Thursday, September 18, 2014

Vermeer - Master of Light

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the September 18, 2014 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.


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.