Johannes Vermeer

Vermeer, Jan
Vermeer van Delft

Dutch, 1632 - 1675

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Shown from about the knees up, a pale, smooth-skinned woman in a fur-lined yellow jacket looks out at us as she sits writing at a table in this vertical painting. The woman’s body faces the table to our left. She turns her head to gaze at us from the corners of her dark gray eyes under faint brows. She has a wide nose, and her pale lips are closed. Her light brown hair is pulled back and held in place with white bows, and gleaming teardrop-shaped pearl earrings dangle from her ears. Her lemon-yellow jacket is trimmed with ermine fur, which is white with black speckles, at the cuffs and down the front opening. A full, elephant-gray skirt falls to the floor beneath the jacket. Both hands rest on the table, and she holds a quill in her right hand, farther from us, on a piece of paper. She leans forward in her wooden chair. The back panel of the chair is covered in black fabric and lined with brass studs. Two gilded finials, carved into lions’ heads, face the woman’s back with mouths open. The table is covered with a celestial-blue cloth crumpled near the left edge of the canvas. On the table are a strand of pearls, a pale yellow ribbon, and a black box with three brown panels studded with pearls around silver keyholes. Two pewter gray vessels are visible just beyond it, in front of a second chair, which faces us. On the putty-gray wall behind the woman, a framed painting hangs in the upper left quadrant of the composition. The painting-within-the painting is done in muted tones of brown and shows a cello and other unidentifiable objects.
Johannes Vermeer, A Lady Writing, c. 1665, oil on canvas, Gift of Harry Waldron Havemeyer and Horace Havemeyer, Jr., in memory of their father, Horace Havemeyer, 1962.10.1

A Lady Writing

Johannes Vermeer · c. 1665 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1962.10.1

In this vertical painting, a woman stands near the corner of a dimly lit room, facing our left in profile and looking down at a balance she holds suspended in her right hand over a wooden table. She wears a peacock-blue velvet jacket with a white hood and fur lining, and a voluminous, mustard-yellow skirt. A window near the upper left corner is partially covered by a canary-yellow curtain. Light coming in through that window falls on the pale skin of the woman's face and hands, and highlights the white trim of her garment. Her left hand, closer to us, rests on the edge of the table near two open boxes, and a blue cloth is bunched at the back of the table to our left. Gold chains and pearl strands drape over the edge of one box. The woman stands in front of a framed painting. Much of the detail is lost in shadow but at the top center of the painting, a person surrounded by a golden halo floats in the sky with both arms raised, and is flanked by people encased within a bank of clouds. Nude people on the ground below in the painting, seen to either side of the woman, writhe, twist, and point upward.
Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, c. 1664, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.97

Woman Holding a Balance

Johannes Vermeer · c. 1664 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.97

Shown from the elbows up, a young person with pale skin and brown hair wearing a wide, scarlet-red hat sits in front of a tapestry in this vertical portrait painting. She sits with her body facing our right in profile but she turns her face to look at or toward us with dark eyes. She has a rounded nose, rather flat cheeks, and a sliver of teeth is visible through parted coral-pink lips. The wide brim of the red hat seems to be made of a soft, almost feathery material, and it casts a shadow across her face. She wears a high-collared white garment that catches the light, a royal-blue, possibly velvet, robe or overcoat, and large, teardrop pearl earrings. Her arm runs along the bottom edge of the panel in front of two carved, wooden lion finials that could be the arm or back of the chair. The tapestry behind her is painted in tones of pale caramel brown and pine green. The painting has a soft, hazy look, and light glints with bright white specks off the pearl earrings, the tip of her nose, her lips, and the lion finials.
Johannes Vermeer, Girl with the Red Hat, c. 1669, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.53

Girl with the Red Hat

Johannes Vermeer · c. 1669 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.53

Painted almost entirely in tones of golden, mustard, and pale yellows, a young woman is shown from the lap up having turned to face us while making lace on a wooden frame in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces our left almost in profile, but she turns her face to look at us with large, hazel-gray eyes. Her skin has a yellow cast but her smooth cheeks are lightly flushed, and her coral-red lips are parted. Her cinnamon-brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back under a slate-blue ribbon, and she wears a teardrop-shaped earring in the ear we can see. Her burnt-orange shirt has pale yellow, wide cuffs at the elbow-length sleeves and a wide collar that rests across her chest and shoulders. The cuffs and collar are textured, suggesting fur. She rests her bare forearms against the wood frame in front of her, to our left, which is about the height of a table. A parchment-yellow cloth is draped over the frame, and she holds two short, cylindrical bobbins in her hands. Two more thread-wrapped bobbins hang to one side. The woman’s tea-brown skirt is partially hidden by a table situated closer to us, in the lower right corner of the painting. The table is covered with a patterned rug in maroon red, black, and gold. On the table are a low, wide pewter-gray bowl and a dark indigo-blue pillow with gold tassels and gold stripes near the seams. The wall behind the woman is honey yellow.
Anonymous Artist, The Lacemaker, c. 1925, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.54

