History Creator / JohannesVermeer

* BottleEpisode: The majority of his paintings show the same small rooms in his house in Delft and often feature the same people, mostly women.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: His early works have biblical themes, such as "Christ in the house of Martha and Maria" and "Diana and her Nymphs".

!! Johannes Vermeer provides examples of:

* CreatorCameo: The painter on "The Art Of Painting" might be a self portrait, according to some art historians. The same has been said of the man with the blue costume and black beret on "The Procuress".

* MundaneMadeAwesome: Vermeer's paintings depict everyday people in domestic settings, doing everyday things like making lace, drinking wine or pouring milk, but are done so breathtakingly realistic that they are amazing to look at.

!!Johannes Vermeer in popular culture
* Creator/SalvadorDali was obsessed with Vermeer's work. He used the central figure of "The Allegory Of Painting" in his own surreal work "The Ghost Of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As A Painting" (1934). [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Vermeer_of_Delft_Which_Can_Be_Used_As_a_Table]]
* The character Charles Swann in Creator/MarcelProust's ''In Search Of Lost Time'' is working on an extended essay concerning Vermeer's art.
* Tracy Chevalier's novel ''Literature/GirlWithAPearlEarring'' (1999), which was made into a 2003 film ''Film/GirlWithAPearlEarring'' starring Creator/ScarlettJohansson. Creator/ColinFirth portrays the iconic painter.
* Russel Hoban's novel ''Literature/TheMedusaFrequency'' spoofs "Girl With A Pearl Earring" on the cover. This is a reference to the character Hermann Orff, who has a slight obsession with Vermeer.
* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'': "The Milkmaid" ("Quaint Painting") and "Girl With A Pearl Earring" ("Wistful Painting") are purchasable from Crazy Redd.
* ''WesternAnimation/CarmenSandiego'': "The Duke of Vermeer Caper" is about the fictional theft of "Woman in Blue Reading A Letter" from the Rijksmuseum. It's explained that while Vermeer painted rather mundane subject matter, he did so with impressive attention to detail, which is why his paintings are so highly valued.
* ''Film/TheLastVermeer'' revolves around art forger Han van Meegeren and the trial around whether he collaborated with the Nazis, involving the sale of "Christ and the Adulteress" for the sum of 1.6 million guilders.
* ''Literature/ChasingVermeer'' by Blue Balliett is a mystery novel that revolves around two children working to find the painting ''A Lady Writing'' after it is stolen en route to an exhibition and mysterious letters and newspaper ads allegedly from the thief begin appearing inviting people to try and solve the mystery.

Johannes Vermeer (October 1632 – December 1675) was a Dutch 17th century painter who, together with Creator/RembrandtVanRijn and Frans Hals is one of the most famous Dutch painters of all time. His work is considered to be among the finest examples of realistic painting, especially the way he used color and the illusion of light in his work. Most of his life is ShroudedInMyth. About all that’s known about him is that he was married to a woman named Catharina with whom he had eleven surviving children, he was raised Protestant but converted to Catholicism when they got married, and he died young and heavily in debt. We also do not know what he looked like. The man on the far left of ''The Procuress'' is thought but not conclusively proven to be him. This mysteriousness only adds to his almost inhumanly perfect painting.

Only about three dozen of his paintings have survived to this day. In March 1990, one (''The Concert'') was stolen out of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston by two men pretending to be police officers. It’s never been seen since and the case has stumped the FBI for over 30 years, although they believe the painting has never left the US. Valued at over $250 million, it’s the world’s most valuable stolen object.

* CreatorCameo: The painter on "The Art Of Painting" might be a self portrait, according to some art historians. The same has been said of the man with the blue costume and black baret on "The Procuress".

* ImpoverishedPatrician: He came from a middle-class merchant background but died heavily in debt. He inherited a significant debt from his father but it was compounded by war, a recession, being spread thin among different endeavors (running an inn, heading a guild, dealing art, among others), and having to be the provider for 11 children and various in-laws. His wife was relieved of some of it by a court after he died and was able to sell his art to cover more of it.
* ImprobablyFemaleCast: Vermeer painted mostly women, hardly any men, children, older people or animals.

