Jan Vermeer - Johannes Vermeer | Notable Biographies

(1632/10/31 - 1675/12/15)

Jan Vermeer
Jan van der Meer van Delft
Johannes Vermeer
Dutch painter

He was born October 31, 1632 in Delft.
Son of Reijnier Janszoon, a worker of silk or Caffa (mix of silk and cotton, or wool) and Digna Baltus. The couple moved to Delft and also had a daughter named Geertruy.
He was apprenticed for 6 years, almost all with the painter Carel Fabritius. Admitted in 1653 in the Guild of Saint Luke as a master painter, although won the life as art dealer.
Only remain 35 works his own due to his methodical way of working and also to his short life and the disappearance of many of his paintings. With some exceptions, such as landscapes, street scenes and some portraits, his production consisted of domestic interiors full of light in which any figure is reading, writing, playing a musical instrument, or performing any domestic task.
In the milkmaid (1660, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), woman with a water jug (1663, Metropolitan Museum of art), View of Delft (c. 1660, Mauritshuis, the Hague) and other works, refers to the effects of light with a subtlety and purity of colour that are unique. Its masterful ability is remarkable to use to capture the light in, achieved thanks to a most subtle white dotted fabric, it sweetens the contours, but retains the impression of solidity and firmness. Other of his works include soldier and woman laughing (1657, Frick Collection, New York) and girl with a Red Hat (1667, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC).
On April 5, 1653, he married in the village of Schipluiden Catharina Bolenes a young Catholic daughter of a rich man that he, his wife insisted on his conversion to Catholicism before the marriage. According to the historian of art Walter Liedtke, his conversion appears to have been made with conviction. His painting the allegory of faith, made between 1670 and 1672, reflects less emphasis on naturalism and more on the religious symbolism, as the sacrament of the Eucharist. The couple went to live with the mother of Catharina, who lived in a place spacious House on Oude Langendijk. There lived the rest of his life. His wife gave birth to 15 children, four of whom were buried before being baptized.
Jan Vermeer died 15 December 1675 in Delft.
It was rediscovered in the 19th century by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré, who published an essay. Since then, his reputation grew to be considered one of the greatest Dutch painters.
Shortly before the outbreak of the second world war, appeared on the market various fabrics with the signing of Vermeer (including the supper at Emmaus , inspired by the homonymous work of Caravaggio). A Rotterdam Museum acquired it for $270,000. The so-called discoverer was Hans van Meergeren, a mediocre painter who was underestimated. During the war, the latest fame spread throughout Europe. The nazi Hermann Goering bought a fabric for 850,000 dollars and sent her to Berlin. Finished the war, the picture which was still considered "authentic" is returned to Holland and imprisoned Meergeren for selling a Vermeer to the Germans. The forger confessed that the box, along with others, were forgeries. Experts, called to testify in the trial, were claiming that they were true. To test what was the author, he had to paint a Vermeer in front of witnesses. He said that the previous works (which had raised close to $ 4 million) were a vendetta against critics. Sentenced to one year in prison, he died before sentence.