Paintings 1659 - 1664
The Wine Glass (1660)
Berlijn, Gemäldegalerie SMPK / / www.smb.spk-berlin.de
The Wine Glass (also known as The Glass of Wine or Lady and Gentleman Drinking Wine) portrays a seated woman and a standing man drinking in an interior setting. It contains figures situated in a brightly lit and spacious interior, while its architectural space is highly defined. In addition, the work's figures are set in the middle ground, rather than positioned in the foreground.
The work is, in many aspects, typical of the genre painting of the Delft School developed by Pieter de Hooch in the late 1650s. The concept of figures drinking around a table, and the portrayal of a woman drinking from a glass are taken directly from De Hooch's A Dutch Courtyard. However, Vermeer's work breaks away from the prototypes of De Hooch in that the interior is rendered in a far more elegant and higher-class setting than the older master's works.
Compared to his earlier paintings, Vermeer's brushwork in The Wine Glass is subdued, while the faces and clothes of the figures are depicted with wide smooth outlines. Only in the tapestry of the tablecloth and the window glass did the artist apply finely detailed, linear brush strokes.
Source:
en.wikipedia.org
The Little Street (1661)
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum / www.rijksmuseum.nl
The Little Street (Het Straatje) is a painting by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, executed c. 1657-1658. It is housed in the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, and signed left below the window with the writing "I V MEER".
Although the painting represents in truth two houses and was initially described as one house only, there does not seem to be any doubt about the identification. It is a very simple and appealing painting, which conveys to the viewer a typical aspect of Dutch life as one encountered it in the period. The habitation ensconces and protects its dwellers, while the façades show the viewer nothing but the outside of their intimate existence. This essential simplicity is translated by the artist into a representation of a quiet street imbued with dignity.
Contemporaries like de Hooch and Jan Steen also painted bricks and mortar, but their treatment is close only in appearance. Vermeer, as usual, elevated his aim into regions of philosophy that surpassed the pedestrian attempts of others by his calm majesty and feeling for shared intimacy, of which he alone was capable. If superficially, Vermeer resembles his Delft colleagues, he easily surpasses them by the depth of his mastery of light and mood. The painting must be chronologically ranged rather early, because he was the initiator of the genre in this particular fashion.
Sources:
www.wikipedia.com
www.rijksmuseum.nl
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (1662)
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum / www.rijksmuseum.nl
A young woman is reading a letter, around her are a table and chairs. She is illuminated by the light from what is presumably a window. On the wall behind her is a map. The artist has achieved a muted tone with his use of blues and browns.
Vermeer has played here with the light and shadow. While the map and the chair cast a distinct shadow on the wall, the woman does not. It makes her stands out from the background.
In Dutch genre painting a woman reading a letter was usually a reference to love. The map on the wall may refer to a distant lover, but the painting offers no further clues to a hidden meaning. The map, showing Holland and West Friesland appears in an earlier painting by Vermeer of the Soldier and the Laughing Girl. Although the young woman appears to be pregnant, this is not necessarily the case. The fashionable wide jacket she is wearing may make her figure appear fuller than it is.
The woman is surrounded by furniture. The table and chairs define the space around her. Vermeer adjusted the balance in his painting by playing with the areas of light and shadow. X-ray photos show that the map on the wall was originally narrower. To improve the composition Vermeer made it wider. He also altered the woman's jacket. Originally it was a wider, fur-trimmed cloak. Vermeer made the jacket simpler and less wide. The woman's back, dark in shadow, stands out sharply against the light wall behind her. The contour of her back is clear and deliberately depicted, while other lines are more fuzzy, such as the illuminated profile of her face.
Sources:
www.rijksmuseum.nl
www.ibiblio.org
A Lady and two Gentlemen (1662)
Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum / www.haum.niedersachsen.de
A young woman wearing an elegant red dress is seated in the foreground turned toward the left and looking half-smilingly at the viewer. It is one of the rare instances when Vermeer animates one of his figures with a semblance of expression. She seems to be courted by a fine gentleman, bent over and encouraging the young lady to take a sip from the wine glass that she holds in her hand.
Farther back, another gentleman sits behind a table featuring an exquisitely painted still life of a silver plate, fruit, and white pitcher. The second male figure sits in a pose reminiscent of the Girl Asleep, apparently befuddled by too much wine.
The painting has been overcleaned, the last time in 1900, and the sitting man in the background was overpainted during the eighteenth century, as comes out of the descriptions of 1744 and 1776. The room where the artist placed the composition resembles others frequently used by him. Patterns, windows, and walls reappear with minor changes. In this respect, Vermeer did not show much originality. His mastery resides in the delicacy of the execution, the use of light, and the grouping of his figures.
