Jan (or Johannes) Vermeer – A Master of Mundanity

Jan Vermeer van Delft (1632-75) was a Dutch painter who specialized in painting interior scenes of everyday, domestic middle class life. He was somewhat locally successful during his lifetime, but he was not wealthy.

Vermeer was a slow and careful worker who often used expensive pigments, especially lapis-lazuli. He is now known for his beautiful and masterful treatment and use of light in his work. He did not produce many paintings, less than 50 in total, of which only 34 have survived.

The bulk of Vermeer’s work was composed of domestic interior scenes. Most of his paintings are set in the same two rooms of his own house, with different arrangements of the same furniture and different people, mostly women, existing in them. His paintings, as described by Gombrich, are like “still lifes with human beings” (433). One such painting is that of ‘The Kitchen Maid’ (c. 1658). It depicts a middle or servant class woman in a kitchen pouring milk into a bowl. While the subject matter is simple and may appear uninteresting, “The Kitchen Maid”  is considered to be one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. The complete and painstaking rendering of colours, textures, and forms without the picture ever looking harsh or laboured, mellow and yet precise is what makes Vermeer’s paintings unique and remarkable.

In ‘The Art of Painting’, it is said Vermeer intentionally omitted the left leg of the artist’s easel for the sake of clear composition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

EH Gombrich, The Story of Art

Wikipedia, Johannes Vermeer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer