Johannes Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch artist who lived from 1632 to 1675 during the Dutch Golden Age of Art who was associated with the Baroque art movement. Vermeer specialized in domestic interior life scenes though not much is known of his own personal life. Only 50 or so paintings have been definitively attributed to him, of which only 34 have survived until today. None of his drawings have survived.
Johannes Vermeer was born in the city of Delft in the Netherlands. His father was an art dealer. In 1652, following his father’s death, Johannes took over the family business. The following year, Vermeer married a Catholic woman, Catharina Bolenes, and converted to Catholicism. He moved into his mother in law’s house and spent the rest of his short life there.
Vermeer painted all of his art within two rooms of his wife’s house. Together, Vermeer and his wife had 15 children, of which just 11 survived past infancy. In 1653, Vermeer became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke, the local artists’ guild in his city of Delft, Netherlands. Vermeer did moderately well during his lifetime, but he was known to be a slow working artist. He created an average of three paintings a year, and as such, did not fulfill as many commissions as other working artists of the day. He was meticulous in his work and used only the more expensive pigments for his paint. He is known for his mastery of depicting light.
Vermeer was well-known in his hometown of Delft but was not really appreciated outside of the city. In 1672, there was an economic collapse in the Netherlands and the art market crashed. No one was buying his art and he had trouble selling the art of other masters, of which he was still dealing. When Vermeer died in 1675 at just 43 years of age from an unknown illness, he left his family in debt.
As most of his works were bought by local patrons, Johannes Vermeer fell into obscurity after his death. He was forgotten in art history until he was rediscovered in the nineteenth century. Since then, Vermeer’s reputation has grown, and he is now remembered as one of the great Dutch masters.
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