Estilo johannes vermeer biography

1662-63

Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

In this painting, Vermeer shows us the private moments of a woman reading a recently opened letter.

The Turkish carpet in the foreground not only adds a decorative element to the composition, but also highlights the global nature of Dutch trade and the taste for luxury goods. In it, a young woman's face floats against a dark background, left half in shadow. Leonard Bramer, Delft’s most prominent painter, has also been proposed as Vermeer’s teacher.

This refinement in style can be in part attributed to the developments of the Leiden “Fine” painters, who were known for their highly rendering of interiors and domestic scenes, with nearly imperceptible brushwork. This union led him to convert from the Protestant faith to Catholicism. He took on increasing amounts of debt, borrowing thousands of guilders, and was even caught pocketing his mother-in-law's money.

Vermeer died on December 16, 1675, having fallen into a fit of madness and depression.

His marriage to Catherina allowed Vermeer to climb the social scale significantly, and it is thought that afterwards he even limited the contact he had with his family while living in the house of his formidable mother-in-law.

Vermeer’s paintings from the 1650s demonstrate the influence of masters like Rembrandt and the Italian Caravaggio, which he would have known through the work of the Utrecht Caravaggisti painters such as Gerrit van Honthorst and Dirck van Baburen.

Since Vermeer had been so adept at capturing moments of ordinary beauty, he became a major influence on these artists, who revived an awareness of the master's work. Thus it seems that Vermeer painted the Girl to amuse himself and to challenge himself artistically. This early use of what is ultimately Pointillism is refreshing in its simplicity.

Interestingly, some art historians have suggested that owing to the canvas size, which is the largest of all Vermeer's surviving works, it seems likely that this was a commission for a hidden Catholic church. Her rounded stomach suggest that she is pregnant, although some historians have posited that her rounded stomach is created by the clothing and was fashionable during this period.

It has been suggested that the Delft painter Carel Fabritius served as Vermeer’s teacher, although this is unlikely, as Fabritius only entered the Guild of St. Luke’s a year before Vermeer. He was known for his use of perspective technique, which he used to draw lines from one dot on the canvas. The viewer's eye is drawn immediately to the young woman on the right, as her pale yellow bodice, white lace head covering, and pale skin are the brightest parts of the painting.

The two blue leather Spanish chairs have appeared in other works by Vermeer, suggesting that these were chairs that existed in his house. In seventeenth century Dutch popular culture, the presence of a feather on headwear held connotations of lechery and sexual immorality.

The man on the left is dressed in a black beret and a black, possibly silk, doublet with ripped sleeves. Martha rebukes Christ for not encouraging the other sister to get up and help with the chores but Christ explains that while Martha is "worried and upset by many things," Mary needs "only one," that being the word of God. Martha was seen to be a personification of the active Catholic path where good deeds and humility led to salvation, but Mary is thought to be a symbol for the quiet, contemplative life of Protestantism, which required only the word of God for redemption.