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Only about 35 paintings are accepted as the work of Johannes Vermeer, the Dutch master of quiet, light-filled interiors such as Girl with a Pearl Earring. He worked slowly in Delft, died in debt in 1675 and was then largely forgotten for about two centuries.

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Vermeer (1632–1675) spent his whole life in Delft and probably earned more as an art dealer than as a painter. He used costly pigments, including ultramarine ground from the gemstone lapis lazuli, and many of his scenes seem to be set in the same two rooms of his house. When he died at 43, his widow Catharina was left with 11 children to raise and heavy debts. Afterwards his name faded, and some of his pictures were sold as works by better-known painters such as Pieter de Hooch. The French critic Théophile Thoré-Bürger revived him in 1866 with a catalogue that credited him with far more paintings than he made, and called him 'the Sphinx of Delft' because so little was known about his life. Scholars now accept between 34 and 37.

Türkçe oku
Hollandalı ressam Johannes Vermeer'e ait olduğu kabul edilen tablo sayısı yalnızca 35 kadardır. “İnci Küpeli Kız” gibi sessiz, ışıkla dolu iç mekân resimleriyle tanınan usta, Delft'te ağır ağır çalıştı, 1675'te borç içinde öldü ve ardından yaklaşık iki yüzyıl boyunca neredeyse unutuldu.

Vermeer (1632-1675) bütün hayatını Delft'te geçirdi ve büyük olasılıkla ressamlıktan çok sanat ticaretinden kazandı. Lapis lazuli taşından elde edilen ultramarin gibi çok pahalı boyalar kullandı; sahnelerinin çoğu evinin aynı iki odasında geçiyor gibidir. 43 yaşında öldüğünde karısı Catharina, büyütülecek 11 çocuk ve ağır borçlarla kaldı. Ölümünden sonra adı unutuldu; bazı tabloları Pieter de Hooch gibi daha tanınmış ressamların eseri diye satıldı. Fransız eleştirmen Théophile Thoré-Bürger 1866'da yayımladığı bir katalogla onu yeniden gün yüzüne çıkardı; ama bu katalog Vermeer'e yaptığından çok daha fazla tablo atfediyordu. Hayatı hakkında çok az şey bilindiği için ona “Delft'in Sfenksi” adını da Thoré-Bürger taktı. Uzmanlar bugün ona ait tabloların sayısını 34 ile 37 arasında veriyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Johannes Vermeer
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