Source:
www.wga.hu
Young Woman with a Water Pitcher (1662)
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art / www.metmuseum.org
This well-preserved picture of the early to mid-1660s is characteristic of Vermeer's mature style. Notwithstanding his remarkable interest in optical effects, the artist achieved a quiet balance of primary colors and simple shapes through subtle calculation and some revision during the execution of the work.
The composition suits the theme of domestic tranquility, underscored by the basin and pitcher, traditional symbols of purity. This canvas was the first of thirteen paintings by Vermeer to enter the United States between 1887 and 1919.
Source:
www.metmuseum.org
Woman with a Pearl Necklace (1662-1965)
Berlijn, Gemäldegalerie SMPK / www.smb.spk-berlin.de
A woman gazes into a mirror while holding two yellow ribbons attached to a pearl necklace around her neck. The light falling in from the left, dispersed by the creamy bare wall, illuminates the meditative young woman admiring her reflection in the distant mirror.
In this painting, along with Woman in Blue Reading a Letter and Woman Holding a Balance, Vermeer attempted a composition in which he showed a single woman concentrating on some kind of occupation. In each case, the woman is shown turning inward with her thoughts, and using some minor physical activity to give herself some countenance.
Source:
www.wga.hu
The Girl with the Pearl Earring (1664)
_-_The_Girl_With_The_Pearl_Earring_(1665).jpg)
The Hague, Mauritshuis / www.mauritshuis.nl
One of the most celebrated Dutch masterpieces, Vermeer‘s The Girl with the Pearl Earring is sometimes called the "Mona Lisa of the North" or, "the Dutch Mona Lisa". As the name suggests, the pearl earring is the focal point of the painting with the Vermeer girl.
Vermeer depicts a beautiful, enigmatic young girl in a vibrant blue turban looking over her shoulder in the direction of the viewer. Vermeer‘s decision to paint his young subject wearing a turban was unusual, critics believe that he drew inspiration from art rather than from real life. The focus is on the beautiful, luminous pearl, which hangs freely and motionless, giving in its oval shape the impression of weight and volume.
The combination of the dark background and the brilliant use of colour in the girl‘s blue turban and fairly subdued colours used in her face and dress draw the eye to the girl‘s intimate gaze. Vermeer literature alludes to the painting being a "tronie", the 17th century description of a painting which depicts only a head but is not meant to be considered a portrait.
The Girl with the Pearl Earring inspired both a novel and a movie, which speculated the girl was a servant girl with whom Vermeer had begun a relationship and painted wearing one of his wife‘s pearl earrings.
Source:
www.arthistoryguide.com
The Music Lesson (1664)
Londen, Buckingham Palace
The Music Lesson, also Known as A Lady at the Virginal with a Gentleman, is characterised by the rigorous use of perspective to draw the eye towards the back of the room where the figures are situated - the young woman rather surprisingly seen from the back. The viewer is at first more aware of the jutting corner of the table, the chair and the bass viol than of the figures themselves, whose privacy is thereby protected.
Light is admitted through the windows on the left and fills the room, casting only soft, subtle shadows. A striking feature of the composition in this part is the mirror on the wall where the slightly blurred reflections include the young woman’s face, part of the table and the legs of an artist’s easel. The implication of this glimpsed easel is that Vermeer shares the same space as the figures he is depicting, but as a result of this artifice he is also, like the viewer, standing outside that space.
The inscription on the lid of the virginal, MUSICA LETITIAE CO[ME]S / MEDICINA DOLOR[IS], means ‘Music is a companion in pleasure and a balm in sorrow.’ It suggests that it is the relationship between the man and the young woman that is being explored by the artist, but what stage that relationship has reached is impossible to say. The fact that there are two musical instruments implies shared pleasures and a potential harmony, which is also indicated by the rapt expression on the man’s face as he listens to the young woman or sings as she plays on the virginal.
Source:
www.royalcollection.org.uk
Woman Holding a Balance (1662-1665)
Washington National Gallery / www.nga.gov
Until recently this painting was best known as The Goldweigher or Girl Weighing Pearls. Microscopic analysis, however, has revealed the pans of the balance to be empty. The highlight on the pans is not rendered with lead-tin yellow, which is used elsewhere on the canvas to depict gold. Vermeer represented pearls with a thin gray layer topped with a white highlight. The pan highlight is a single layer. In addition, there are no loose pearls on the table that would indicate other pearls waiting to be weighed.
