Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) was born in Delft and spent his whole working life there. Where and with whom he trained is unknown. He joined the city's Guild of Saint Luke in 1653 and was elected its head four times. The same year he married Catharina Bolnes, a Catholic, and probably converted before the wedding. He earned his living mainly as an art dealer rather than as a painter. He worked slowly and with great care, producing fewer than fifty paintings, of which 34 survive: mostly domestic interiors with one or two figures lit by a window on the left, along with two townscapes and two allegories. No other painter of his century used natural ultramarine so lavishly, even beneath earth colours to cool their shade. Almost forgotten after his death, he was rediscovered in the nineteenth century by Thoré-Bürger and Waagen, and is now counted among the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Five works here: Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Astronomer, The Milkmaid and View of Delft.