Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)




Johannes Vermeer was born on October 31, 1632 and is considered a master of Dutch art of the 17th-century. Although only a moderately successful painter in his lifetime, Johannes Vermeer paintings are now acknowledged as masterpieces, especially for the treatment and use of light in his oeuvre.

The incomparable Dutch artist is known for his solitary, serene figures caught in the act of private contemplation. A painter from the Dutch Baroque era, Vermeer dealt mainly with subjects set in interiors. He had an infallible grasp of pictorial design and Vermeer paintings are firmly objective while recording the soft play of daylight on shapes and surfaces.Famous Vermeer paintings recreate the figures of Dutch society as wholly devoted to the finer things in life. Vermeer's most famous painting is The Girl with a Pearl Earring, which exemplifies Vermeer's mastery of the Dutch genre painting with masterful composition and shades of soft, silvery light. This Vermeer painting is known as the Mona Lisa of the North.

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