The Dutch master, Johannes
Vermeer, bequeathed only 35 paintings to posterity, though some are undoubtedly
lost, and others have been judged spurious. Still, in an age where painters
needed to flatter the nobility to obtain a constant stream of commissions,
Vermeer seems to have painted slowly and somewhat grudgingly. He remained in
debt his entire life and left his family—including eleven children—harried with
misfortune, his wife forced to peddle off his remaining canvases for paltry
sums. We know almost nothing about his personal life or ideas except what
trickles down to us from his paintings. What they seem to tell us is that
Vermeer cared little for politics or history, much less current events; he
painted a world untouched by turmoil or intrigue, where only love letters
intruded on the shadows and solitude of domestic life.
