Vermeer

by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

Henri Matisse, one of the pioneering masters of twentieth-century art, was an extremely versatile and productive artist. Throughout his long career from the 1830s to his death in 1954, his art was nourished by a variety of movements: Neoclassicism, Realism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism. He was an outstanding draftsman and sculptor, but was most widely recognized and loved for his vibrant and colourful paintings, which are the focus of this book. In his short lifetime of only thirty-seven years from 1864 to 1901, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec created work that has become iconic of popular Parisian life during the time in which he lived - the theatre, the circus, dance halls, cafes, and brothels. His work is brimming with the emotion and atmosphere of such famous locales as the Moulin Rouge, rendered in a style influenced by the Impressionists but distinguished by his own distinct and masterly handling of line. Jan Vermeer's mysterious and poetic paintings have continued to fascinate us. The recent Hollywood film which took its title from the painting - The Girl with a Pearl Earring - attests to the lasting power that fills his simple, studied, everyday scenes. attributed Saint Praxedis.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 6, 1988

About the author

Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. is the curator of the Northern European Art Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. and professor of art history at the University of Maryland. He has lectured widely and written extensively on Dutch and Flemish art.

Reviews

[Snehal Bhagat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains reproductions of all the paintings of the Dutch master, accompanied by commentaries. Also has a introductory section on the artist's life and times.

If we do not know much about Vermeer, it is likely because he never had any students and nor did he attain great success during his own life-time. If anything, things seem to have got worse as he grew older and it appears that towards the end he worked in relative obscurity, lived in penury, and died in debt. Not an uncommon story in the art world of course, where dying seems to be a necessary prerequisite to enhance the value of an artist's work. His subsequent fame however is well-deserved, for limited as his oeuvre was, it is extremely impressive, particularly his early work, which is breathtakingly beautiful art.