Who was this devilishly good looking fellow, smirking from a lewd painting? Who was Johannes Vermeer?
Johannes Vermeer’s work, “The Girl With The Pearl Earring'' is often referred to as the Dutch Mona Lisa. When Da Vinci died, the Mona Lisa was inherited by his assistant, Salai, who then sold it to the King of France, King Francis I for 4,000 gold coins. But when the Girl With The Pearl Earring was sold in 1881, she sold for a measly two guilders. Two guilders for one of the most exquisite works in history?
This was, unfortunately, mostly Vermeer’s fault. After the artist's death in 1675 at the age of 43, his estate had to sell his paintings to pay off his debts and Vermeer, unlike his contemporary Rembrandt, was not as well known during his lifetime outside of Delft. The reason had to do mostly with their business models. Rembrandt took in commissions, and even pupils. His business model depended on him getting clients, whereas Vermeer found a patron, Pieter van Ruijven , who he sold most of his work to. He didn’t need to be as well known as the imposing Rembrandt, which I imagine had it’s perks, but the downside to this was that in an industry where the name carries a lot of weight he was soon pretty much forgotten. (the ridiculous emphasis the art world has for names was best exemplified in the Han Van Meegeren story, of which I think Hollywood is going to be making a movie on, but I’d be glad to talk about it if anyone is interested)
In fact, we probably wouldn’t have heard about Vermeer had it not been for left wing politician Théophile Thoré-Bürger. In 1860, almost 200 years after the artists death, Theophile was struck by Vermeer’s painting “View of Delft”, and it is no small wonder why. On first glance, one is taken by the realism- it is as if we suddenly are transported into 17th Century Delft on a sunny day. It is a picture of perfect peace with still waters and orderly buildings. But on closer inspection we find that there seem to be the reflection of little droplets on the rooftops, and we see the storm clouds on the top leaving. The bright and cheery ambiance betrays the turbulent storm that had just passed. Perhaps this painting is a little glimpse into Vermeer’s world; a turbulent world in which he so desperately tries to find some semblance of peace and order.
Vermeer’s family background would be described today as “lower middle class”. His grandfather had been arrested for counterfeiting, and his father Reijnier Janszoon had wounded a soldier who died from said wound a few months after. The young Vermeer was born and pretty much raised in an inn. Dutch inns at that time had er…well, less than chaste activities, and the artist would have been blind not to be aware of such. Most of Vermeer’s paintings, although dealing with the mundane, have an almost ethereal and heavenly quality about them, an almost spiritual like force. So it is often easy to be surprised at the lewd scene depicted in The Procuress, one of his earlier works, which depicts a soldier fondling the breasts of a young woman, while a musician who is thought to have been patterned after the artist himself is grinning naughtily at the viewer. But upon remembering where he came from, the painting makes sense.
Vermeer met Catharina Bolene, a young Catholic woman, at a time when the Netherlands was predominantly Protestant. Vermeer himself was protestant, and Catharina’s family was of significantly higher class (and wealthier) than his. How on earth the son of an innkeeper (who came from a family with a criminal record) won the heart of a woman way above his rank, we do not know. There is much about Vermeer’s life that remains unknown, but we have good evidence to believe the young man converted to Catholicism (most art historians would agree on this although the evidence is circumstantial) Art historian Walter Liedtke suggests that the conversion was in earnest, citing Vermeer’s painting “The Allegory of Faith” which included Catholic symbols.
But Catharina had her own demons. Her mother, Maria, had a miserable marriage. Anthony Bailey, in his book “Vermeer: A View of Delft” writes: "Catharina's childhood memories were full of violence, fits of temper and tears. Her father, after 13 years of marriage, had become an ogre. Maria's relatives and neighbors were to testify that they saw him insulting his wife, kicking her, pulling her naked from her bed by her hair when she was sick, attacking her with a stick when she was pregnant, and chasing her out of the house. She was forced to eat her meals by herself. On one occasion, Catharina, aged nine, ran to her neighbors in fright, yelling that her father was about to kill her sister Cornelia. Maria received the support of her sister and brother, who was himself stabbed in a fight with one of Reynier's brother while Reynier was bolstered by his son Willem."
