Johannes
Vermeer died at the age of 43 in 1675. He left his wife and family of ten
children in debt and certainly could not have been considered a financial
success. Although it is believed that
Vermeer may have produced as many as 60 works of art, only 35 known paintings remain
known to the world. 21 are housed around
the globe and the majority are housed by museums in Europe. Another 14 of them are owned by institutions
or private collections in the United States. One of those is, of course,
missing. The Concert was stolen from the
Isabella Gardner Museum in a notorious theft on March 18, 1990.
The
net worth of Vermeer’s paintings would certainly astound his poor wife
today. The Concert, the painting stolen
from Boston’s museum, is estimated to be worth $200 million. The Saint Praxedis, a painting attributed to
Vermeer, was auctioned at Christie’s this past summer and sold for over $10
million dollars. It stands to reason,
then, that Vermeer’s complete works total over a billion dollars.
Vermeer
has mystified and delighted us for about 1-1/2 century. The funny thing is he had actually been
forgotten until the mid-nineteenth century before a French art critic began
singing his praises. Over the years since, Vermeer paintings have become major
works of art. In fact, the real sign of a worthy artist might be the amount of forgeries
made of his art. Many Vermeer forgeries were bought and sold beginning in the1920s
when wealthy Americans came into large discretionary incomes and had enormous
amounts of money to invest in art.
Today,
according to essentialvermeer.com, the official Vermeer collection is counted
at 35. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Museums in New York City
and The National Gallery in Washington, DC own the only paintings in America,
with the exception of one work in a private collection (and the missing Gardner
painting.) Two other paintings are only attributed to Vermeer.
Interestingly, Vermeer’s paintings
are not at all large in size. If you travel to the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston, or other museums around the world, sometimes the enormity of the
paintings of the masters can be overwhelming.
In contrast, Vermeer’s largest work, Christ in the House of Martha and
Mary, is just over five by four feet. It
is small compared to many of the masters.
An
enchanting look into the work of Vermeer is the 2013 documentary “Tim’s
Vermeer.” I had requested this movie
through a recommendation and it showed up on my desk a few weeks ago. I
expected it would be much like “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” – I had loved that
book (by Tracey Chevalier, 2000) and the film with the same name (2003).
However, much to my surprise, “Tim’s
Vermeer” is a fantastic and riveting documentary. It is the story of Tim Jenison, an American
entrepreneur. Jenison is a self-made man of sorts and beginning in 2005 he had
both the passion and the means to experiment with a theory that Vermeer had
used technology in the 17th century to produce his beautiful paintings.
Dutch painters had produced incredible paintings that were amazingly realistic
but Vermeer’s used light like none other. His paintings were not unlike a
photograph created by a camera. Jenison’s theory, that Vermeer made use of the
camera obscura and a mirror, is detailed in this incredible documentary. Over
the course of several years, Jenison sets an artist’s stage and produces his
own version of Vermeer’s The Music Lesson.
Of course, many of us were taken
with “The Girl with a Pearl Earring,” an enchanting book and an equally amazing
film. The use of light in the film was astounding and breathtaking. “Girl in
Hyacinth Blue” by Susan Vreeland (1999) suggests there is a missing Vermeer
painting. Other fictional works include “The Music Lesson” (1998) by Katherine
Weber, a fictional account of another stolen Vermeer painting.
Vermeer has inspired non-fiction, as
well. “Vermeer’s Hat” (2008) by Timothy
Brook explores the concept that Vermeer’s world in Delft, a southern city of
Holland, or The Netherlands, had become global long before the 20th
century’s concept of globalization. In
2001, Philip Steadman wrote “Vermeer’s Camera: Uncovering the Truth Behind the
Masterpieces”. In it, he provides evidence that Vermeer did employ the use of
technology – the camera obscura.
Perhaps the most intriguing, of
course, is the theft of the famous painting, “The Concert” from the Isabella
Gardner Museum. Several wonderful books
have been written about this mysterious crime. Nearly a quarter century later,
the theft of the works remain a mystery. “The Gardner Heist” (2009) by Ulrich
Boser describes the theft of the 13 paintings stolen on March 18, 1990 - the
morning following St. Patrick’s Day.
Several Rembrandts, five Degas, one Manet, and the Vermeer disappeared
in the early morning hours when an inexperienced guard opened to door to the
thieves. The paintings are worth more than $500 million and none has been
returned. Much has been speculated about
Whitey Bulger’s participation in the crime and there is some whispered hope
that law enforcement is closer to finding the works of art. Apparently 25 years
is not an extraordinary amount of time in the world of art theft and experts
expect that there will be resolution in the future. In the meantime, several
empty frames adorn the walls of the Gardner Museum, reminding us of the 1990
theft.
There is a plethora of non-fiction
books about Vermeer in the adult and juvenile collections of the Minuteman
libraries. Bob Raczka’s children’s book, “The Vermeer Interviews,” focuses on
seven of Vermeer’s paintings. In the book, Raczka employs the unique gimmick of
imaginary conversations with the subjects of Vermeer’s paintings – the Woman
with a Pearl Necklace, the Woman with a Water Pitcher, and the Woman in Blue
Reading a Letter among them.
In “Vermeer’s Women: Secrets and
Silence” (2011) by Marjorie Wieseman, the author explores the women “frozen in
paint” in the Dutch household of Johannes Vermeer. She concentrates on The
Lacemaker (owned by the Louvre in Paris) and postulates that these women,
removed from any conversation with those of us admiring the painting, keep us
at a distance while giving us a an intimate glimpse into their personal life.
If you would like to delve into the
works and the life of Johannes Vermeer, visit the Minuteman Library catalog or
a librarian to help you find these books and other resources.
