Painted Poetry: The Quiet Beauty of Vermeer in Amsterdam

Painted poetry
The Quiet Beauty of Vermeer in Amsterdam

Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum hosts the largest Vermeer exhibition of all time. photo

© Peter Dejong/AP/dpa

It is a show of superlatives: 28 paintings by the Dutch master Vermeer in one museum. This has never happened before. A unique look into a mysterious, introspective world.

The girl wears an exotic blue turban. The big eyes look questioningly, the mouth shimmers moistly, a matt shiny pearl hangs from the ear. The “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (created 1664-1667) enchants millions worldwide. An enigmatic beauty.

The pictures of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) are painted poetry. He casts a spell over the viewer with colours, light and harmony. “Vermeer takes us into an introspective, silent world,” says the director of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, Taco Dibbits.

If you want to get to the bottom of the secret, then you should do it now. The Rijksmuseum is showing the largest Vermeer exhibition to date from Friday until June 4th. 28 of the 37 works that are still known can be seen. This has never happened before. “It’s now or never,” says Dibbits. Because that it was at all possible to bring together so many of the precious pictures from seven countries borders on a miracle.

The “Sphinx of Delft” is to be deciphered

“Closer to Vermeer” is the motto of the exhibition. The viewer should come closer to the work and the master than ever before. In the run-up to the exhibition, pictures were examined and many new discoveries were made, also about the painter himself – he is called the “Sphinx of Delft”. Because we know very little about him. Yes, not even what he looked like.

Vermeer lived in the rich porcelain town of Delft south of The Hague, a lively center of painting in the early 17th century. His life took place around the old market square. He trained as a master painter and rose socially through his marriage to the wealthy Catholic Catharina Bolnes.

For years everything went fantastic. His paintings were popular and he was also successful in his art trade. Unlike his colleagues such as Rembrandt, Vermeer did not have a large oeuvre. “He painted at most two pictures a year,” says Gregor Weber, Head of Fine Arts at the museum and one of the curators of the exhibition. But Vermeer was not a “tinkerer who spent half a year painting a picture,” says Weber. He had “thought for four months and then painted for a month”.

The new investigations also revealed how Vermeer tweaked the images. In the “Milkmaid” (1658-1659), for example, he painted over a shelf in the background, it was too distracting. Now the scene appears like a still life. In the center is the girl who, deeply absorbed in herself, pours milk from a jug into a bowl. The intense blue of the apron captivates the viewer and doesn’t let him go.

Intimate, quiet moments with young women

Vermeer mainly paints everyday scenes indoors. The attributes indicate wealth and education: glasses, precious carpets, pearls. He probably lived like that himself. Although things can hardly have been quiet in the Vermeer house. The painter and his wife eventually had 14 children.

Vermeer shows intimate quiet moments with young women. You have something in hand. A chain, an instrument, a letter. They are elegant, sensual scenes. Vermeer turns the viewer into a voyeur who, half hidden behind a curtain, observes something that is not intended for his eyes. And the painter seems to be telling a story. only which ones? Who interrupts the music lesson? What’s in the love letter?

“Vermeer was fascinated by the tension between the outside world and the world of the picture,” says curator Pieter Roelofs. Windows, letters, maps or pictures are connections to the outside world for the painter.

Only rarely does he actually paint this outside world like “View of Delft” (1660-1661) – but it too radiates a meditative calm. A boat rocks lazily in the harbour, the water is as smooth as glass. The red roof tiles shine like after a rain shower. Church towers shine in the morning light. For the French novelist Marcel Proust, this was the most beautiful picture in the world.

In 1672 disaster struck. The Dutch Republic was invaded by enemies and the economy collapsed. Vermeer’s art trade was no longer running, and he wasn’t able to sell his own paintings either. In 1675 he died after a short illness, only 43 years old and penniless. He became a victim of “decay and decadence,” his widow later complained.

Vermeer is only rediscovered at the end of the 19th century. His colors and masterful use of light, shadow and perspective earn him worldwide admiration. “He was a master observer of reality,” says Weber.

Vermeer’s paintings are not suitable for fleeting glances. In the Rijksmuseum, the pictures are therefore generously distributed in halls that are elegantly decorated in dark blue. Visitors should have time and space and not have to crowd in front of the often small-format masterpieces. Otherwise you can hardly discover the little secrets. The pearl on the girl’s ear, for example? She is floating.

dpa

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