Celebrating the Light of Vermeer

If I was to make a list of wonderful small museums well worth your time, I would put Vermeer Centrum in Delft (or Vermeer Center) at the top of the list.

To call it a museum is an overstatement, because "museum" implies you might actually see some original Vermeer paintings there.

You won't. You'll see reproductions of every painting he did, some great multimedia presentations and some excellent and very accessible analytic interpretations of his work.

If you're not a Vermeer fan, a quick overview. Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in scenes of middle class life (although he also did some landscape work.As artists go, he produced relatively few paintings, and was in debt at his death in 1675.

He lived in Delft and if anything seems particularly striking about a Vermeer painting it is the color and light.

He mixed his own colors himself from items that came from the apothecary.

 

A splendid display at the Center outlines the colors he used and how they were mixed.

A particular favorite combination of colors were blue and yellow, which are often seen in his paintings. As an artist, this area was of particular interest to me. 

A personal anecdote -- an old Army buddy of my father was an artist and he studied how the old masters mixed their materials and tried to paint in the same ways. He did a pretty darned good forgery of The Girl with the Pearl Earring, which he gave my parents long ago. It now hangs in my guest room.

After Vermeer's death, his work went out of style and wasn't rediscovered until the 1800s. He is now considered one of the great painters of the Dutch Golden Age, with work in many museums, including the Rijksmuseum, the Louvre and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The Center focuses in part on his family life -- his wife, Catherine (sometimes listed as Catharina), gave him 14 children. He married into money and his mother-in-law, Marina Thins, was fairly aggressive in her support of his art. It is presumed that it was she who insisted he convert to Catholocism. Fourteen children followed.

The family moved in with Maria Thins. The house is now a private residence, but is still standing on Oude Langendijk in Delft. His paintings were done in this house.

If you are familiar with his work, you'll note that there are many portraits and scenes of daily life. The Vermeer Center has copies of all his works and an area that simulates his area where subjects would pose.

 

Using a camera obscura (it is not certain whether Vermeer actually used this object or not), you can pose and see how the light might affect a painting.

 

Here's a slightly different view of the same image.

 

 It was fun to put yourself in the picture! I'd love to take that light home with me every day!

 

When you see his paintings in a museum, it might be surprising how small they are. Even framed, they were rarely larger than 20x30 and many were much smaller.

But, as the exhibits show, they were filled with symbolism. This one shows how emblems are used to convey certain meanings relevant for the time. In this case, the messages pertain to love. (Click to see full size and read the description.)

For example, this display talks about unattainable love.

The painting contains various clues indicating that the subject is reading a love letter. 

Musical instruments symbolize sensual love, the broom symbolizes living together unmarried and there are indications in the paintings on the wall that are symbols of love. According to the display, the ship refers to the absence of a traveler and the man on land is walking away on a sandy path, both unreachable.

Much is also made of his use of perspective. This drawing explained how he ued angular perspective with two vanishing points instead of one. Even the way he creates the tiled floor adds to the dimension.

(The display also noted that in Vermeer's time, perspective was known as "see-through skill" -- you have to be able to see through walls and the frame of the painting to be able to use it. He and his contemporaries used lengths of string and chalk as tool to help them "see through."

Extra Treats!

For more on the book and film "Girl with the Pearl Earring," please visit this splendid post on Arti's blog.

For more on Delft, including some lovely videos about Vermeer Center and the town, check out this link.

A Personal Note

I'm sorry I've not been around to more of you lately, but I will catch up. Rick has been in the hospital, I haven't been at my best, work is crazy. I SO appreciate your visits and your hanging in there with me. It means more than you know.