Five things to know about VermeerLong considered a minor figure in art history with only around 35 works to his name, Johannes Vermeer is today one of the world's most revered painters.
by Agence France-Presse
08-02-2023 16:58
in Art and Artists
A women takes a picture of a painting by the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer titled, A glass of wine' at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on February 6, 2023. The great Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is known for two things: not painting very much, and the fact that little is known about him. So when 28 of his canvases go on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam from Friday, it will represent the biggest ever exhibition of the 17th-century master's work. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP)
Long considered a minor figure in art history with only around 35 works to his name, Johannes Vermeer is today one of the world's most revered painters.
--
Here are five things to know about the Dutch Baroque artist who will be the subject of a major retrospective at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam opening on Friday:
The Sphinx Nicknamed the Sphinx of Delft , Vermeer is one of art's great enigmas, with only a few known facts about his 43-year existence.
Born into a middle-class family of Calvinist traders in 1632, his eccentric father was also an art dealer on the side.
--
For reasons unknown the artist shortened his surname Van der Meer to Vermeer .
ALSO READ: Vermeer shines at once in history' Amsterdam show
He converted to Catholicism, marrying a wealthy woman with whom he had 11 children, but on his death left a mountain of debt from his own art trading.
--
To pay it back, his widow sold two of his paintings to a local baker for the equivalent of two to three years worth of bread supplies.
Minor figure to megastar In his lifetime, during the Golden Age of Dutch art that also produced Rembrandt, Vermeer was a respected artist with a number of wealthy patrons, but apart from a few astute collectors, his work went largely forgotten after his death.
It was only in the 19th century that he was plucked from obscurity, notably due to the interest shown by French journalist and art critic Theophile Thore-Burger.
Vermeer's stratospheric rise to being considered one of the great masters in art history led to a frenzy of interest in his relatively small body of work.
ALSO READ: Beyonc is going on a world tour: Why she should include Africa
It's a fake! Celebrity brought a rash of fake Vermeers onto the market as art forgers sought to cash in.
The Rijksmuseum says his remarkably small oeuvre is believed to consist of between 35 and 37 paintings, but only around 30 have been indubitably certified as his, with debates continuing about the authorship of several others.
Girl with Flute is a case in point.
The painting is included in the Rijksmuseum show but its owner, Washington's National Gallery of Art, says it is was probably the work of one of Vermeer's students.
Vermeer's camera' Vermeer's canvases are recognisable by their quasi-photographic quality, which is the more remarkable in that the artist apparently made no preparatory sketches.
A women looks a paintings by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer titled, Mistress and maid', at the Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam on February 6, 2023. The great Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is known for two things: not painting very much, and the fact that little is known about him. So when 28 of his canvases go on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam from Friday, it will represent the biggest ever exhibition of the 17th-century master's work. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP) His perfectly rendered interiors are re-inventions of real places, with objects moving or disappearing, and specific details becoming central, such as a single piece of thread or a sparkling earring.
Some biographers have raised the possibility that Vermeer, and other Dutch masters, used a pinhole camera to trace their compositions, rather than solely depending on their draughtsmanship.
Art imitating art The Dutch master's work was part of the intrigue in the Agatha Christie mystery After the Funeral and an episode in the hit TV series Sherlock .
Meanwhile, Girl with a Pearl Earring , among Vermeer's most famous works, owes its monumental fame in part to a 1999 best-selling novel by US author Tracy Chevalier.
The book was adapted by Hollywood in 2003 with Colin Firth as the painter and Scarlett Johansson as his muse, triggering a wave of Vermeer-mania across the Atlantic.
Agence France-Presse
SOAPIE QUIZ: How well do you know Gqeberha: The Empire'? WIN R1 000 in cash!
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Five things to know about VermeerLong considered a minor figure in art history with only around 35 works to his name, Johannes Vermeer is today one of the world's most revered painters.
