[1] Girl with a Pearl Earring is a quiet movie about things not said, opportunities not taken,
potentials not realized, lips unkissed. All of these elements are guessed at by the filmmakers as they
regard a painting made in about 1665 by Johannes Vermeer. The painting shows a young woman
[4] looking at us over her left shoulder. She wears a simple blue headband, a modest smock and a pearl
earring. Her red lips are slightly parted. Is she smiling?
Not much is known about Vermeer, who left about 35 paintings. Nothing is known about his
[7] model. You can hear that it was his daughter, a neighbor, a tradeswoman, but not his lover, because
Vermeer’s household was under the iron rule of his mother-in-law, who was vigilant as a hawk. The
painting has become as intriguing in its modest way as the Mona Lisa. The girl’s face turned toward
[10] us from centuries ago demands that we ask, “Who was she? What was she thinking? What was the artist
thinking about her?”
Tracy Chevalier’s novel speculating about the painting has now been filmed by Peter Webber,
[13] who cast Scarlett Johansson as the girl and Colin Firth as Vermeer. The girl’s name is Griet, according
to this story. She lives nearby and is sent by her blind father to work in Vermeer’s house.
Roger Ebert. Review of girl with a pearl earring. Internet: (adapted).
Judge the item that follow according to the text above.
It is likely that Vermeer’s mother-in-law met the girl shown in the painting.
Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.
His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.
During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.
Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.
Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.
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It took around two centuries for Vermeer’s paintings to be attributed to him again.
Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.
His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.
During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.
Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.
Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.
Judge the item that follow according to the text above.
Some of Vermeer’s paintings are considered strange.
Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.
His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.
During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.
Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.
Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.
Judge the item that follow according to the text above.
Even though there were just a few of them, Vermeer’s paintings proved to be very influential in the history of Dutch painting.
Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.
His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.
During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.
Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.
Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.
Judge the item that follow according to the text above.
Whenever Vermeer’s paintings portray human figures, these individuals are shown performing ordinary tasks.
Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675), a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft all his life, created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art.
His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. He produced meticulously constructed interiors with just one or two figures — usually women. These are intimate genre paintings in which the principal figure is invariably engaged in some everyday activity. Often the light enters Vermeer’s paintings from a window. He was a master at depicting the way light illuminates objects.
During the late 1650s, Vermeer began to place a new emphasis on depicting figures within carefully composed interior spaces. Other Dutch painters painted similar scenes, but they were less concerned with the articulation of the space than with the description of the figures and their actions.
Little is known for certain about Vermeer’s life and career. Not much is known about Vermeer’s apprenticeship as an artist either. After his death, Vermeer was overlooked by all but the most discriminating collectors and art historians for more than 200 years. His few pictures were attributed to other artists. Only after 1866, when the French critic W. Thore-Burger ‘rediscovered’ him, did Vermeer’s works become widely known and his works heralded as genuine Vermeer.
Internet: <www.ibiblio.org>.
Judge the item that follow according to the text above.
Vermeer got his inspiration from poems about women.