Hang Around the World: Painting #045

Johannes Vermeer

(Dutch Golden Age Baroque, 1632–1675)

Girl with a Pearl Earing

- Vermeer

- oil on canvas (44.5 × 39 cm) c.1665

- The Mauritshuis (The Hague)

Aka The Northern Mona Lisa

"In the December [2014] issue of popular science magazine New Scientist, Icke, a professor of Theoretical Astronomy at the University of Leiden, states that the pearl on the ear of the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring could not have been a real pearl. The way in which a pearl would reflect the light does not match the reflection of the light in the painting, says Icke." - Art History News

Spot any common features among the following 7 painting?

The Milkmaid

- Vermeer

- oil on canvas (45.5 × 41 cm) c.1657-58

- Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)

In the bottom right corner of the painting is a "lollepot", a type of stone fire-pot that women used in the 17th and 18th centuries to warm their legs and lower body.

The Astronomer
- oil on canvas (51 × 45 cm) c.1668
- Musée du Louvre (Paris)

The Geographer

- oil on canvas (52 × 45.5 cm) c.1668–69

- Städelsches Kunstinstitut (Frankfurt)

The Girl with the Wine Glass

- oil on canvas, c.1659–60

- Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (Braunschweig)

The Wine Glass
- oil on canvas (66 x 76.5 cm) c.1660
. Gemäldegalerie (Berlin)

The Music Lesson

- oil on canvas (75 × 64 cm) 1662-65

- Royal Collection, St. James's Palace (London)

The Art of Painting

- oil on canvas (130 × 110 cm) 1665-68

- Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)

Yes, these paintings have modern photographic precision, and were drawn in the same studio. For further revelation, see the footnote below at the end.

The Lacemaker

- oil on canvas ( 24.5 × 21 cm) c.1669-1670
- Louvre (Paris)

The Procuress
- oil on canvas (143 x 130 cm) 1656
- Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Dresden)

Detail of the painting The Procuress (above),
believed to be a self portrait by Vermeer

A Girl Asleep

- oil on canvas (88 × 77 cm) c.1657

- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)

Woman with a Pearl Necklace
- oil on canvas (55 × 45 cm) c.1664
- Gemäldegalerie (Berlin)

Woman with a Water Jug

- oil on canvas (46 × 41 cm) c.1660-62
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)

A Woman Holding a Balance

- oil on canvas (43 × 38 cm) c.1662-63

- National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)

Lady Standing at a Virginal
- oil on canvas (52 × 45 cm) c.1670-72
- National Gallery (London)

Lady Seated at a Virginal
- oil on canvas (52 × 46 cm) c.1670-72
- National Gallery (London)

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window

- oil on canvas (83 × 65 cm) c.1657-59, restored 2021
- Gemäldegalerie (Dresden)

Woman Reading a Letter

- oil on canvas (47 × 39 cm) c.1663
- Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (Amsterdam)

A Lady Writing a Letter
- oil on canvas (45 × 40 cm) c.1665
- National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)

The Love Letter
- oil on canvas (44 × 39 cm) c.1669-1670
- Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (Amsterdam)

Woman With a Lut
- oil on canvas (51 × 46 cm) c.1662-63
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)

The Concert

- oil on canvas (73 × 65 cm) c.1664
- whereabouts unknown

(since the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft in 1990)

The Allegory of Faith
- Vermeer
- oil on canvas (114 × 89 cm) c.1670-72
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)

View of Delft
- Vermeer
- oil on canvas (96.5 × 116 cm) c.1660-1661
- Mauritshuis (The Hague)

The Little Street
- Vermeer
- oil on canvas (54 × 44 cm) c.1657-58
- Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)

Source: Wikipedia

FOOTNOTE:

In 2001, David Hockney (British artist) and Philip Steadman (British architecture professor) separately wrote books, claiming that Vermeer had used a camera obscura to create his paintings.

camera obscura

Then, computer video engineer Tim Jenison went to visit most of Vermeer's 35 surviving paintings, and studied their 3D-perspective on computer. His study confirmed Vermeer's use of camera obscura:-