Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter active in Delft and renowned for carefully composed interior scenes, subtle light and restrained domestic drama. Johannes Vermeer is generally dated to 1632–1675.

Vermeer spent his career in Delft, where he joined the Guild of Saint Luke and also dealt in pictures. He married Catharina Bolnes and worked within a large Catholic household headed by her mother, Maria Thins. He produced a relatively small surviving body of paintings and died in financial difficulty after the economic crisis of the 1670s; his international reputation grew dramatically during the nineteenth century.

In Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, In 1660s Delft, sixteen-year-old Griet becomes a servant in the household of Johannes Vermeer after her father is blinded in an accident.