The Lacemaker

Anonymous Artist · c. 1925 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.54

Shown from the chest up, a young, pale-skinned woman looks over her shoulder and grins widely at us so her bottom teeth show in this vertical painting. The girl’s shoulders face our left in profile, and she turns her head to look out from the corners of her large, dark eyes. She has a round face with faint brows, a slightly turned up nose, and full pink lips. A teardrop-shaped pearl hangs from the ear we see. Her dark hair is brushed back and covered by a charcoal gray cloth, which drapes to her upper back. A wide white collar lies across an ochre-yellow garment, and the background is dark brown. The whole painting has a yellow cast.
Anonymous Artist, The Smiling Girl, c. 1925, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.55

The Smiling Girl

Anonymous Artist · c. 1925 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.55

Timothy Cole, Woman Weighing Pearls, 1922, wood engraving on japan paper, Gift of Mrs. John Farr Simmons, 1982.110.1

Woman Weighing Pearls

Timothy Cole · 1922 · wood engraving on japan paper ·  Accession ID  1982.110.1

Timothy Cole, The Pearl Necklace, 1916, wood engraving on calendered paper, Gift of Eric Denker in honor of Lynn P. Russell, Curator of Education, 2005.102.2

The Pearl Necklace

Timothy Cole · 1916 · wood engraving on calendered paper ·  Accession ID  2005.102.2

Timothy Cole, The Pearl Necklace, 1916, wood engraving on tissue paper mounted on heavyweight paper, Gift of Eric Denker in honor of Lynn P. Russell, Curator of Education, 2005.102.1

The Pearl Necklace

Timothy Cole · 1916 · wood engraving on tissue paper mounted on heavyweight paper ·  Accession ID  2005.102.1

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The Soldier and the Laughing Girl

Jules-Ferdinand Jacquemart · published 1885 · etching ·  Accession ID  1980.45.2343.t

Maxime Lalanne, Vue de la Ville de Delft, 1866, softground etching on laid paper, Gift of Carol and James Goodfriend, 2021.113.59

Vue de la Ville de Delft

Maxime Lalanne · 1866 · softground etching on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2021.113.59

Bibliography

1866

  • Thoré, Théophile É. Joseph (William Bürger). "Van der Meer de Delft." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 21 (October-December 1866): 297-330, 458-470, 542-575.

1939

  • Vries, Ary Bob de. Jan Vermeer van Delft. Bibliotheek der Nederlandsche Kunst. Amsterdam, 1939.

1948

  • Vries, Ary Bob de. Jan Vermeer van Delft. Translated by Robert Allen. Revised ed. London and New York, 1948.

1950

  • Swillens, P.T.A. Johannes Vermeer: Painter of Delft 1632-1675. Translated by C.M. Breuning-Williamson. Utrecht, 1950.

1975

  • Blankert, Albert (with contributions by Rob Ruurs and Willem L. van de Watering). Johannes Vermeer van Delft 1632-1675. Utrecht and Antwerp, 1975. (Also English ed., Vermeer of Delft: Complete Edition of the Paintings. Oxford, 1978.)

1981

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Jan Vermeer. New York, 1981. (2nd revised ed., 1989)

1986

  • Aillaud, Gilles, Albert Blankert, and John Michael Montias. Vermeer. Paris, 1986. (also English ed., New York, 1988)

1989

  • Montias, John Michael. Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History. Princeton, 1989.

1991

  • Montias, John Michael. "A Postscript on Vermeer and His Milieu." Mercury 12 (1991): 42-52.

1992

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "Vermeer and Bramer: A New Look at Old Documents." In Frima Fox Hofrichter, Leonaert Bramer 1596-1674: A Painter of the Night. Exh. cat. The Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette Univ., Milwaukee, 1992: 19-22.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 370.

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Vermeer and the Art of Painting. New Haven, 1995.

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. and Ben P. J. Broos. Johannes Vermeer. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis, The Hague. New Haven and London, 1995.

1998

  • Gaskell, Ivan and Michiel Jonker, eds. Vermeer Studies. Studies in the History of Art_ 55, Symposium Papers 33. Washington, D.C., 1998.

2001

  • Franits, Wayne E., ed. The Cambridge companion to Vermeer. Cambridge, England, and New York, 2001.

  • Liedtke, Walter A., Michiel Plomp, and Axel Rüger. Vermeer and the Delft school. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery, London. New Haven, 2001.

2008

  • Liedtke, Walter A. Vermeer: the complete paintings. Ghent, 2008