Vermeer: A Once-in-a-Lifetime Exhibition

Johannes Vermeer was a 17th-century Dutch painter whose relatively small body of work continues to captivate viewers four centuries after his death. Only 37 paintings attributed to the celebrated artist are known to exist today. This year, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has brought together 28 of them in the largest Vermeer exhibition ever staged. As a longtime devotee of Vermeer, I was eager to see it and, I’m happy to report that it did not disappoint.

The World of Vermeer

In 1588, the seven northern provinces of the Netherlands united in their opposition to Spanish rule which ultimately led to the establishment of the Dutch Republic. The newly formed republic quickly became a major player on the world stage and by the turn of the 17th century, its dominance over international trade and commerce had ushered in a Golden Age of immense wealth and prosperity for its citizens. With this came a flourishing art market that produced some of history’s greatest painters including Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and, of course, Vermeer.

In contrast to the dramatic Baroque art being produced in many European countries in the 17th century, the Dutch Republic’s rejection of Catholicism in favour of Calvinism cultivated a much more subdued and realistic style of art. Calvanism’s rejection of religious imagery gave rise to more secular themes in Dutch paintings. Landscapes, still-lifes, and genre paintings (scenes of everyday life), previously viewed as inferior genres of art, grew in popularity thanks to Vermeer and his contemporaries. Vermeer’s ability to elevate scenes of ordinary people and everyday life helped establish genre painting as a culturally significant art form.

Frozen in Time

As a history lover, I have a fondness for genre paintings that depict daily life. I feel as though they act as something of a window into the past. Vermeer’s paintings in particular have a way of drawing the viewer in so completely that it feels as though you’re standing right there in the room observing the quiet drama unfolding. They’re like historical snapshots, small moments perfectly captured and frozen in time.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of viewing quite a few Vermeer paintings in person and a while back, I set myself a goal of seeing them all. Prior to this exhibition, I was making good progress, having come face to face with about half. So of course, when I heard there was going to be a large-scale Vermeer exhibition, I was thrilled. A few weeks ago I made my way to Amsterdam to see this highly anticipated show.

A Blockbuster Exhibition

27 paintings were on display when I attended the exhibition. The 28th – arguably Vermeer’s most well-known work, Girl with a Pearl Earring – was included in the show for the first eight weeks and had already returned to its home at the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague. The exhibition is laid out thematically and roughly chronologically with brief descriptions to introduce each set of paintings. The displays are simple and uncluttered with minimal text which allows the art to really shine. No other items have been included in the exhibit so the focus is solely on Vermeer’s masterpieces. Given the scarcity of his paintings, it was surreal to see so many of them all together in one place.

Vermeer specialized in painting domestic interior scenes depicting people, usually women, doing ordinary things – reading a letter, playing music, drinking a glass of wine. His images are imbued with a sense of stillness. This quiet, serene aura is perfectly accentuated by the exhibition’s elegantly simple galleries. With nothing to distract from the paintings themselves, viewers can spend all their time contemplating the world that Vermeer has brought to life on his canvases. The longer you examine the images, the more details you notice and the more you are drawn into the enchanting world he has created.

The Sphinx of Delft

Very little is known about Vermeer’s life or artistic training. He was born in 1632 in the prosperous Dutch city of Delft. Though he enjoyed some modest success as a painter during his lifetime, he and his work were unknown outside of his hometown and he created relatively few paintings. He died at the age of 43 and left behind significant debt for his wife, Catharina and their eleven children. Following his death in 1675, Vermeer faded into obscurity and was all but forgotten for the next two centuries.

He was rediscovered in the 19th century by French art critic, Théophile Thoré-Burger who took a keen interest in the then-unknown painter after coming across his work while visiting museums in the Netherlands. Thoré-Burger became obsessed with Vermeer and dedicated twenty years to studying the painter whom he called the “Sphinx of Delft”, reintroducing him to the art world which now regards him as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

Vermeer and the Camera Obscura

Since so little is known about the artist’s technique or training, some scholars have speculated that he may have used a camera obscura. A forerunner of the modern photographic camera, the camera obscura was an optical device which consisted of a darkened box with a small pinhole on one side through which an image could be projected via a narrow beam of light onto the opposite side.

Several artists during Vermeer’s time were known to have used a camera obscura to achieve a more accurate perspective or as a compositional aid. It also revealed optical effects not normally visible and thus, provided new ways of seeing the world that could be replicated on canvas to create the types of naturalistic paintings that were becoming highly sought after. Whether or not Vermeer used one in his artistic process remains unknown but he would almost certainly have been aware of such a device and may have drawn inspiration from it.

The Legacy of Vermeer

Vermeer’s painting techniques set him apart from his contemporaries. His carefully rendered images were created through a skillful layering of paint. By contrasting thin glazes with thick globs of white, he was able to create stunningly realistic highlights and texture. Vermeer made use of high-quality pigments such as lead-tin yellow and ultramarine to create rich colours. He also created a realistic sense of three-dimensional space through a mastery of perspective that few could rival. But, the most striking element of any Vermeer painting has to be the extraordinary portrayal of light. The skilled way in which he captured the effects of light in these quiet scenes is somehow both hyper-realistic and otherworldly at the same time, a truly magical feat.

The Vermeer exhibition, which runs until June, has garnered a great deal of attention and, tickets sold out within days of its opening. It has been called a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition as it seems highly unlikely that another large retrospective like this will happen anytime soon or possibly ever again. Vermeer paintings are prized by any museum lucky enough to have one in their collection so they are rarely loaned out. For those unable to make the trip to Amsterdam, the museum has put together a fabulous online exhibition entitled Closer to Johannes Vermeer that takes a close look at his entire body of work. It’s a wonderful starting place for anyone who’s interested in learning more about the artist.

It’s always such a thrill for me to set eyes upon a Vermeer painting in person. Up until now, I had never travelled somewhere explicitly for that purpose but, if I was ever going to a city that had one, I would make sure to go see it. With this exhibition, I’ve now crossed almost all of them off my list. 34 down, only 3 to go. While having a silly “goal” like this is fun and I always love crossing things off a list, it’s ultimately about the art itself. As with any great art, there’s something transcendent about Vermeer’s paintings. While they seem to capture a very specific moment in time, their themes are also universal. We can see ourselves in those ordinary people on the canvas. And in that sense, these images are timeless, as relevant today as they were four hundred years ago.

Further Reading

• Rijksmuseum website: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/exhibitions/vermeer
• Closer to Vermeer online exhibition: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/johannes-vermeer?ss=
• Essential Vermeer (THE online resource for all things Vermeer): http://www.essentialvermeer.com/index.html