We Start with Vermeer

My first encounter with Vermeer and his art took place a long time ago when I saw some prints of his ‘A Girl with a Pearl Earring’ and ‘The Milkmaid’. I didn’t think much of them, besides the fact that they gave me a certain feeling of serenity and calm, and I wondered why he chose to paint a milkmaid pouring milk from a jug into a dish and what he thought made it so special. Then, when later on I saw the film ‘A Girl with a Pearl Earring’, I remember noticing how well the imaging was done (or at least it seemed like that to me – I don’t know much about filmmaking) and how each and every shot could have been a painting in itself. The atmosphere of the film easily captured the tone in Vermeer’s paintings.

My next encounter with Vermeer was much more profound and with one of the most important of his works: ‘A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman’ also known as ‘The Music Lesson’. It is the only Vermeer in the Royal Collection, and I was lucky enough to be able to talk about it in the Masters of the Everyday exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery in 2016. Everybody knows about the Queen’s Vermeer, so it was quite a challenge to speak in front of large audiences every time. The enjoyment made it worth it though, because ‘A Lady at the Virginals…’ is a masterpiece and captures Vermeer’s technique and artistry at its best.

Detail from ‘The Procuress’ (c. 1656), considered to be the only supposed self-portrait by Johannes Vermeer

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So much has been written and said about Vermeer’s art and Vermeer the artist but we actually don’t know very much about Vermeer the man. He died in 1675 at the age of 43 leaving behind a widow and eleven children, in addition to a significant debt due to the precarious state of his art dealing business. Little is known though about his masters or his schooling. He started his career with history and mythology paintings. It was only in 1656-’57 that he turned to these themes of courtship and domestic life, known as genre scenes in art, for which he is best known. While we don’t know much about the person that Vermeer was, we do know of his genius, and his genius and his paintings create the only path we can take towards learning more about the man, about his real being. The way in which he worked really contributes to discovering his self. He was known for being a very slow painter, only producing about three or four works a year and for using some of the most expensive pigments, and because of the way he painted and the perspective techniques he employed, we can notice that Vermeer guided his viewer to look at the painting in a certain way. He ‘told’ us how to look at his art, how to look at a Vermeer, because there are clear features that make a Vermeer a Vermeer. Let’s see what they are.

Painting everyday life

The essential subject of Vermeer’s mature work is an ideal woman in an ideal home. However, Vermeer’s imaginary scenes of everyday life are more narrowly focused than those of his contemporaries and even his colleagues in Delft, like Pieter de Hooch or Cornelis de Man. This raises the presumption that his domestic circumstances might have contributed to the content of his work. We have to approach this with caution though, as Walter Liedtke advises in Vermeer, the Complete Paintings: the rooms that Vermeer painted are often much grander and more modern than those in his mother-in-law’s house could have been. Young women wear stylish and expensive dresses, and gentlemen suitors come and go. No one other than a servant works, except for a young woman making lace, a refined craft that contributed to the feminine grace, and in a house full of children no child was ever painted in an interior. Instead, after ‘The Procuress’ of 1656, his paintings involve music, courtship, love letters or some combination of those interests that he knew exclusively from art and literature, not from his own experience.

We can easily establish that he painted scenes of everyday life, but he celebrated ordinary life, he raised those scenes to something very special (like in ‘The Milkmaid’, for example) and he was an incredible craftsman. He had the greatest sense of light, and he knew how to harness that light so that it is capable of drawing you in, which is highly the case with ‘A Lady at the Virginals…’ as well. Like many other works, the painting seduces the viewer very quickly. We’re looking at such beautiful, simple work, but work that has been produced in such a calculated manner. Although it seems like a clear shot of reality, Vermeer actually concentrated to adjust reality. It is an image that looks real without being it and, above everything, gives the sensation of truth to life. He designed and placed everything very carefully: each little point has a meaning, each little mark has a purpose, nothing is left to chance. Let’s go in.

Perspective

Johannes Vermeer, ‘A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman’, early 1660s

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On the far side of a softly sunlit room, a woman stands playing the virginal. A man in elegant dress watches and listens intently. He could be singing as well, as it has been suggested because his mouth is clearly open, but both figures seem very quiet as though the music was measured and restrained. It is interesting to try and imagine what the music might sound like and Vermeer seems to want us to do that. He leaves a lot to the viewer’s imagination and rather than capturing stories he captures moments. This is one of his most refined ones. He carefully calculated every aspect of its composition: the figures, the musical instruments, the mirror on the virginal, tiles and chairs, however realistically presented, are conceived as interlocking patterns of colour and shape. The vanishing point falls on the sunlit sleeve of the woman and with this Vermeer creates a dynamic and a clear focus. The hole in the canvas left by the pin Vermeer used to construct the perspective can still be seen on the canvas. The perspective is linear, a technique that gives this painting so much power. The sharply receding wall on the left together with the strong right angles of the window frame lead the eye quickly to the woman – she becomes the fulcrum around which the painting revolves. Vermeer further compresses the space by filling the right side of the scene with a large tapestry covered table (the figures occupy just a fifth of the painted surface), but if we look at the angle of its receding edge, it transports us quickly back to the vanishing point. The floor also plays a significant role in the perspective construction. Its strong diagonal pattern leads us directly to the woman.

