About Johannes Vermeer.
A Life of Art and Contemplation.
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) is in some ways the most complete figure of the Dutch Golden Age. Born in Dordrecht to an affluent family, he studied the arts, architecture and painting at the Haarlem Academy. His masterpiece, The Adoration (1665) is thought to be the first painting of an adult male nude to be widely sold. He was made court painter ofAbout Johannes Vermeer. He was born in 1653 in Amsterdam, son of Daniel and Grietje (sounds similar to “grijze” or “grij”) Vermeer. His father was a merchant, a successful and respected man whose business in Amsterdam was at the height of its prosperity, while he was still a young man. When Johannes was thirteen, his father sent him to the University of Leiden to read the liberal arts. He studied, and graduated atAbout Johannes Vermeer.
Johannes Vermeer’s early works were not especially distinguished. His output began in 1631, just 12 years after Pieter Breughel the Elder (1497-1560) had set the standard for landscape painting in the Northern Netherlands. Vermeer was not just another artist copying the works of others, however. He was determined to make his own mark; an effort that would come to fruition only in 1651, when he went on his first European tour,