Remembering Vermeer

Saturday--December 15th--will mark the 332nd anniversary of Johannes Vermeer's passing. This startling Dutch artist, who has achieved a revived modern popularity after the publication of Tracy Chevalier's novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, was a tragic and unlucky figure who faded into obscurity after his early death at age 43. Fortunately for everyone, in the late 19th century Vermeer was "rediscovered" by art collectors, together with his 35 masterpieces (which all his paintings were--he was such a perfectionist that he only allowed himself to produce 35 paintings in his lifetime).

Overlook's recent book Vermeer offers some explanations as to how it was Vermeer, who is still looked to the all-time master of use of light in his almost supernatural captures of day-to-day life, was so unappreciated in his time that he was allowed to waste away in agony and debt. The unfortunate timing of the Franco-Dutch War during the peak of Vermeer's career and the accompanying economic depression caused many of Vermeer's greatest works to go unappreciated during his lifetime, driving the Vermeer family into economic ruin. Vermeer's brainy and dedicated widow, Catharina, did everything in her power to retain her husband's collection, but his massive debts forced her to sell off some of the paintings in order to feed their surviving 11 children. It can only be speculated what else the painter might have had to offer the art world.

If you are in the New York area and are tired of all the holiday crowding, you might consider a Saturday visit to The Frick Museum, lucky home of 3 of the 35 Vermeer paintings, including the one depicted to the left. This painting, called Soldier with a Laughing Girl, was painted when Vermeer was only 25 years old. It is thought to be his only self-portrait (some scholars have suggested he painted himself into the shadowy soldier in the foreground).