Baptized Oct. 31, 1632, in Delft; buried there Dec. 15, 1675. Dutch painter.

Vermeer worked in Delft and developed as an artist under the influence of C. Fabritius. Even in his early paintings (Diana With Nymphs, Mauritshuis, The Hague; and Christ With Martha and Mary, National Gallery, Edinburgh) he tried to combine an elevated emotionality of images with closeness to nature. His large-figured canvas At the Procuress (1656, Picture Gallery, Dresden) is marked by an unusually monumental portrayal of a vividly realistic scene, filled with youthful energy and fullblooded sensuality. In this painting the artist boldly combined elements of tonal coloring with resounding splashes of pure color.

Beginning in the second half of the 1650’s, Vermeer produced small paintings with one or several figures placed in the silvery light of the interior of city houses (Girl With a Letter, Picture Gallery, Dresden; Soldier and Laughing Girl, Frick Collection, New York; and Maid Servant Pouring Milk, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), giving less attention to the action and subject matter and more to the condition and general lyrical atmosphere of the scene and the variety and richness of the material world. The poetry of everyday home life and the unity of man with his environment are expressed here with extraordinary power of generalization and classical clarity and harmony. The sharp expressiveness of the spatial composition, vivid vibration of light and air, luminosity of saturated pure colors, rich play of the most subtle shades, and reflections and patches of light spiritualize the world of ordinary people and household articles, imparting internal significance to it. At the end of the 1650’s, Vermeer created two masterpieces of landscape painting: the inspired and extraordinarily subtly executed Alley (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) and the brilliantly fresh, beautiful View of Delft (Mauritshuis). In the 1660’s, Vermeer’s work became more contemplative and refined, and his painting became colder, enamel-like, done in generally pearly tones with vivid accents of blue and lemon yellow—for example, in Girl With a Pearl (Mauritshuis) and pictures of comfortable, richly furnished rooms where fashionably dressed women and gentlemen engage in small talk, play music, or examine jewels (A Goblet of Wine and Lady Trying on a Necklace, Staatliche Museen, Berlin-Dahlem).

The allegories, academic techniques, and variety of local colors in Vermeer’s later painting reflect the geneial decline of Dutch painting. However, he retained the content and charm of his images in the paintings of the 1660’s that are devoted to working people, artists, and scholars and convey the self-absorption of a person in moments of creativity (The Lacemaker, the Louvre, Paris; The Painter, Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna; and The Geographer, Städel Art Institute, Frankfurt am Main).