5 Little-Known Vermeer Paintings To Discover for the First Time
Johannes Vermeer – More Than a Girl with a Pearl Earring
Johannes Vermeer is the beloved 17th-century Dutch painter who created masterpieces such as Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid. These works often steal the show.
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But the master artist’s body of work, while small, has an incredible number of paintings that show a different side of his artistry and deserve time in the spotlight. Here are five hidden gems from Vermeer that aren’t often touted but definitely deserve a keen look.
Diana and Her Companions
Housed in the Hague, Diana and Her Companions is an early work from Vermeer. It shows a mythological scene and is believed to be one of, if not the, earliest work from the artist dated to the early 1650s. The quiet, reflective demeanor of the foreground figures will become a relative constant in his art.
Christ in the House of Mary and Martha
Vermeer painted relatively few works in his time — some 60 in total and only 34 survive. Who would have thought that among them would be a biblical scene? Housed in the National Gallery of Scotland it is the artist’s largest painting (63 in x 56 in).
The Little Street
This master artist is known for his color palette, his intimate interiors and genre scenes that seem to capture an incredibly real slice of life. Not so for land- and cityscapes and yet The Little Street charms just the same.
Perhaps because the colors are rich and varied and the human element invigorating despite the humble activities depicted. Vermeer as a landscape painter. Just imagine the possibilities.
The Love Letter
Vermeer was moderately successful in life and fell into anonymity after his death. It wasn’t until his work was rediscovered in the 19th century that he gained the international acclaim he is known for.
It’s interesting to note that numerous 19th-century artists took up his style and themes. One of which, private moments of women in their households, is shown in The Love Letter. Imagine, 200 years after Vermeer’s death, artists painted to be just like him.
The Geographer
Oftentimes The Geographer gets second billing to The Astronomer though the two, according to a 2017 conservation project, were literally cut from the same bolt of cloth and may be considered pendant paintings, made as a pair. The two paintings, along with The Procuress, are the only works that Vermeer signed.
This article was originally posted in February 2018. It was last updated in August 2023
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Hi Courtney,
Thanks for this wonderful article on Jan Vermeer. Apart from his meticulous attention to detail, his exquisite use of colors (especially blue), what I find fascinating in this Baroque painter, is his excellent spatial sense .. the way he creates that feeling of depth & transition/separation of 2 different spaces in 2 dimensions – is simply amazing. The Little Street is one fine example of this. It’d be interesting to read, what special qualities did these masters have & how did they hone their spatial skills. Was it something to do with the age they lived in or is it just the creative human spirit …
Best,
Sagnik
Hi Courtney,
Thanks for this wonderful article on Vermeer … apart from his attention to details, his most exquisite use of colors (especially blue), what I always found fascinating was his spatial sense – how he could depict depth & a sense of space in 2 dimensions … The Little House is an excellent example of that. It would be interesting to read about what special qualities these masters actually had, that made them so different. Was it a special era they lived in or is it just the creative human spirit.
Sg
Courtney,
I wanted to follow up with you on the criticism you received recently about art and politics. I don’t agree with the critics of your comments. This week, the portraits of President Obama, and Michelle Obama were released by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Firstly, these portraits were the first done by African-American artists for the Smithsonian. Kehinde Wiley, who painted President Obama, posted a comment about his painting, why he chose the botanicals he did, and the nature of the president’s pose. He said he wanted to use the language of painting to arrive at a more inclusive commentary of our own collective potential.
I am amazed at your newsletter, by the way, and look forward to seeing it each day.
thank you,
Jack Hassard
Here is his full comment:
Over the course of the past year, I have had the life-changing honor of painting President Obama’s portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
On Monday, we unveiled it to the world.
I’d like to tell you a bit about it.
In choosing the composition and colors for this painting, I sought to create an allegorical index to President Obama’s life story — using key botanicals that reference his personal presence in the world. Jasmine from Hawaii. Chrysanthemums from Chicago. Blue African Lilies from Kenya.
And the nature of the president’s pose is not sword-wielding or swashbuckling. It’s contemplative. Humble. Open to the world in its possibilities. A man of the people.
As an artist, my practice is the contemporary reinterpretation of painting. I’m inspired by its history, by its mechanical act, and the human stories that can unfold on a physical plane. And what drives me is this notion of a history that is at once welcoming of those human stories — while being dismissive of those that don’t correspond to some accepted notion of respectability.
And my aim was to use the universal language of painting to arrive at a much more inclusive commentary of our own collective potential.
The particular honor of being the first African-American painter to paint the first African-American president has been, for me, beyond any individual recognition.
It is bigger than me, and anything I could gain out of this. It presents a whole field of potential for young people — particularly young black and brown kids who might see these paintings on museum walls and see their own potential.
Art can function in practical, descriptive ways — but it can also inspire in so many resounding multiplicities.
That is my hope for this painting.
Thank you.
– Kehinde Wiley
I LOVED the Valentines post! It made me smile and recall a couple of favorite painters that I haven’t thought of in a while. Vermeer is an all time true favourite, however, so you’re doing great in my books! Looking forward to your future posts.
Hi Courtney,
Thank you once again for your informative and entertaining articles.
Vermeer however is a disappointment from my perspective as his art work was based on the use of a camera obscura, as I understand. To me that means that what we view is not a demonstration of Vermeer’s drawing ability but rather a simple copy.
In my final analysis he is a cheat and a charlatan.
Kind regards, Ernest Treagus
Enraptured to simply gaze even at miniaturized pictures. I wonder what it is like to be face to face with these paintings. I often wonder if we have artists today who can even come close to producing such magnificant pieces of work.
TB, I can’t thank you enough for the support. Today, I really need it. Be well!
I appreciate your commitment to a wide variety of opinions and viewpoints, and not letting people bully you into writing only what they want to see. This attention to all of your readers is why I continue to read each article and enjoy seeing perspectives that perhaps I had not considered before.
Thanks for letting us know, Cendres. I’ll try to continue to provide a mix to keep everyone’s palette satisfied. Thanks again,
Courtney
So true! Claims of being from “the artist’s hand” definitely change like trends. Currently, they are accepted as Vermeers and not of the studio of, but time could definitely change that back again. Thanks!
Thanks for this very interesting post. Of course the three last pictures are well known (at least I knew them) but I ignored that Johannes about whom I wrote a post on my blog(https://apprenez-a-dessiner.com/johannes-van-der-meer-dit-vermeer-de-delft-ou-le-magicien-de-la-lumiere-du-nord/) treated also some religious and biblical subjects. What a surprise… Are we totally sure those two paintings are from Johannes himself oand not from a follower ? Because those two are so far from his others intimist paintings that I wonder at the sight if it could possibly be from another hand. It would not be the very first time and the first Master who would be attributed with artwork done by some of his student as the paintings of this time were seldom signed. Have a brightful day.
Hi Courtney, After the bumpy Valentine’s ride you have wisely retreated to Vermeer, one of the greatest painters in Western or Eastern art. You do an excellent job of expanding your spectrum of offerings from amateur to professional but as you witnessed yesterday, some are brave enough to say, “Leave the identity politics out of art please.” As artists we often want the edgy or the revolutionary but I would rather look at Vermeer’s Milkmaid than a poster of Mao or Che.