* MassiveNumberedSiblings: He had eleven surviving children and his wife is thought to have given birth to fifteen total children. At the time, families of that size were outside the norm in the Dutch Republic with the average family having three or four children.

* RealLife: His major claim to fame is the way he managed to make almost photorealistic paintings. It has been suggested that he used a camera obscura to pull this off, but even then it's fabulously impressive.
* RiddleForTheAges: Who taught Vermeer how to paint? Historians still debate the identity of Vermeer's instructor; some theorize [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carel_Fabritius Carel Fabritius]] or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Bloemaert Abraham Bloemaert]] trained Vermeer. Some guessed that Vermeer maybe even [[TaughtByExperience taught himself how to paint]].

* StarvingArtist: Vermeer was this by the time he died. Vermeer's surviving family was left in debt, he used expensive pigments to mix his paints, he didn't sell many paintings during his life and an economic downturn in 1672 hurts his livelihood more.

'''Johannes Vermeer in popular culture'''

Johannes Vermeer (October 1632 – December 1675) was a Dutch 17th century painter who, together with Creator/RembrandtVanRijn and Frans Hals is one of the most famous Dutch painters of all time. His work is considered to be among the finest examples of realistic painting, especially the way he used color and the illusion of light in his work. Most of his life is ShroudedInMyth. Not much is known about his private life, let alone what he might have looked like. This only adds to the mystery of his almost inhuman perfect painting.

His work ''Art/GirlWithAPearlEarring'' has its own page. He is furthermore best known for "The Allegory Of Painting", "The Milk Maid", "View of Delft", "Girl With Wine Glass", "The Lacemaker" and "The Love Letter".

* ImprobablyFemaleCast: Vermeer painted mostly women, hardly any men, children, older people or animals.

* ''Film/TheLastVermeer'' revolves around art forger Han van Meegeren and the trial around whether he collaborated with the Nazis, involving the same of "Christ and the Adulteress" for the sum of 1.6 million guilders.

* ''Film/TheLastVermeer'' revolves around art forger Han van Meegeren and the trial around whether he collaborated with the Nazis.

* ''Western/Animation/CarmenSandiego'': "The Duke of Vermeer Caper" is about the fictional theft of "Woman in Blue Reading A Letter" from the Rijksmuseum. It's explained that while Vermeer painted rather mundane subject matter, he did so with impressive attention to detail, which is why his paintings are so highly valued.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: His early works have biblical themes, such as "Christ in the house of Martha and Maria" and "Diana and her nymphs".

* Tracy Chevalier's novel ''Literature/GirlWithAPearlEarring'' (1999), which was made into a 2003 film ''Film/GirlWithAPearlEarring'' starring Creator/ScarlettJohansson. In this movie Creator/ColinFirth portrays the iconic painter.

Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) was a Dutch 17th century painter who, together with Creator/RembrandtVanRijn and Frans Hals is one of the most famous Dutch painters of all time. His work is considered to be among the finest examples of realistic painting, especially the way he used color and the illusion of light in his work. Most of his life is ShroudedInMyth. Not much is known about his private life, let alone what he might have looked like. This only adds to the mystery of his almost inhuman perfect painting.

'''Johannes Vermeer''' (1632-1675) was a Dutch 17th century painter who, together with Creator/RembrandtVanRijn and Frans Hals is one of the most famous Dutch painters of all time. His work is considered to be among the finest examples of realistic painting, especially the way he used color and the illusion of light in his work. Most of his life is ShroudedInMyth. Not much is known about his private life, let alone what he might have looked like. This only adds to the mystery of his almost inhuman perfect painting.

'''Johannes Vermeer''' (1632-1675) was a Dutch 17th century painter who, together with Creator/RembrandtVanRijn and Frans Hals is one of the most famous Dutch painters of all time. His work is considered to be among the finest examples of realistic painting, especially the way he used color and the illusion of light in his work. Most of his life is ShroudedInMyth. Not much is known about his private life, left alone what he might have looked like. This only adds to the mystery of his almost inhuman perfect painting.