Paintings 1654 - 1658
Diana and her Companions (1654)
The Hague, Mauritshuis / www.mauritshuis.nl
Probably the earliest surviving painting by Johannes Vermeer. It is very little like the characteristic style he would develop, being much influenced by the Italianate school of the likes of Caravaggio, and it is the only one of his based on mythology.
The signature was destroyed by several bouts of cleaning in the nineteenth century, but in 1895 it was recorded as reading J R VMeer. This is not conclusive, since there were numerous artists of very similar name around at the time. What makes the difference however is the nymph bathing Diana's feet. Her face is rather like that of the maid in an unquestionable Vermeer, Maid Asleep, but as they're at quite different angles, it's actually the bronze-coloured satin garment she's wearing in both pictures that nails it.
It's a landscape of sorts. At least, it's outdoors. The goddess Diana is in the centre in a gold dress, facing right, there's a nymph squatting to wash her feet, and there are three other companions nearby. And a dog. Apparently this is the only animal in Vermeer's works. It's a typical pastoral scene of the era, without much merit. There's nothing original about the composition, and there's nothing very Vermeerian about the lighting, or the expressions on their faces, the two things that are so striking about his later paintings.
Sources:
www.wikipedia.com
www.everything2.com / diana T.
Christ in the House of Martha en Mary (1655)
Edinburgh, National Gallery / www.natgalscot.ac.uk
This was one of Vermeer's earliest paintings. Paintings of biblical themes were classified as histories, which were described in treatises on art as most distinguished tasks. Vermeer probably wanted to demonstrate his abilities in this genre upon entry to the Guild of St. Luke.
Vermeer loved strong colour contrasts. The bright white tablecloth contrasts sharply with Mary's vermilion blouse and Christ's blue robe. Given the many genre paintings done by Vermeer, it is perhaps surprising to realise that the earliest of his works known to us are of the type of paintings known in his time as histories. It apparently seemed important to the young artist (or it was expected of him) to prove that he possessed the abilities of an "educated artist", upon his admission to the painters' guild; such an artist would be able to inform what the art world considered to be lofty subjects with decorum, in a proper and becoming manner.
In contrast to many works of Vermeer's late period, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha is a relatively large painting (160 x 142 cm). It depicts a New Testament scene from the Gospel of St. Luke, where the evangelist tells us how Christ went to a market, and was invited home for a meal by a woman called Martha. While Martha was busy in the kitchen, her sister Mary listened to Christ. Martha asked Christ why he did not ask Mary to help her serve, but he answered, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her."
Source:
www.all-art.org
The Procuress (1656)
Dresden, Staatliche Gemäldegalerie
Only three works by Vermeer are dated: this one of 1656, The Astronomer of 1668, and The Geographer of 1669. The Procuress is a crucial work for understanding Vermeer's development and relationship with the Delft school. The decade of the 1650s was a transitional period for artists in the city who were responding as never before to styles and subjects developed for the most part elsewhere in Holland.
Large ribald "merry company" pictures were popularized by Gerard van Honthorst and others in Utrecht in the 1620s. Many works of this type feature a balustrade or other barrier in the foreground, often with a carpet thrown over it. Vermeer appears to have combined this spatial device with a close, downward view of a table. The viewer is placed disconcertingly near the revelers who, while not standoffish, are unconcerned with what we think.
The figure on the left, probably a self-portrait, seems spliced in from another context. The mirrorlike immediacy of this passage, with its soft-focus light, could have been inspired by the works of Carel Fabritius. Throughout the picture, sudden shifts in depth, definition, and texture reveal a spirit of intense experimentation and, to some extent, forecast Vermeer's later optical effects.
The grinning glance of the dandy in the outdated doublet draws attention to the objects in his hands. Of the lute we are shown only a phallic fragment, held erect under the more feminine form of the glass.
Source:
www.metmuseum.org
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (1657)
Dresden, Staatliche Gemäldegalerie
Yearning for the outside world, open windows frequently have a figurative meaning in Vermeer's paintings. Taken together with the letter the girl is holding, this motif represents the desire to break free from the restrictions of the home and make contact with the outside world.
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window is usually considered to be an early work. It shows a young woman at an open window, reading with great inner tension and attentiveness a love letter that has been addressed to her. We see her in profile, but her face is reflected at a slight angle in the lightly coloured, uneven glass panes of the leaded window (the same feature occurs in the picture Soldier and a Laughing Girl).
The fact that it is open does of course superficially serve to increase the amount of light falling into the rather dark room, but in another sense it represents the woman's longing to extend her domestic sphere, and her desire for contact with the outside world, from which she, as a housewife forced to keep to her society's norms, is largely isolated.
The bowl of fruit in Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, which is lying on the folds of the table rug, is a symbol of extramarital relations, which broke the vow of chastity. Such a relationship is being planned or continued by means of this letter, and the apples and peaches (malum persicum) are intended to remind us of Eve's transgression. The yellowish-green silk curtain and rail is an artistic piece of bravura on the part of Vermeer.
