I have been studying the works of Vermeer looking closely at his technique and ways of presenting interior to the viewer. I chose to study Vermeer because his paintings are very realistic and informative of a particular era, that is very different from the way we live today. When I visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, I came across Vermeer’s paintings and was surprised by his detailed technique and his tendency to use views through door frames that work like a frame in itself to draw the viewers attention, into the painting to focus the viewer.
Vermeer painted his now famous images in the late 17th century, the age of the Stuart’s. This is demonstrated in his paintings through the style of clothing the subjects are wearing, the decoration and patterns in the interiors, and through the decor. For example hie use of maps and popular imagery of the time, like his reference to pastoral scenes to symbolise sex, as in ‘Women seated at virginal’ and ‘Women standing at virginal’. One of his first paintings, ‘Christ in the house of Mary’ done in 1654-5, is not as famous as those painted from 1668 to 1675. Vermeer died in December 1675 at the age of 43.
I think Vermeer painted what was I front of him, as if recording his life in his paintings. He painted women in interiors; relaxing , reading letters or engaged in dramatic or private tasks. He may have also worked in the way he did because of inspiration gained from numerous artists who visited an inn called ‘Mechelen’, inherited from his father in 1652. In addition, there is the suggestion that Vermeer