The Wineglass (1659 - 1664)

Berlinn, Gemäldegalerie SMPK / / www.smb.spk-berlin.deThe Wine Glass (also known as The Glass of Wine or Lady and Gentleman Drinking Wine) portrays a seated woman and a standing man drinking in an interior setting. It contains figures situated in a brightly lit and spacious interior, while its architectural space is highly defined. In addition, the work's figures are set in the middle ground, rather than positioned in the foreground.

The work is, in many aspects, typical of the genre painting of the Delft School developed by Pieter de Hooch in the late 1650s. The concept of figures drinking around a table, and the portrayal of a woman drinking from a glass are taken directly from De Hooch's A Dutch Courtyard. However, Vermeer's work breaks away from the prototypes of De Hooch in that the interior is rendered in a far more elegant and higher-class setting than the older master's works.

Compared to his earlier paintings, Johannes Vermeer's brushwork in The Wine Glass is subdued, while the faces and clothes of the figures are depicted with wide smooth outlines. Only in the tapestry of the tablecloth and the window glass did the artist apply finely detailed, linear brush strokes.

Source:
en.wikipedia.org

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About Vermeers work

The milkmaid (1658)

The Milkmaid was painted in about 1657–58. It may be considered one of the last works of the artist's early, formative years, during which he adopted various subjects and styles from other painters and at the same time introduced effects based on direct observation and an unusually refined artistic sensibility.

In The Milkmaid, Vermeer created his most illusionistic image. To modern viewers the picture may resemble a photograph. However, the composition is exquisitely designed, as is evident from several revisions made in the course of execution and from subtle relationships of light and shadow, color, contours, and shapes. A low vantage point and a pyramidal buildup of forms from the left foreground to the woman's head lend the figure monumentality and perhaps a sense of dignity.

And yet, like milkmaids and kitchen maids in earlier Netherlandish art, and like other young women in Vermeer's oeuvre, this figure was meant to attract the male viewer and to have her own thoughts of romance. For at least two centuries before Vermeer's time, milkmaids and kitchen maids had (or were assigned) a reputation for amorous predispositions. Netherlandish artists adopted this theme in works ranging in tone from coarsely erotic to slyly suggestive. In The Milkmaid, Vermeer characteristically goes in the direction of understatement. The image of Cupid on a Delft tile next to the foot warmer—which can imply arousal of the fairer sex—would appear to intimate that the woman has feelings as well as obligations.

Source:
www.metmuseum.org

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Officer and laughing girl (1658)

Washington, National Gallery / www.nga.gov

While painting with a brush loaded with pigments and applying them in a granulous fashion by thick dabs, Vermeer ingeniously develops his mastery as a luminist. The young woman is bathed in light, which streams in through the half open window to the left, and reflects itself from the cream-coloured background that is enhanced to the left by very thin glazes of slightly pinkish tonalities. Her face, exceptionally conveying expression - joy and laughter - appears framed in a kerchief and the collar of her dress. That part of the figure, especially, reveals itself as a symphony of luminosity, set off by the dark sleeves of the yellow jacket on which glittering highlights dance. In contrast, the soldier in the black hat and red jacket is placed close to the viewer, from whom he turns his back. He is hardly more than a silhouette, but rather overpowering, given the relative importance accorded his bodily appearance.

The nearest foreground - the soldier on his chair and the dark-green part of the table cover - are so strongly enhanced that the use of an optical instrument by Vermeer for the structuring of the composition seems indisputable. We have here the typical effect of the inverted telescope: the foreground standing out in the manner of stage scenery, while the figure of the girl recedes into space. On the back of the wall, we find for the first time a map. This element of decoration reappears frequently in the artist's subsequent works.

Source:
www.wga.hu

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Vermeer painting View of Delft (1658)

The Hague, Mauritshuis / www.mauritshuis.nl

View of Delft is one of the most famous paintings by Vermeer. Topographic views of cities had become a tradition by the time Vermeer painted this famous canvas.

Vermeer executed his View of Delft on the spot, but the optical instrument pointed toward the city and providing the artist with the aspect translated onto canvas, was not the camera obscura but the inverted telescope. It is only the latter that condenses the panoramic view of a given sector, diminishes the figures of the foreground to a smaller than normal magnification, emphasizes the foreground as we see it in the picture, and makes the remainder of the composition recede into space.

The image thus obtained provides us with optical effects that convey a cityscape that is united in the composition and enveloped atmospherically into glowing light. We admire the town, but it is not a profile view of a township, but an idealized representation of Delft, with its main characteristics simplified and then cast into the framework of a harbour mirroring selected reflections in the water, and a rich, full sky with magnificent cloud formations. The artist outdid himself in a rendition of his hometown, which stands as a truly great interpretation of nature.

