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The Artist Produced by Unz.Org Electronic THE ARTIST BY JAN VERMEER The only known picture in wliicli Vermeer is supposed to have paijited his own portrait PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED A VIEW OF DELFT, BY JAN VERMEER Vermeer of Delft By Edward Verrall Lucas OT long ago the papers contained paragraph, but among the special news— a little paragraph stating that something with which to agitate the cables N Hear Bredius, the Curator of the of the world. Mauritshuis Gallery at The Hague, had Can you conceive of a more delightful just returned from a journey of explora­ existence than that, of Heer Bredius—-to tion in Russia, bringing back with him be when at home the conservator of such over a hundred valuable pictures of the masterpieces as hang in the Mauritshuis, Dutch school which he had discovered on the banks of the Vyver, in the beautiful there in country and city mansions and and bland Dutch capital (some of which even in farm-houses ; for the Russian col­ are his own property and only lent to the lectors of the seventeenth and eighteenth gallery), and, when in mind to travel, to centuries, as is well known, greatly leave The Hague with a roving commission esteemed and desired (as who must not ?) to hunt for and acquire new treasures ? Dutch art. That was all that the para­ I can't. And that is why, when I am graph said, and, since that was all, we may asked who I would choose to be were I feel quite sure that amongthose hundred not myself, I say, Heer Bredius, of the and more pictures there was nothing from Mauritshuis. the divinely gifted hand of Jan Vermeer And yet, if I had Mr. Pierpont Morgan's of Delft; because the discovery of a new wealth, I would—but let us consider first picture by Jan Vermeer of Delft would be the life and work of Jan Vermeer of Delft. something not merely for mention in a Jan Vermeer, or van der Meer, was bora 477 PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 478 THE OUTLOOK in Delft and oaptized there on October 31, to elect a starving man to the post of 1632. His father was Reymer Janszoon chief four several times. No, if Vermeer Vermeer, and his mother Dingnums Bal- owed money to his baker, it was because thasars. In 1653 he married, also in he was easy-going, placid, above such Delft, Catherina Bolnes, or Bolenes. How trifles, as other artists have been before many children they had I do not know, and since; indeed, occasionally still are, I but eight survived him. It is generally am told. You can see that Vermeer was believed that Karel Fabritius, himself a placid ; the fact shines in every picture. pupil of Rembrandt and a painter of He was placid, and he liked others to be extraordinary distinction, was Vermeer's placid too. His wife was placid, his instructor; but the period of tuition must daughters (if, as I conjecture, certain of have been very short, for Fabritius became his models were his daughters) were placid, a member of the Delft Guild in 1652, his sitters were placid. His one land­ before which he might not teach, and he scape shows that he wanted nature to be was dead in 1654, killed by a powder placid ; his one street scene has the dove explosion. brooding upon it. When we put in one Dr. Hofstede de Groote, the author of balance the debt for bread, and in the other a magnificent monograph on Vermeer and the very slender output of the famous Fabritius, published in 1907-8, conjec­ artist, to whom collectors came even from tures Vermeer to have had an Italian distant France with heavy purses, we are master as well as a Dutch, and it is easy face to face with a difficulty ; because even . to believe. The '' Diana and her Nymphs'' placid men, when they become chiefs of at The Hague, and the " Christ in the guilds, do not much care for continual House of Martha and Mary " (which I reminders that they owe money, and in have seen only in reproduction) both have such a small town as Delft Vermeer and Italian characteristics. his baker would have had some difficulty The facts about Vermeer are singularly in not often meeting. Moreover, what few, considering the high opinion in which of the butcher ? And the vintner ? The he was held by contemporaries. Almost inference, therefore—especially when it is the only intimate thing told of him is the remembered that the baker occasionally story of his unpaid bread bill, as recounted agreed to be paid in kind and hang we by de Monconys, the French traveler. know not which of the masterpieces on De Monconys visited him in 1663 and his wall—the inference, therefore, is that wanted to buy a picture, but none could Vermeer painted, was forced by necessity be found in the artist's house. Vermeer's to paint, many pictures in excess of the baker, however, consented to sell one thirty that are at the present moment which was hanging on his wall, and for identifiable. Of this more later; but I which he had allowed 300 gulden. After want to bring out the point here, since it Vermeer's death, it is told, the baker's is of the highest- importance in under­ debt of 3,176 florins was liquidated by standing his work. two pictures. Since Vermeer's wife is When I add that Vermeer died in De­ known to have had rich relations and to cember, 1675, at the early age of forty- have come into money from time to time, three, and that his executor was Antony we may guess this gigantic account to van Leeuwenhoek, the inventor of the have been the result rather of bad man­ microscope (and probably his sitter in agement than of poverty; for of all the several pictures), I have said all that is painters of the world none less suggests known for certain of his personal life and necessity than Jan Vermeer of Delft; career. on the contrary, his work carries with it On a recent journey on the track of the idea of aristocracy and prosperity, Vermeer we began at Vienna; and there certainly a fastidiousness rarely associated was a certain propriety in doing so, for with the struggle for existence. More­ in the Vienna Vermeer the artist is sup­ over, we are told that his prices, even when posed to have painted himself—the only he was alive, were higher than those of known picture in which he did so, and to any painters save Gerard Dou, and such a begin with a concept of him was interest­ guild as that of Delft would not be likely ing and proper. The " Maler," as it is PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED VERMEER'S "THE PEARL NECKLACE A radiant picture in Vermeer's most delightful style called, is at Count Czernin's, a comfort­ " Girl's Head," but it is brilliant and sat­ able mansion at No. 9 Landesgericht isfying. It does not give me such pleas­ Strasse, open to visitors only on Mondays ure as certain others to be named later, and Thursdays. The picture may not but it is in some ways perhaps finer. have such radiance as the " Pearl Neck­ Vermeer is seated at his ease, with his lace " at Berlin, or such charm as the back to the world—a largish man with " Woman Reading a Letter " at the Ryks, long hair under a black velvet cap and or such sheer beauty as the Mauritshuis the careful costume of a man who can 8 479 PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 480 THE OUTLOOK pay for his bread. Nor does the studio was his incorrigible fastidiousness, his suggest poverty. The artist is at work preference for the distinguished and ra­ on the head of a demure darr.sel whom diant to the exclusion of all else, that he he has posed near the window, with the cannot make them either ugly or objec­ light falling upon her, of course from the tionable. The procuress is a Vermeer left. The little mousy thing has a wreath among procuresses, the courtesan a Ver­ of leaves, in her hair and a large book meer among courtesans. The fascination held to her breast; in her right hand is a of the canvas, though totally different long musical instrument. On the wall is from that of any other of his works, is the most fascinating map that the artist equal in its way. It has a large, easy painted—with twenty little views of Dutch power as well as being a beautiful and towns in the two borders. Vermeer was daring work of color. the first to see the decorative possibilities The other Dresden picture is also a that lie in cartography; and he was also, little off Vermeer's usual road. The sub­ one conjectures, ageographer by inclination. ject is familiar : the Dutch girl reading a We went next to Dresden, which has letter by a table on which are the customary two Vermeers and a light and restful cloth and a dish of apples ; the light comes hotel, the Bellevue, very agreeable to through the same window and falls on the repose in after our caravanserai at Vienna. same white wall; but the tone of the work The famous Raphael is, of course, Dres­ is distinct, somber green prevailing. den's lodestar, and next come the Cor- Next Berlin.
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