or portraits of important society figures.
3. Maybe not that many people saw them.

The most sad thing is that when Vermeer died people started selling his paintings under other artists’ names in order to get higher prices — though he continued to be recognized and appreciated by a small number of connoisseurs. Finally, in the 1850s Vermeer’s genius began to be more generally recognized and an effort was made to locate paintings incorrectly attributed to other artists.

** Some extracts of this article have been taken from the following webpage: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/#

A short Description of Vermeer’s ‘The Geographer’

Jan Vermeer produced just 35 –36 paintings in his lifetime, but remains the most respected artists of the European tradition. Most of Vermeer’s paintings are serene, luminous interiors with just one or two figures.

In The Geographer , Vermeer presents another individual in an interior. In this case, we have a male figure, which has intense energy in comparison to the contemplative women from other compositions. As we can see, the scholar is bending over the maps in his study. His left hand rests on a book; his right hand holds a compass. The painting accurately details the cartographic objects like the sea chart, globe, dividers, square and a cross-staff used to measure the elevation angle of the sun and stars so, all these objects identify him as a geographer. It seems as if he is distracted by something he sees outside but I think that he is not and that according to his facial expression he is in phase of comtemplation. He may be thinking about all the places he has visited.

It is important to mention that Vermeer is one of the the most outstanding colorist and painter of light of his period. This painting, as is often the case with Vermeer, is primarily based on blue, yellow, and red pigments. The room is flooded with a cool, clear light, despite the many dark shadows. They characterize the composition as well as the auxiliary lines that reinforce the perspective.