Source:
www.all-art.com
Maid asleep (1657)
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
This large canvas is probably Vermeer's earliest picture of everyday life, and dates from slightly before The Milkmaid. The differences in scale and technique between the two works reflect the young painter's program of reviewing alternative styles in the Netherlandish art world of the time. Here the warm palette, rich shadows, and frontal presentation of the figure, the table, and walls recall genre scenes of the mid-1650s by Nicolaes Maes.
Vermeer's subject is an overdressed maid, dozing and dreaming of love (the painting above her, with Cupid's leg, stands for "Love unmasked"). The recent presence of a male companion is suggested by the large glass (which has suffered wear) to the lower left, the bowl of fruit, the chair shoved aside, and the open door.
Source:
www.metmuseum.org
View of Delft (1658)
The Hague, Mauritshuis / www.mauritshuis.nl
View of Delft is one of the most famous paintings by Vermeer. Topographic views of cities had become a tradition by the time Vermeer painted this famous canvas.
Vermeer executed his View of Delft on the spot, but the optical instrument pointed toward the city and providing the artist with the aspect translated onto canvas, was not the camera obscura but the inverted telescope. It is only the latter that condenses the panoramic view of a given sector, diminishes the figures of the foreground to a smaller than normal magnification, emphasizes the foreground as we see it in the picture, and makes the remainder of the composition recede into space.
The image thus obtained provides us with optical effects that convey a cityscape that is united in the composition and enveloped atmospherically into glowing light. We admire the town, but it is not a profile view of a township, but an idealized representation of Delft, with its main characteristics simplified and then cast into the framework of a harbour mirroring selected reflections in the water, and a rich, full sky with magnificent cloud formations. The artist outdid himself in a rendition of his hometown, which stands as a truly great interpretation of nature.
In recent art history literature it has been assumed that King William I of Orange (who reigned 1813-1840) appreciated the painting and decided to buy it because "knew that one day he too, would be interred in the crypt under his ancestor's monument". The story of the purchase of the View of Delft is more complicated than that. The King did not actually choose the painting himself, it was chosen by the director of the Rijksmuseum. The histories of the Royal Collection of paintings Mauritshuis and the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam are quite intertwined during the reign of William I. In 1822 there was a batch of paintings to be distributed between the Rijksmusem and the Mauritshuis and the director of the Rijksmuseum actually preferred another painting at that time.
Be that as it may - William I would have indeed appreciated the Vermeer painting as it highlights the tower of the New Church, which houses the marble grave monument of his predecessor Willem of Orange (who reigned in the 16th C.).
Sources:
www.xs4all.nl/~kalden
www.wga.hu
Officer and Laughing Girl (1658)
Washington, National Gallery / www.nga.gov
While painting with a brush loaded with pigments and applying them in a granulous fashion by thick dabs, Vermeer ingeniously develops his mastery as a luminist. The young woman is bathed in light, which streams in through the half open window to the left, and reflects itself from the cream-coloured background that is enhanced to the left by very thin glazes of slightly pinkish tonalities. Her face, exceptionally conveying expression - joy and laughter - appears framed in a kerchief and the collar of her dress. That part of the figure, especially, reveals itself as a symphony of luminosity, set off by the dark sleeves of the yellow jacket on which glittering highlights dance. In contrast, the soldier in the black hat and red jacket is placed close to the viewer, from whom he turns his back. He is hardly more than a silhouette, but rather overpowering, given the relative importance accorded his bodily appearance.
The nearest foreground - the soldier on his chair and the dark-green part of the table cover - are so strongly enhanced that the use of an optical instrument by Vermeer for the structuring of the composition seems indisputable. We have here the typical effect of the inverted telescope: the foreground standing out in the manner of stage scenery, while the figure of the girl recedes into space. On the back of the wall, we find for the first time a map. This element of decoration reappears frequently in the artist's subsequent works.
Source:
www.wga.hu
The Milkmaid (1658)
The Milkmaid was painted in about 1657–58. It may be considered one of the last works of the artist's early, formative years, during which he adopted various subjects and styles from other painters and at the same time introduced effects based on direct observation and an unusually refined artistic sensibility.
In The Milkmaid, Vermeer created his most illusionistic image. To modern viewers the picture may resemble a photograph. However, the composition is exquisitely designed, as is evident from several revisions made in the course of execution and from subtle relationships of light and shadow, color, contours, and shapes. A low vantage point and a pyramidal buildup of forms from the left foreground to the woman's head lend the figure monumentality and perhaps a sense of dignity.
And yet, like milkmaids and kitchen maids in earlier Netherlandish art, and like other young women in Vermeer's oeuvre, this figure was meant to attract the male viewer and to have her own thoughts of romance. For at least two centuries before Vermeer's time, milkmaids and kitchen maids had (or were assigned) a reputation for amorous predispositions. Netherlandish artists adopted this theme in works ranging in tone from coarsely erotic to slyly suggestive. In The Milkmaid, Vermeer characteristically goes in the direction of understatement. The image of Cupid on a Delft tile next to the foot warmer—which can imply arousal of the fairer sex—would appear to intimate that the woman has feelings as well as obligations.
Source:
www.metmuseum.org
Summary
On this page you will find detailed information on the paintings of Vermeer created between 1654 and 1658.