Vermeer, who painted exquisite light-infused scenes of middle-class life in Delft, was a slow craftsman and produced few works in his lifetime. Many of his paintings were scooped up by wealthy Delft patron Pieter van Ruijven, which may be why his fame didn’t spread to other Dutch art centers. In fact, Vermeer was relatively unknown until 1866, when French critic Théophile Thoré saw his “View of Delft” in The Hague. This book features detailed walking tours of Delft, the Hague and Amsterdam where the artist lived, loved and labored. Readers will discover the sights and stories behind such an iconic work like "Girl with a Pearl Earring.”
Vermeer, who painted exquisite light-infused scenes of middle-class life in Delft, was a slow craftsman and produced few works in his lifetime. Many of his paintings were scooped up by wealthy Delft patron Pieter van Ruijven, which may be why his fame didn’t spread to other Dutch art centers. In fact, Vermeer was relatively unknown until 1866, when French critic Théophile Thoré saw his “View of Delft” in The Hague. This book features detailed walking tours of Delft, the Hague and Amsterdam where the artist lived, loved and labored. Readers will discover the sights and stories behind such an iconic work like "Girl with a Pearl Earring.”
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Overview
Vermeer, who painted exquisite light-infused scenes of middle-class life in Delft, was a slow craftsman and produced few works in his lifetime. Many of his paintings were scooped up by wealthy Delft patron Pieter van Ruijven, which may be why his fame didn’t spread to other Dutch art centers. In fact, Vermeer was relatively unknown until 1866, when French critic Théophile Thoré saw his “View of Delft” in The Hague. This book features detailed walking tours of Delft, the Hague and Amsterdam where the artist lived, loved and labored. Readers will discover the sights and stories behind such an iconic work like "Girl with a Pearl Earring.”
About the Author
Museyon Guides are visually oriented travel guides, accessibly written for the greenhorn as well as the aficionado, featuring academic-quality information on artistic and cultural interests and obsessions. They are based in New York City.
Read an Excerpt
Vermeer and Delft
By Sandra Smallenburg
Museyon, Inc.
Copyright © 2013 Museyon Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-938450-16-7
CHAPTER 1
THE NETHERLANDS
VERMEER and Delft
Vermeer, who painted exquisite light-infused scenes of middle-class life in Delft, was a slow craftsman and produced few works in his lifetime. Many of his paintings were scooped up by wealthy Delft patron Pieter van Ruijven, which may be why his fame didn't spread to other Dutch art centers. In fact, Vermeer was relatively unknown until 1866, when French critic Théophile Thoré saw his View of Delft in The Hague. One thing we know about the artist, who died penniless at 43 — leaving his wife and 11 surviving children to fend for themselves — is that he loved expensive blue paint and often spent more for costly lapis lazuli and natural ultramarine pigments than he could charge for his work. Not surprising for a painter from a town that lent its name to the distinctive color, "Delft Blue," of its prized blue and white pottery.
BY SANDRA SMALLENBURG
In Peter Webber's film Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is portrayed as quiet and introverted. He is a handsome, long-haired man who tries desperately to get his work done in his overpopulated household, inhabited by 11 children, his wife, and his mother-in-law. Apart from the occasional outburst of rage, Vermeer keeps to himself in his studio, where he watches the light change and finds inspiration in the good-looking maid Griet.
It's a beautiful story, based on Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel from 2000, but it is all fiction. In fact, we don't know what Vermeer looked like, and we think he must have been a silent man only because there's so much silence in his paintings. We cannot be sure, and there's no shred of evidence that Griet ever existed. Vermeer didn't tell us about his inspiration or working methods. He didn't leave any letters or diaries. The little information we do have comes from official documents such as testaments and inventory lists. Vermeer is one of the most famous painters in the history of art, and yet he remains a mystery. That's why he has been given the moniker the Sphinx of Delft.