This seemingly trivial analysis as to what is being weighed sheds light on the meaning of the work, for this particular work is clearly an allegorical one. She is dressed in the traditional blue outfit of Mary, and she is pregnant, which suggests there is a connection with the choice and the Last Judgment depicted in the background.
The woman stands between a depiction of the Last Judgment hung in a heavy black frame, and a table covered with jewelry representing material possessions. The empty scale stresses that she is balancing spiritual rather than material considerations. Vermeer's portrayal does not impart a sense of tension or conflict; the woman exudes serenity. Her self-knowledge is suggested by the mirror on the wall. Therefore, the painting suggests the importance of moderation, self-awareness, and a full understanding of the implications of a final judgment, and what it would be to be the woman who gave birth to it.
Source:
en.wikipedia.org
The Art of Painting (1664)
Wenen, Kunsthistorisch Museum / www.khm.de
The Art of Painting is also known as The Allegory of Painting, and or Painter in his Studio. Many art historians believe that it is an allegory of painting, hence the alternative title of the painting. It is the largest and most complex of all of Vermeer's works.
The painting is famous for being one of Vermeer's favourites, and is a fine example of the optical style of painting, offering a realistic visual depiction of the scene and especially the effects of light streaming through the windows on various elements of the painting. The painting has only two figures, the painter and his subject. The painter is thought to be a self-portrait of the artist, though the face is not visible.
A number of the items shown in the artist's studio are thought to be somewhat out of place. The marble tiled floor and the golden chandellier are two examples of items which would normally then be reserved for the houses of the well-to-do.
The map in the background is of the Seventeen United Provinces of the Netherlands, flanked by views of the main centres of power. It was published by Claes Jansz Visscher in 1636.
Source:
en.wikipedia.org
The Concert (1664)
Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum / www.gardnermuseum.org
The Concert was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in March 1990. It is considered the most valuable painting ever stolen. Its value has been estimated at over $200,000,000 It remains missing to this day.
This painting superficially resembles A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman in that it features the making of music in a domestic environment. But there the likeness stops. The Lady at the Virginals is very rigidly constructed, pruned to the point of abstraction, and allowing the viewer only a glance from afar upon the principal scene. In the Concert, we are again part of the happening, although separated from it by the table covered with the familiar red Oriental rug and the bass viol on the floor.
However, the music-making trio in a compact group presents itself sufficiently close to our vision so that the viewer shares in the earnest concentration of the figures. This slightly removed part of the painting is particularly rich in details, almost pictures within the picture. For Vermeer, such a crowding of decorative elements is rather unusual, and has therefore encouraged critics to attempt various interpretations of the meaning of the scene. They range from calling it a brothel to a domestic scene with the lady to the right being the personification of temperance.
Sources:
www.wikipedia.org
blog.allartpainting.com
Woman with a Lute (1664)
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art / www.metmuseum.org
A young woman wearing an ermine-trimmed jacket and enormous pearl earrings eagerly looks out the window, in expectation of a male visitor. A musical courtship is suggested by the viola da gamba on the floor in the foreground and by the flow of songbooks across the tabletop and onto the floor. The act of tuning a lute would have suggested the virtue of temperance to contemporary viewers.
The painting probably dates from slightly later than Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, and it shares with that composition its framing of the figure within rectangular motifs. But as in many of Vermeer's paintings dating from the mid- to late 1660s, there is a shift to more muted tones, with shadows and soft contours evoking an air of intimacy. The impression of spatial recession and atmosphere is somewhat diminished by darkening with age of the objects in the foreground and by abrasion of the paint surface, mostly in the same area.
Source:
www.metmuseum.org
Girl Interrupted at her Music (1664)
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art / www.metmuseum.org
The girl has been distracted and turns to look with a slightly quizzical expression.One wonders what has caused the interruption and why it has not yet disturbed her companion. The girl and the man are holding a sheet of paper, presumably a letter or a sheet of music.
Once again, Vermeer presents an enigmatic scene leaving it ambiguous whether the man is the girl’s teacher or lover. The viewer is offered a privileged moment to look into the girl’s eyes, just before her companion turns to see who has entered the room. Music was often associated with love, and lying on the table are a cittern and an open music score, together with a blue and white Delftware pitcher and a single glass of red wine.
On the rear wall is a full-length painting of Cupid, which is probably intended as a reminder that perfect love should be reserved for a single lover. The paint surface of ‘Girl Interrupted at her Music’ is in worn condition and the birdcage hanging on the wall near the window may be a later addition by another artist.
Sources:
www.essentialvermeer.com
vermeer0708.wordpress.com
Summary
On this page you will find detailed information on the paintings of Vermeer created between 1660 and 1664.