This welcome addition to the highly popular Masters of Art series not only contains every one of Vermeer's authenticated works, but also makes available the most recent scholarly discoveries concerning his life. Particularly noteworthy is the inclusion of the painting Saint Praxedix, which the author has only recently authenticated as an important early work by the artist...
JAN VERMEER"S paintings fascinate us not so much for their subject matter, which is limited, but for the poetic way in which his images are portrayed. A woman pouring milk in a sunlit room, a girl adorning herself with pearls, a gentleman offering a lady a glass of wine such mundane acenes are imbued by the artist with nuances of thought and meaning that are at once universal and mysterious.
This welcome addition to the highly popular Masters of Art series not only contains every one of Vermeer"s authenticated works, but also makes available the most recent scholarly discoveries concerning his life. Particularly noteworthy is the inclusion of the painting Saint Praxedix, which the author has only recently authenticated as an important early work by the artist.
In his absorbing text, Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., Curator of Northern Baroque Painting at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, brings alive the artistic climate of mid-seventeenth-century Delft, and discusses Vermeer"s painting techniques, his use of the camera obscura and his creation of "pictures within pictures".
The 40 colour illustrations are supplemented by 57 black and white reproductions of works by Vermeer"s contemporaries and X-ray studies of his own paintings. The result is a fine introduction to a universally loved master and his art.
Jan Vermeer by Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr.
COLORPLATES
1 CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF MARTHA AND MARY
2 SAINT PRAXEDIS
3 DIANA AND HER COMPANIONS
4 THE PROCURESS
5 A GIRL ASLEEP
6 GIRL READING A LETTER AT AN OPEN WINDOW
7 GIRL READING A LETTER AT AN OPEN WINDOW (detail)
8 THE LITTLE STREET
9 OFFICER AND LAUGHING GIRL
10 THE MILKMAID
11 THE GLASS OF WINE
12 THE GIRL WITH THE WINEGLASS
13 VIEW OF DELFT
14 VIEW OF DELFT (detail)
15 GIRL INTERRUPTED AT HER MUSIC
16 THE MUSIC LESSON or A LADY AT THE VIRGINALS WITH A GENTLEMAN
17 WOMAN IN BLUE READING A LETTER
18 A WOMAN HOLDING A BALANCE
19 WOMAN WITH A PEARL NECKLACE
20 WOMAN WITH A LUTE
21 YOUNG WOMAN WITH A WATER JUG
22 YOUNG WOMAN WITH A WATER JUG (detail)
23 THE GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
24 THE CONCERT
25 A LADY WRITING
26 THE ALLEGORY OF PAINTING
27 THE GIRL WITH A RED HAT
28 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN
29 MISTRESS AND MAID
30 THE ASTRONOMER
31 THE GEOGRAPHER
32 THE LOVE LETTER
33 THE LOVE LETTER (detail)
34 THE LACEMAKER
35 LADY WRITING A LETTER WITH HER MAID
36 ALLEGORY OF THE FAITH
37 THE GUITAR PLAYER
38 A LADY STANDING AT THE VIRGINALS
39 A LADY SEATED AT THE VIRGINALS
40 YOUNG GIRL WITH A FLUTE (Circle of Vermeer)
Notes