Johannes Vermeer was born in 1632 in a house at Voldersgracht 25 in Delft, a picturesque city with cobblestone streets and tranquil canals where even today you can still hear the hooves of horses carrying the tourist tram. His father, Reynier Jansz, owned a tavern called De Vliegende Vos (the Flying Fox), but he also made money from his weaving mill and art business, selling paintings from Delft artists like Balthasar van der Ast, Jan Baptista van Fornenburgh, Pieter Steenwijck, and Pieter Groenewegen. When Vermeer was nine, the family moved to a larger house on the other side of the street at the corner of the Oude Manhuissteeg and the busy Markt Square. This house, also a tavern, was called Huis Mechelen. It is unknown if and where the young Vermeer went to school, but because Huis Mechelen was a lively meeting place for Delft artists at the time, he might have met painters like Evert van Aelst, Egbert van der Poel, and Leonaert Bramer. Pieter de Hooch, who was a few years older than Vermeer and arrived in Delft in 1654, is often mentioned as a possible teacher. Vermeer admired the work of Carel Fabritius, the Delft painter who tragically died in a gunpowder explosion that destroyed a large part of the city in 1654.
Today the site of Huis Mechelen is directly across from the Vermeer Center (formerly St. Luke's Guild), an institution created to carry on and explore his cultural legacy, and one of the tour guides there, Louk van Riet, says that the area is considered holy ground. "This is as close as you can get to Vermeer. This is the street where he played as a young boy. Here you can hear the same carillon as he did, and this could very well be the location of The Little Street (1657–58)." But van Riet is quick to point out that there are many different theories surrounding the artist.
In truth, the only facts that documents can reveal to us about Vermeer's life are that he was baptized as a Protestant in the New Church on October 31, 1632, and that he got engaged to Catharina Bolnes on April 5, 1653. Catharina was a Catholic girl from a well-to-do family, and in order to marry her, Vermeer had to convert to Catholicism. The marriage ceremony took place in the small town of Schipluiden on April 20, 1653. For 15 years the couple lived with Vermeer's wealthy mother-in-law, Maria Thins, who owned a large house on the Oude Langendijk in the so-called Papenhoek (Papists' Corner). Here, each of Vermeer's 15 children was born, four of whom died at a young age. It was also at this house, in a room on the second floor with excellent light from a northern window, that Vermeer probably painted most of his works.
It's easy to see why he found so much inspiration in Delft: The city is a sensory treat for any traveler. It's a place where the local delicacy — fresh and raw herring with onions — is sold on almost every street corner and the many restaurants offer smells and flavors from all over the world. Delft is a multicultural place with people from Morocco, Turkey, Surinam, and the Dutch Antilles. In summertime, the canals are covered with water lilies, everyone eats outside in front of their houses, and the terraces — many of which are built on boats that line the canals — ring with the laughter of students and tourists. You'll notice an enormous number of bicycles in the city, parked in front of the train station or tied to a bridge railing; they are the preferred vehicle of transportation by many locals. The pace of life is slower here, and people like it that way.
Vermeer also appreciated taking his time, working exceedingly slowly and painstakingly producing only two or three paintings a year. He was a perfectionist, using only expensive paints such as clear blue ultramarine, a rare pigment costing 60 guilders per quarter pound — an amount much more than the price of many of his paintings. During his lifetime, Vermeer painted an estimated 40 to 60 works; 36 of them are still known today. The attribution of only one of these works, Girl With a Flute (1665–70), is considered dubious. It is located in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C, and is marked as "attributed to Vermeer." The majority of Vermeer's extremely small oeuvre consists of scenes of interiors with one or two persons in it (26 works in total), but he also painted four portraits featuring women, two city views of Delft, and four allegorical scenes.
Light is the principal element in all of Vermeer's paintings. In his interior scenes, the sun shines through high windows to light up a woman playing music or reading a letter. In his city views, the sun brightens the Delft rooftops and is also reflected in the city's tranquil waters. His contours are always blurred instead of sharp, making his compositions soft and radiant. Vermeer gave his compositions their dazzling luminosity with millions of colorful dots, and the way he used this pointillé technique is unique for his time.
