The Guitar Player ( Characteristics)

- Artist: Johannes Vermeer

- Year: c. 1667

- Type: Oil on canvas

- Dimensions: 53 x 46.3cm

• Brushstrokes became freer and more expressive than in his earlier works:
  

– He emphasized patterns of color rather than textures.

-The face also is treated differently.  Its expression is outward and not self-contained.

• His composition away from the center of the painting:

- The girl is placed so far to the left that her arm is cut by the edge.

– Light falls to the left and a landscape hangs behind the girl on the back wall.

– The off-center composition is further emphasized by the direction of the girl’s glance.

References:

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/guitar_player.html

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/cat_about/guitar.html

The Guitar Vs. the Lute

- The guitar was just coming into vogue in the late seventeenth century as a popular instrument for solo accompaniment. —

   - The music was created, more audacious than the lute, in large part because its production line with a resonance that the lute was not possible. —

   - Also in that time the music was very sofisticated and enjoyed by the purity of their sounds. —

   – The brilliant character and direct guitar offered us over the world of modern music represented, in contrast to the traditional conservative covered with lute.

REFERENCES

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/music/guitar.html

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/music/instruments.html

who was the model ?

Study of a Young Woman / Johannes Vermeer

-—Johannes Vermeer The yellow-jacketed girl (left) playing the guitar or cittern in the Kenwood picture also has the characteristic jaw formation of the Wrightsman portrait (right).

The Guitar Player / Johannes Vermeer

-—Assuming the date assigned to that picture (1671-1672) is about right, it could represent Maria (Vermeer’s youngest daughter) at the age of seventeen or eighteen.

-—Elisabeth, born about 1657, is a less likely candidate since she was probably less than fifteen years old at the time the Kenwood picture was painted.

 

Reference

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/cat_about/guitar.html

Why a guitar in this time??

The organization of the composition of Vermeer in this picture is linked to its decision to introduce a guitar player rather than a lute player. The guitar came into force at the end of the seventeenth century as a popular instrument for accompanying alone. The music was created, more audacious than the lute, in large part because its production line with a resonance that the lute was not possible. Also in that time the music was very sofisticated and enjoyed by the purity of their sounds. The brilliant character and direct guitar offered us over the world of modern music represented, in contrast to the traditional conservative covered with lute.

The Guitar Player

This article belongs to Aroa Rezola.

When, for the first time, we face a painting like this (The Guitar Player) we might not notice anything at first. What we see at first side is just an image of a girl who is just playing a guitar. Althought we do not see anyone else in the painting, it seems that she is looking at somebody. Her eyes seem to be focusing on something or somebody. Her fingers´ position suggest that she is procuding sounds. She seems to be playing for somebody who can be hearing and does not appear in the painting.

The girl playing the guitar expresses delicacy and softness. Behind her there is anothing painting (which is very common in Vermeer´s paintings). This is a painting of a landscape. Finally, on the right of the girl there is a table with two old books on the top of it and also a kind of rag.

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