The interconnected rectangular shapes surrounding the woman add visual emphasis to her importance. A strong vertical focus is created by Vermeer’s placement of the mirror directly above the lid of the virginal. By including the woman’s reflection in the mirror, he underscores her significance within the painting. The man’s position however and his relationship to the woman were of concern to Vermeer. Infrared analysis reveals that he first painted the man more forward and leaning more towards the woman. She, likewise, had a more active posture and her head was twisted back in his direction. He subsequently altered the figures. The woman now stands directly facing the virginal. Seen from behind, her face is hidden from the viewer. We can only see her face in the mirror, but her image there was left as originally painted, slightly turned towards the man. He moved the man slightly, placing him in a more upright position. All these adjustments were subtle but crucial. Vermeer transformed the figures from active posers to statuesque ones, emphasising the permanence of their relationship. The effect also brings them into harmony with the carefully ordered space.

Colours

Vermeer uses colours to strengthen the focus of the painting. The yellow-white of the woman’s blouse, the golden colour of the virginal and matching reflected light on the back wall highlight the figures. The red of the woman’s skirt and Vermeer’s selective use of black on the mirror, the virginals, the clothing of the two figures and the pattern of the floor help lock the eye into place. His colours are far more intense than the reality could be. Technical examination of the paint structure reveals that the artist mixed significant quantities of ultramarine blue (lapis lazuli) in the under-layers throughout. It was unheard of to use this intense and extremely expensive pigment anywhere but on the final paint layer, as here on the chair and within the pattern on the carpet, where its precious, jewel-like colour could be appreciated. He buried it in his working process establishing a novel approach to re-creating colour values. Vermeer’s painting has the luminous, polished brilliance of an image in pietra dura. He can evoke reality better than any description could.

Space

Vermeer preserves the privacy of the couple by creating an intimate space through the arrangement of the objects on the right. The strategic placement of the chairs and the bass violin on the floor lock the couple into the background, protecting their private communication and separating them from us. We are only left with a narrow pathway of access on the left. The forward position of the table and the placement of the painting opposite on the back wall reinforce their intimate space. By placing a chair directly between the table and the vanishing point, Vermeer interrupts the perspective line, slowing down our immediate access to the couple: we are outside looking in. There is a certain quality Vermeer has, and it’s present in most of his paintings, that of inviting you in but keeping you away at the same time. There is no immediacy between us and the painting although it might seem like there is one. There is almost like a transparent veil between us and the scene.

The white, elegantly proportioned jug sitting on the table is central to the composition of the painting. Its shape echoes the curve of the gentleman’s arm, and its colour helps link the foreground to the background. It has a very pure form, almost sacramental and it symbolically reinforces the theme of comfort and harmony.

The mirror is one of Vermeer’s primary creative tools. Using the mirror Vermeer allows us to look down on the woman, the carpeted table and the tiled floor of the room. The way he rendered the woman’s reflection is very sensitive and truly remarkable. He set it back rather than placing it on the surface, by painting the forms softer and smaller and by depicting the distorted reflections along the mirror’s slanted edge. With the help of her reflection, we have access to another viewpoint of the woman, a viewpoint that reveals her inner thoughts. By leaving the woman’s original position in the mirror, gazing at the man, Vermeer suspends that psychological moment forever and challenges the viewer to think, speculate, create. It is this poetic image that draws us into the heart of the painting.

Light

We cannot analyse a work by Vermeer without touching upon the subject of light. Understanding the potential of light is a primary aspect of Vermeer’s genius. Given the clues that the painting provides, the lighting wouldn’t have been this one. Vermeer selectively manipulated the light to strengthen the focus. He eliminated the shadows that should exist on the back wall to create an evenly illuminated white surface, almost like a canvass within the canvas, providing a backdrop to emphasise the silhouettes of the figures. While Vermeer drastically reduced the shadow at the top of the virginal to allow the upper wall to be gently bathed in light, he darkened the shadow at the base of the window and distorted its angle on the wall. These two divergent shadows hold the virginal in place, the upper shadow leading the eye to the corner of the lid and the lower shadow drawing our eye to where the leg meets the floor. Vermeer manipulated the shadows beneath the virginal by placing them closer to each other than they would really be, giving them greater substance and emphasising the silhouetted shapes of the legs. He eliminated the shadow of the virginal’s body against the rear wall to reinforce this effect.

Vermeer completes this masterpiece by inserting his own presence. By showing the reflection of his easel at the top of the mirror he reminds us that the artist is clearly present and in complete control. He is the master of what we see and when seen from the correct position this painting appears so real that we can learn what lies behind us as well as see what lies in front of us. It is so real that it includes the process of its creation.

This is how our question of how we look at a Vermeer has been answered. We look at a Vermeer the way he wants us to because he made sure to include us in the creation process. He guides our eyes the whole time while we’re gazing at his painting. What is different of course is the way each of us sees Vermeer’s paintings and, after all, that’s what seeing is all about. This way looking at a Vermeer becomes a very intimate act. You see it, but you can’t really put it into words.

‘A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman’ can be seen in Buckingham Palace during the summer opening season (normally end of July to beginning of October) if it’s not on loan somewhere, so it’s worth checking before visiting

‘The Milkmaid’ can be seen at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

‘A Girl with a Pearl Earring’ can be seen at the Maurithuis in the Hague.

I hope you enjoyed my first post. Please comment below or tell me your opinion about Vermeer and his art!