TIMELINE
October 31, 1632 Johannes Vermeer is baptized in the Nieuwe Kerk
1652 Vermeer's father passes away; the artist takes his place as a merchant of paintings
1653 Vermeer marries Catharina Bolnes on April 20 The artist joins St. Luke's Guild, an association for artists and artisans
1654 Delft suffers terrible explosion that destroys a large section of the city
1657 Vermeer meets Pieter van Ruijven, a local art collector and future patron
1662 The artist becomes the head of St. Luke's Guild
1665 Vermeer creates his iconic Girl with a Pearl Earring
1672 The "Year of Disaster" strikes in the Netherlands, as a severe economic downturn takes place in the wake of the Franco-Dutch War
1675 The artist borrows 1,000 guilders from a merchant in Amsterdam
December 16, 1675 Johannes Vermeer dies penniless and is buried in the Oude Kerk in Delft, leaving behind his wife and 11 children
HAN VAN MEEGEREN
The most brilliant and ingenious art forger of the 20th century, Han van Meegeren (1889–1947), was a Dutch painter and portraitist who became enchanted by the masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age while still a child. A promising student of architecture, van Meegeren won a gold medal from the General Sciences Section of the Delft Institute of Technology for a drawing of a church interior in the 17th-century style. After finishing his studies, van Meegeren set out to become a painter but critics were not kind to his work. He was stung by their criticism and decided to "prove" his talent by forging paintings by some of the Netherlands' greatest masters, including Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch and Delft's own Johannes Vermeer.
Arguably his most successful "Vermeer" was Supper at Emmaus, which he completed in 1937 while living in Roquebrune, France. Many of the world's foremost art experts were taken in by the work, calling it the finest Vermeer they had ever seen. Van Meegeren continued to produce fake Vermeers through the early 1940s and might never have been caught if one of them, Christ and The Adulteress, hadn't been seized in Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring's collection. Van Meegeren was arrested in 1945 and charged with collaboration and selling important Dutch cultural property to the Nazis.
To exonerate himself from that very serious charge, Van Meegeren surprised Dutch authorities by claiming that it, as well as most of the works he had sold, was not important cultural property but simply a forgery he had painted himself. To prove it he painted a "new" Vermeer during the trial, demonstrating the various techniques he used to make the paintings appear several hundred years old. He became extremely popular as a result of the revelations for having fooled not only Göring, but some of the world's greatest art connoisseurs as well. Van Meegeren was convicted in 1947 and sentenced to one year in prison, but died of a heart attack before the token sentence could be carried out.
On December 29, 1653, Vermeer enlisted with St. Luke's Guild, an association for artists and artisans. The enrollment fee was 6 guilders, but because of his bad financial circumstances Vermeer paid only 1.5 guilders; the remaining amount he paid more than two years later, on July 24, 1656. It is quite possible that Vermeer's mother-in-law supported the family financially, but the artist also had a private patron, the wealthy Delft art collector Pieter van Ruijven, who ultimately bought 21 of Vermeer's paintings. Vermeer sometimes borrowed money from van Ruijven, and when the patron died in 1674, he left the painter a legacy of 500 guilders.
This inheritance couldn't prevent Vermeer's serious financial problems during his final years of life. In 1672, the so-called "Year of Disaster", the French and the English had invaded the Dutch Republic causing an economic downturn. Numerous businesses went bankrupt, and Vermeer, who also traded in the paintings of other artists, was forced to borrow money in order to feed his children. In addition to what he received from van Ruijven, Vermeer also traveled to Amsterdam on July 20, 1675, to borrow 1,000 guilders from an unknown person. It was still not enough. When he died suddenly on December 16, 1675, Vermeer left his family penniless. In turn, his widow had to pay off a debt of 617 guilders to the baker — the equivalent of three years' bread supply — by selling two of her husband's paintings.
Shortly after his death, the work of Vermeer fell out of favor. In 1696 the 21 Vermeers from van Ruijven's collection were auctioned for average prices. The Milkmaid (1658), for example, sold for only 175 guilders. During much of the 18th and 19th centuries, Vermeer was forgotten completely. It was only after 1866, when the French art critic Théophile Thoré (writing under the pen name Bürger) published three essays in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts extolling the work of Vermeer, that people started to take notice again. Yet even in 1881, Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665) was sold at an auction for only 2 guilders and 30 cents, an extremely low price even for that time. By the end of the 19th century, the Impressionists were rediscovering Vermeer, praising his use of light and the contemplative stillness of his work.
Today art lovers are again drawn to Vermeer, and the public's interest — as well as the prices of his work — continues to rise. In 2004, Young Woman Seated at the Virginal (1670), the first Vermeer painting to come to auction in over 80 years (and long suspected to be a fake), was sold for $30 million at Sotheby's in London. It went for over five times the presale estimate.