“How on earth the son of an innkeeper (who came from a family with a criminal record) won the heart of a woman way above his rank, we do not know.”
I would like to think that despite being from two very different social classes, the two weren’t that much different, and that perhaps they found solace in one another. I do believe that Vermeer really loved Catharina. First, because he moved to ‘Papists corner’ which practically severed his connections from the rest of Delft, but to be fair, conversion to Catholicism at that time was not looked favorably upon. Catholics were denied access to municipal functions and could not become burgomasters, aldermen, or sheriffs. In fact, the city's magistrates complained in January I643: “Despite the edicts against the adherents of the Pope and their allies, which have been many times reissued, we find that, instead of obeying they have increased in boldness and not only continue their gatherings but also in great numbers come to other people [i.e., to proselytize], as if there were no edicts…” Second, although Vermeer died relatively young at 43, he and his wife had around 15 children (some who died before baptism). In order to make children, you need to do some er, physical stuff, and you wouldn’t do physical stuff that often if you weren’t attracted to your wife, just saying.
Vermeer now started a new life. We know that he had cut ties with his Protestant family because he did not name any of his children after them although that was common practice at that time. It was during this time that he produced some of his most well loved and cherished paintings.
Officer with a Laughing Girl was painted in 1657 and is a personal favorite of mine. It depicts a young girl in conversation with an officer. What drew me to it was the expression on the girl’s face; it is the look of total enamourment and admiration. Vermeer has captured this brief instant of puppy dog love perfectly, of an almost childlike infatuation with someone you barely know. The artists frames it in such a way as if we are peeking into a intimate conversation.
Girl with a Pearl Earring was painted in 1665. Immediately, the viewer is drawn into the painting, and the girl, whose name we do not know, seems to be telling us something. We cannot tell if she is turning towards us or away from us; Vermeer has captured a moment of uncertainty. Her lips part as if she is about to speak, but we do not know what she is saying, she is a stranger, and yet, she looks at us as if she knows us and is inviting us somewhere. Or perhaps we do know her, and she wishes to leave us, as her head tilts in an unfinished motion. If Mona Lisa’s smile is a mystery, Everything about the Girl with a Pearl Earring is an enigma.
The Allegory of Painting was done around 1667. Vermeer has a way of expressing intimacy without being vulgar, and vulnerability without being weak, and in the allegory of painting, the artist bares his soul by inviting us into his world of art. Here, from behind a curtain, we watch the artist paint a girl in stunning blue. Vermeer was very fond of this specific blue, called ultramarine. It was also very expensive, which explains the vibrance and uniqueness of the colour. It was made from crushed lapis lazuli, which at that time could only be sourced from Afghanistan. This same blue was used in several of his paintings, including Girl with the Pearl Earring.
The Astronomer painted in 1668 depicts a young man absorbed in his craft, as he contemplates a spherical object. There is something about the way the light illuminates the young man that gives him an almost otherworldly look to it. It is as if the painter is telling us that even in the ordinary and mundane, we can find wonderment and excitement.
I have listed only a few of his paintings, and I could go on and on about Vermeer. I love how he turns the mundane into something almost mystical and divine, how he elevates the ordinary into something supernatural, as if through the everyday world we find glimpses of the divine, but this is just a facebook post and I have other stuff to do today ahaha
Vermeer’s luck went sour in 1672, known as the Year of Disaster, when the French invaded the Dutch republic. The Netherlands suffered economically. Vermeer died three years later, and in the records, his wife attributed his death to financial stress- after all, Vermeer had 11 children to feed (four of his 15 children had died). Vermeer bequeathed 19 of his paintings to his wife and her mother, and his wife tried to keep his favorite. She begged the debt collectors, but they were unmoved and demanded it to pay off her husband’s debts.
So for two hundred years, Vermeer faded into obscurity, until recently. To this day, much of his life, just like The Girl In The Pearl Earring, remains shrouded in mystery.