Tell Me a Story: Let’s Talk About Vermeer

The Geographer

I arrived late to the I LURV Vermeer camp. It was only after seeing his work live, up close and in person at the Frick Collection in NYC that I was hit by his awesomeness.

Our boy Jan lived from October 31, 1632 to December 16, 1675. He was only 43 when he croaked. 43! He was a fucking child! OK, not a kid but bloody close. Fer reals.

His contemporaries include Rembrandt, Bernini, Velázquez and Caravaggio, amongst others. Gotta say, this ain’t my fave century. I’m, brace, yourselves, not keen on Rembrandt but rather fond of Caravaggio. Vermeer though—Jesus lapis lazuli Christ, he’s IT!

Warum, you might be asking? Just LOOK at how Jan handled light! I mean just take a fucking gander at the beauty there. If that’s not enough to push you over the top into the Vermeer-is-AWESOME crowd, I don’t know what would. Also too, this is coming from an old chicita who usually favors Egon Schiele, Max Beckman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mark Rothko and Jacek Tylicki to name just a few.

The other reason my bean's buzzing around Vermeer this morning is an article in today's CNN's website, Vermeer's 'hidden' Cupid is the enigmatic artist's latest mystery. It's a fascinator.

"It was common sense to think that Vermeer had overpainted this part of his composition because he had done this several times...
Varnish on the stretch of empty wall behind the young girl was a different color, and the consistency of the paint was different too, Koja said. When researchers investigated samples in an archaeometry laboratory, they found dirt hiding in between layers of paint, signaling that someone else had added the overpaint much later."

Back to my buddy Vermeer's work though. Let’s look at a few more of his incredible canvases.

The Art of Vermeer must have been there on the morning of creation.
~ Frederick Sommer