ART IMITATING ART: THE ARTIST'S IMPRINT ON POPULAR CULTURE
MOVIES
ON LOCATION
Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) Director: Peter Webber
This imaginative interpretation of the story behind Vermeer's famous painting opens with sweeping shots of real-life Delft, including the city hall and town square as seen from the Nieuwe Kerk, as well as the church itself. Though fictional, the film provides a rare glimpse into Vermeer's world, about which little is known. We see inside his studio — the alchemical process of mixing lapis, ruby shellac, and other precious pigments — and the harsh realities of painting the whims of a wealthy patron. Other than the film's opening shots, the 17th-century Delft portrayed in the film was actually shot in Luxembourg, on a set originally built for the film Secret Passage, in which it played another canal-crossed city, Venice.
Light in the Window: The Art of Vermeer (1952) Director: Jean Oser
This 10-minute movie from the renowned filmmaker Jean Oser, is an innovative profile of the artist that was awarded an Oscar in the Dramatic Short Film category in 1953.
Vermeer: Master of Light (2001) Director: Joe Krakora
This documentary, narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep, takes an in-depth look at Vermeer's artistic technique. Through the use of high-tech equipment, the film provides a detailed study on the use of composition and lighting within his work.
A Brush with Fate (2003) Director: Brent Shields
Originally made for TV, this film, starring Glenn Close and Ellen Burstyn, is based on the novel Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland. The painting featured in the movie — which was created by a reproduction of Vermeer's technique — was made by American painter Jonathan Janson, author and webmaster of the Essential Vermeer website.
LITERATURE
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland (Penguin, 2000)
This popular novel follows the ownership of a supposed Vermeer painting, which is traced back to the moment of its inspiration and moves through various owner's hands and poignant moments in their lives. The common thread of each tale is the collective admiration for the painting and the power of beauty to transform.
In Quiet Light: Poems on Vermeer's Women by Marilyn Chandler
McEntyre (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2000) Inspired by Vermeer's famous portraits, this imaginative collection of poetry imagines the lives of subjects he painted. Each poem lies alongside color reproductions of such works as The Lacemaker, The Milkmaid, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and The Girl with a Red Hat.
Vermeer's Daughter by Barbara Shoup (Clerisy Press, 2003)
Written for young adults, this fictional account of Vermeer's 17th-century world is told from the viewpoint of his daughter, Carelina. It explores daily life and the aspirations of a young woman with artistic ability living in an art world dominated by men.
The Dance of Geometry by Brian Howell (Toby Press, 2002)
Three accounts imagine events connected by Vermeer: the artist's own childhood and apprenticeship; a modern-day forger who gets blackmailed into creating a masterpiece to save the woman he loves; and a French connoisseur who journeys to see Vermeer and finds himself entangled in a secret and dangerous debate about a new invention.
ACCESS
AIRPORTS:
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Evert v/d Beekstraat 202
www.schiphol.nl
31 (0) 20 794 08 00
Rotterdam Airport
Rotterdam Airportplein 60
www.rotterdam-airport.nl
31 (0) 10 446 34 44
There are several trains from Amsterdam Central Station to Delft daily. It takes about one hour. From Rotterdam it takes 15-20 minutes. Tram runs between The Hague and Delft every 20 minutes.
TRAIN / BUS:
Station Delft
Van Leeuwenhoeksingel 41
www.ns.nl
31 (0) 15 212 98 80
(* NOTE: The Delft bus terminal is located directly in front of Station Delft)
TOURISM OFFICE:
Hippolytusbuurt 4
31 (0) 15 215 40 51
www.delft.nl
Apr–Sep Sun–Mon 10AM–4PM, Tue-Fri 9AM–6PM Sat 10AM–5PM Oct–Mar Sun 10AM–3PM Mon 11AM–4PM Tues–Sat 10AM–4PM
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Vermeer and Delft by Sandra Smallenburg. Copyright © 2013 Museyon Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Museyon, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
VERMEER AND DELFT THE NETHERLANDS BY SANDRA SMALLENBURG,Introduction,
Biography,
Timeline,
Han Van Meegeren,
Art Imitating Art,
For Your Information / Access,
Before You Go, Get in the Know,
Calendar ... Yearly Events,
Walking Tour,
Where is the Little Street?,
Where to See ... The Walking Tour,
Where to See ... Scene Stealers,
The Prinsenhof Museum,
Where to ... Eat and Sleep,
Map of Venues and City Landmarks,
Extended Travel: The Mauritshuis, The Hague,
Extended Travel: The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
The Milkmaid,
Anatomy of a Masterpiece,
Souvenirs,