Vermeer - The Complete Paintings

Although Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) is widely admired today as one of the greatest European painters, an air of mystery has surrounded his person for centuries, making it difficult to properly situate and fully appreciate his work. The texts that have been published about Vermeer so far mainly approach the 'Sphinx of Delft' from a romantic perspective. Was Vermeer an unknown and misunderstood genius? Did he really use a camera obscura? What was his private life like? What did he think about religion? Who was actually his teacher? Although such questions are quite interesting, the search for the answers has actually only fed the image of the isolated genius, but has provided little new or illuminating information.
This monograph shows you that in reality there is a lot of information about the life and work of the grand master. Work that can be better understood by placing the painter in the context of the Delft school and the Delft community. And by realizing that his view of painting and his way of painting were probably strongly influenced by the fact that one and the same patron bought more than half of his works.