One of the most talented painters in the Dutch Golden Age , 1632-1675
was a Dutch Baroque painter who specialized in exquisite, domestic interior scenes of ordinary life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He seems never to have been particularly wealthy, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death. Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, using bright colours, sometimes expensive pigments, with a preference for cornflower blue. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work. What strikes in most of his paintings is a certain love, which easily could be called a love sickness, for the people and the objects in his paintings. He created a world more perfect than any he had witnessed. After having been virtually forgotten for nearly one hundred years, Related Paintings of Johannes Vermeer :. | Woman Reading a Letter | The concert. | Girl with a flute. | Recreation by our Gallery | View of Delft, | Related Artists:
School of Paris or Dijonbeginning of the fifteenth century
BARRA, DidierFrench painter (b. 1590, Metz, d. 1644, Napoli
French painter, active in Italy. He was for a long time confused with FRAN?OIS DE NOM?, and the work of both artists was thought to be by a Mons? Desiderio, a 'highly praised painter of perspectives and city scenes' (de Dominici). It is now generally accepted that Mons? Desiderio was the pseudonym of Didier Barra (1982 exh. cat.), son of Cl?ment Barra. Didier Barra left Metz probably c. 1608, when his name appeared for the last time in the city archives. From c. 1630 he was active in Naples, where he came into contact with landscape and townscape painters from northern Europe. De Dominici wrote that he was associated with Belisario Corenzio. The point of departure in reconstructing Barra's oeuvre is the Panoramic View of Naples (Naples, Mus. N. S Martino), which is signed and dated Desiderius Barra ex civitate Methensi in Lotharingia, F. 1647. The picture is a precise and panoramic view of Naples from the sea, from a single viewpoint, enriched by lively brushwork and with spirited scenes of shipping in the foreground. Its topographical precision suggests that Barra was influenced by the engravings of large views of Naples made by Alessandro Baratta ( fl 1629-30), and he may himself have trained as a cartographer. On the basis of this picture, several views of Naples have been attributed to Barra.
JanVermeer1632-1675
Johannes (or Jan) Vermeer is now recognized as one of the great Dutch painters, but while he was alive he could barely make ends meet, and his artistic achievement was almost entirely ignored for 200 years after his death. Little is known about his personal life, other than he died poor and young and left behind a wife and eleven children. Vermeer is admired for his realistic style, his subtle use of color and light and his unusual and inventive brush technique, but fewer than forty of his paintings exist. His most famous works include domestic scenes such as Girl With a Peal Earring (1665) and The Music Lesson (1662-65), and tranquil landscapes such as The Little Street (1657-58) and View of Delft (1659-60).
Although his actual birth and death dates are unknown, Vermeer was baptized 31 October 1632 and buried 15 December 1675... During his career he used the names Johannes van der Meer, Johannes Vermeer and Jan Vermeer... He was played by actor Colin Firth in the 2003 film Girl With A Pearl Earring, which also starred Scarlett Johansson as the girl.