This welcome addition to the highly popular Masters of Art series not only contains every one of Vermeer's authenticated works, but also makes available the most recent scholarly discoveries concerning his life. Particularly noteworthy is the inclusion of the painting Saint Praxedix, which the author has only recently authenticated as an important early work by the artist...

JAN VERMEER"S paintings fascinate us not so much for their subject matter, which is limited, but for the poetic way in which his images are portrayed. A woman pouring milk in a sunlit room, a girl adorning herself with pearls, a gentleman offering a lady a glass of wine such mundane acenes are imbued by the artist with nuances of thought and meaning that are at once universal and mysterious.

This welcome addition to the highly popular Masters of Art series not only contains every one of Vermeer"s authenticated works, but also makes available the most recent scholarly discoveries concerning his life. Particularly noteworthy is the inclusion of the painting Saint Praxedix, which the author has only recently authenticated as an important early work by the artist.

In his absorbing text, Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., Curator of Northern Baroque Painting at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, brings alive the artistic climate of mid-seventeenth-century Delft, and discusses Vermeer"s painting techniques, his use of the camera obscura and his creation of "pictures within pictures".

The 40 colour illustrations are supplemented by 57 black and white reproductions of works by Vermeer"s contemporaries and X-ray studies of his own paintings. The result is a fine introduction to a universally loved master and his art.

Jan Vermeer by Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr.

COLORPLATES

1 CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF MARTHA AND MARY

2 SAINT PRAXEDIS

3 DIANA AND HER COMPANIONS

4 THE PROCURESS

5 A GIRL ASLEEP

6 GIRL READING A LETTER AT AN OPEN WINDOW

7 GIRL READING A LETTER AT AN OPEN WINDOW (detail)

8 THE LITTLE STREET

9 OFFICER AND LAUGHING GIRL

10 THE MILKMAID

11 THE GLASS OF WINE

12 THE GIRL WITH THE WINEGLASS

13 VIEW OF DELFT

14 VIEW OF DELFT (detail)

15 GIRL INTERRUPTED AT HER MUSIC

16 THE MUSIC LESSON or A LADY AT THE VIRGINALS WITH A GENTLEMAN

17 WOMAN IN BLUE READING A LETTER

18 A WOMAN HOLDING A BALANCE

19 WOMAN WITH A PEARL NECKLACE

20 WOMAN WITH A LUTE

21 YOUNG WOMAN WITH A WATER JUG

22 YOUNG WOMAN WITH A WATER JUG (detail)

23 THE GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

24 THE CONCERT

25 A LADY WRITING

26 THE ALLEGORY OF PAINTING

27 THE GIRL WITH A RED HAT

28 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN

29 MISTRESS AND MAID

30 THE ASTRONOMER

31 THE GEOGRAPHER

32 THE LOVE LETTER

33 THE LOVE LETTER (detail)

34 THE LACEMAKER

35 LADY WRITING A LETTER WITH HER MAID

36 ALLEGORY OF THE FAITH

37 THE GUITAR PLAYER

38 A LADY STANDING AT THE VIRGINALS

39 A LADY SEATED AT THE VIRGINALS

40 YOUNG GIRL WITH A FLUTE (Circle of Vermeer)

Notes