In recent art history literature it has been assumed that King William I of Orange (who reigned 1813-1840) appreciated the painting and decided to buy it because "knew that one day he too, would be interred in the crypt under his ancestor's monument". The story of the purchase of the View of Delft is more complicated than that. The King did not actually choose the painting himself, it was chosen by the director of the Rijksmuseum. The histories of the Royal Collection of paintings Mauritshuis and the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam are quite intertwined during the reign of William I. In 1822 there was a batch of paintings to be distributed between the Rijksmusem and the Mauritshuis and the director of the Rijksmuseum actually preferred another painting at that time.

Be that as it may - William I would have indeed appreciated the Johannes Vermeer painting as it highlights the tower of the New Church, which houses the marble grave monument of his predecessor Willem of Orange (who reigned in the 16th C.).

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Sources:
www.xs4all.nl/~kalden
www.wga.hu

Vermeer painting A Maid asleep (1657)

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

This large canvas is probably Vermeer's earliest picture of everyday life, and dates from slightly before The Milkmaid. The differences in scale and technique between the two works reflect the young painter's program of reviewing alternative styles in the Netherlandish art world of the time. Here the warm palette, rich shadows, and frontal presentation of the figure, the table, and walls recall genre scenes of the mid-1650s by Nicolaes Maes.

Vermeer's subject is an overdressed maid, dozing and dreaming of love (the painting above her, with Cupid's leg, stands for "Love unmasked"). The recent presence of a male companion is suggested by the large glass (which has suffered wear) to the lower left, the bowl of fruit, the chair shoved aside, and the open door.

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Source:
www.metmuseum.org

Vermeer painting Girl reading a letter (1657)

Dresden, Staatliche Gemäldegalerie

Yearning for the outside world, open windows frequently have a figurative meaning in Vermeer's paintings. Taken together with the letter the girl is holding, this motif represents the desire to break free from the restrictions of the home and make contact with the outside world.

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window is usually considered to be an early work. It shows a young woman at an open window, reading with great inner tension and attentiveness a love letter that has been addressed to her. We see her in profile, but her face is reflected at a slight angle in the lightly coloured, uneven glass panes of the leaded window (the same feature occurs in the picture Soldier and a Laughing Girl).

The fact that it is open does of course superficially serve to increase the amount of light falling into the rather dark room, but in another sense it represents the woman's longing to extend her domestic sphere, and her desire for contact with the outside world, from which she, as a housewife forced to keep to her society's norms, is largely isolated.

The bowl of fruit in Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, which is lying on the folds of the table rug, is a symbol of extramarital relations, which broke the vow of chastity. Such a relationship is being planned or continued by means of this letter, and the apples and peaches (malum persicum) are intended to remind us of Eve's transgression. The yellowish-green silk curtain and rail is an artistic piece of bravura on the part of Vermeer.

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Source:
www.all-art.com

Discover Vermeer in historic Delft

To understand Vermeer, I recommend to take the time to visit the old city of Delft and see history come to life. The unique market square is only a few steps away from the Vermeer Centrum.

To see all sites linked to the life of Vermeer, try the walking tour. A map is currently on sale at the Vermeer Centrum for only € 1,00 and includes a free coffee. It shows the location of the Oude and Nieuwe Kerk and the Prinsenhof Museum, but also the sites where some of his famous works like the view on Delft were painted.



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De Gitaarspeelster (1670 - 1671)

Londen, Kenwood House / www.kenwoodhouse.com

Samen met De kantwerkster een van de hoogtepunten in Vermeers oeuvre. De schilder was inmiddels meester van het licht en kleuren geworden. Technisch gezien permitteerde hij zichzelf vrijheid van expressie door lossere penseelstreken die niet langer gebonden zijn aan specifieke textuur of materialen.
Het model kijkt naar de buitenwereld en straalt uit dat ze er eenvoudigweg plezier in heeft om muziek te maken. Het landschap op de achtergrond schijnt geschilderd te zijn in de stijl van Hackaert.

Een oude copie bevindt zich in het Museum of Art, Philadelphia. Het enige verschil met de versie in hete Kenwood House is het kapsel van de gitaarspeelster, wier stijl wijst op de mode rond 1700. Het zou interessant zijn om dit schilderij schoon te maken en met röntgenstralen te bekijken over dit kapsel is overgeschilderd.

Bron:
www.wga.hu

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