Dutch Baroque Painter
Vermeer's early work concentrated on history paintings but, around 1656, he moved into the genre paintings he would produce for the rest of his career. The man seems to have painted with painstaking slowness, dissecting a whole color spectrum out of "white" light, executing near-perfect optical precision and reproducing the most minute details. This may have translated to "fussy" from another artist, but with Vermeer it all served to highlight the personality of the piece's central figure(s).
Possibly the most amazing thing about this immensely famous artist is that hardly anyone knew he had lived, let alone painted, for centuries after his death. Vermeer wasn't "discovered" until 1866, when the French art critic and historian, Theophile Thore, published a monograph about him. In the years since, Vermeer's authenticated output has been variously numbered at between 35 and 40 pieces, although people hopefully search for more now that they are known to be both rare and valuable.
Johannes Vermeer Famous Paintings:
The Girl with a Pearl Earring
The Love Letter
The Milkmaid (The Kitchen Maid)
View of Delft
The Procuress
Woman Holding a Balance
Young Woman Standing at a Virginal
Diana and her Companions
The Art of Painting (The Artist's Studio)
The Lacemaker
Woman with a Lute near a Window
Birth: October 31, 1632, Delft, Netherlands
Death: December 16, 1675, Delft, Netherlands
Johannes Vermeer and his paintings in Wikipedia
Johannes Vermeer and his art in WebMuseum
Johannes Vermeer Biography
