Paintings 1665 - 1669
The Girl with the Red Hat (1665)
Washington, National Gallery / www.nga.gov
Looking at this painting, the viewer is confronted with an abrupt change from Vermeer's other works. The Girl with the Red Hat is small even by Vermeer's standards; it is his only known work that was executed on wood panel; and most importantly, its immediacy and intimacy contrast sharply with the meditative mood of the other paintings.
Despite its modest dimensions, a strong visual impact results from the large scale of the girl. Brought close to the picture plane, she communicates directly with the viewer. Her direct gaze and slightly parted lips impart a sense of spontaneity and anticipation.
Vermeer relies heavily on color to establish the mood of the work. The red of the hat and the blue of the robe contrast strongly with the muted background. The bright red of the hat advances, heightening the immediacy of the girl's glance, while the blue of the robe recedes, balancing the composition. Vermeer retained warmth in the robe by painting the blue over a reddish-brown ground.
The materials - the red hat, robe and chair finials - are animated by highlights of reflected light. Subtle highlights on the girl's eye and mouth animate her expression. Finally, the intense white of the girl's cravat, painted as a thick impasto with parts later chipped off, cradles her face, focusing attention on her expression.
Source:
http://artchive.com
The Love Letter (1666)
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum / www.rijksmuseum.nl
The Love Letter shows a servant maid handing a letter to a young woman with a lute. The tied-up curtain in the foreground creates the impression that the viewer is looking at an intensely private, personal scene.
The fact that it is a love letter that the woman has received is made clear by the fact that she is carrying a lute (more specifically, a cittern, a member of the lute/guitar family). The lute was a symbol of love - often carnal love; luit was also a slang term for vagina. This idea is further reinforced by the slippers at the very bottom of the picture. The removed slipper was another symbol of sex.
The two paintings on the wall are also significant. The lower painting is of a stormy sea, a clear metaphor for tempestuous love. Above it is a landscape painting of a traveller on a sandy road. This may refer to the absence of the man who is writing to the lady.
Source:
en.wikipedia.org
A Lady Writing (1666)
Washington, National Gallery / www.nga.gov
A Lady Writing depicts a young woman, sitting at a desk, wearing an ermine-trimmed yellow morning jacket (which viewers may recognize from Vermeer’s other paintings Woman with a Pearl Necklace, The Love Letter, Woman with a Lute, and Mistress and Maid), pearl earrings, and golden ribbons in her hair. A strand of pearls and a ribbon rest on the desk near her left hand.
While she is poised to write, with a quill pen in her right hand, her left hand resting on a piece of paper, and ink wells and a writing box on her desk, her gaze is not at her letter but rather at the viewer. Her slight smile and open expression draw the viewer into the picture. As with his other paintings, Vermeer has transformed the depiction of everyday activities into a compelling and captivating scene.
Source:
www.artknowledgenews.com
Mistress and Maid (1666)
New York, Frick Collection / www.frick.org
In this painting the mistress, dressed in a yellow jacket with an ermine border, sits at a table. Her hand rests on a letter she had been writing before being interrupted by the maid. Her left hand has risen involuntarily to her chin, an unmistakable gesture of surprise and concern. The maid's forward gesture as she offers the letter reinforces the contrast in their attitudes.
The servant's interrogative gaze is vivid, while the expression of the mistress is more obscure, partly because of the turn of her head, partly because of the elusiveness with which her features are represented. All that is revealed is the gesture of the hand raised to the chin. Is she surprised to receive the letter? The ambiguity of the gesture of her left hand is balanced by the obscurity of the action of her right hand.
The relation of mistress and maid resembles that of The Love Letter, but in this reduced setting, without the conventional attributes of that work, there is only the ambiguity of a dumb show, and the focus is on the essential but ambivalent psychology of that relationship of quizzical servant and uncertain employer.
Source:
http://timelines.com
The Astronomer (1668)
Parijs, Louvre / www.louvre.fr
Portrayals of scientists were a favourite topic in 17th century Dutch painting and Vermeers oeuvre includes both this Astronomer and the slightly later The Geographer. Both are believed to portray the same man, possibly Anton van Leeuwenhoek.
The astronomer's profession is shown by the celestial globe (version by Jodocus Hondius) and the book on the table, Metius's Institutiones Astronomicae Geographicae. Symbolically, the volume is open to Book III, a section advising the astronomer to seek "inspiration from God" and the painting on the wall shows the finding of Moses—Moses may represent knowledge and science.
The painting once hung in the home of Edouard de Rothschild, from which it was seized 1940 by the Nazi Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg für die Besetzten Gebiete after the German invasion of France. A small swastika was stamped on the back in black ink. The painting was returned to the Rothschilds after the war, and was donated to the Louvre in 1982.
Source:
en.wikipedia.org
The Geographer (1669)
Frankfurt am Main, Städelsches Museum / www.staedelmuseum.de
In The Geographer, Vermeer presents another individual in an interior. This male figure, though, is endowed with intense energy in comparison to the contemplative women of other compositions.
The flow of light from left to right activates the canvas. The flow is accentuated compositionally by the massing of objects on the left. The light spills forcefully into the open area on the right, casting a powerful series of diagonal shadows.
Vermeer adjusted his initial depiction of the figure to provide a more active stance. Detailed study of the canvas reveals that the geographer originally looked down at the table, with his dividers also pointed down. Adjusting the composition to align the man's face and the dividers with the flow of light gave further energy to the movement across the canvas.
The painting accurately renders the cartographic objects that express the theme: the sea chart, globe, dividers, square and a cross-staff that was used to measure the elevation angle of the sun and stars.
It is probable that Vermeer's sophisticated presentation of these instruments was informed by his association with famed scientist Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek. Although no documents exist linking the two, they were both born in Delft in the same year. A contemporary portrait of Leeuwenhoek closely resembles the figure in The Geographer, and it is very possible that Leewenhoek served as the model.
Source:
www.artchive.com; Mark Harden
Summary
On this page you will find detailed information on the paintings of Vermeer created between 1665 and 1669.