, coll. Stadsarchief Delft Relatively little was known about Vermeer's life until recently. He seems to have been devoted exclusively to his art, living out his life in the city of Delft. Until the 19th century, the only sources of information were a few registers, official documents, and comments by other artists; for this reason, Thoré-Bürger named him "The Sphinx of Delft". was from
Antwerp. Digna's father, Balthasar Geerts, or Gerrits (born in Antwerp in or around 1573), led an enterprising life in metalworking, and was arrested for counterfeiting.--> The couple moved to Delft and had a daughter named Gertruy who was baptized in 1620. In 1625, Reijnier was involved in a fight with a soldier named Willem van Bylandt who died from his wounds five months later. Around this time, Reijnier began dealing in paintings. In 1631, he leased an inn, which he called "The Flying Fox". In 1635, he lived on Voldersgracht 25 or 26. In 1641, he bought a larger inn on the market square, named after the Flemish town
Mechelen. The acquisition of the inn constituted a considerable financial burden. When Reijnier died in October 1652, Vermeer took over the operation of the family's art business.
Marriage and family In April 1653, Johannes Vermeer married a
Catholic woman,
Catharina Bolnes (Bolenes). Vermeer's new mother-in-law,
Maria Thins, was initially opposed to the marriage as she was significantly wealthier than he, and it was probably she who insisted that Vermeer convert to Catholicism before the marriage on 5 April. The fact that Vermeer's father was in considerable debt also did not help in discussions on the marriage.
Leonaert Bramer, who was Catholic himself, put in a good word for Vermeer and it was this that led Maria to drop her oppositions. His painting
The Allegory of Faith, made between 1670 and 1672, placed less emphasis on the artists' usual naturalistic concerns and more on symbolic religious applications, including the sacrament of the
Eucharist. Walter Liedtke, in
Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, suggests that it was made for a learned and devout Catholic patron, perhaps for his
schuilkerk, or "hidden church". At some point, the couple moved in with Catharina's mother, who lived in a rather spacious house at Oude Langendijk, almost next to a hidden
Jesuit church. There Vermeer lived for the rest of his life, producing paintings in the front room on the second floor. His wife gave birth to 15 children, four of whom were buried before being baptized but were registered as "child of Johan Vermeer". The names of 10 of Vermeer's children are known from wills written by relatives: Maertge, Elisabeth, Cornelia, Aleydis, Beatrix, Johannes, Gertruyd, Franciscus, Catharina, and Ignatius. Most of these names are those of
saints; the youngest (Ignatius) was likely named after
Ignatius of Loyola.
Career It is unclear where and with whom Vermeer apprenticed as a painter. There is some speculation that
Carel Fabritius may have been his teacher, based upon a controversial interpretation of a text written in 1668 by printer Arnold Bon. Art historians have found no hard evidence to support this. Local authority Leonaert Bramer acted as a friend, but his style of painting is rather different from Vermeer's.
Pieter van Ruijven and his wife,
Maria de Knuijt, were Vermeer's patrons for the better part of the artist's career. In 2023, Maria de Knuijt was identified by the curators of the 2023 exhibition of Vermeer's works at the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam as the main patron because of her long-standing and supportive relationship with the artist. It seems that Vermeer turned for inspiration to the art of the
fijnschilders from Leiden. Vermeer was responding to the market of
Gerard Dou's paintings, who sold his paintings for exorbitant prices. Dou may have influenced
Pieter de Hooch and
Gabriel Metsu too. Vermeer also charged higher than average prices for his work, most of which were purchased by an unknown collector. '' (1660–1661): "He took a turbulent reality, and made it look like Heaven on earth." The influence of Johannes Vermeer on Metsu is unmistakable: the light from the left, the marble floor. (Adriaan Waiboer, however, suggests that Metsu requires more emotional involvement of the viewer.) Vermeer probably competed also with
Nicolaes Maes, who produced
genre works in a similar style. In 1662, Vermeer was elected head of the guild and was reelected in 1663, 1670, and 1671, evidence that he (like Bramer) was considered an established craftsman among his peers. Vermeer worked slowly, probably producing three paintings a year on order.
Balthasar de Monconys visited him in 1663 to see some of his work, but Vermeer had no paintings to show. The diplomat and the two French clergymen who accompanied him were sent to
Hendrick van Buyten, a baker who had a couple of Vermeer's paintings as collateral. In 1671,
Gerrit van Uylenburgh organized the auction of
Gerrit Reynst's collection and offered 13 paintings and some sculptures to
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Frederick accused them of being counterfeits and sent 12 back on the advice of
Hendrick Fromantiou. Van Uylenburg then organized a counter-assessment, asking a total of 35 painters to pronounce on their authenticity, including
Jan Lievens,
Melchior de Hondecoeter,
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, and Johannes Vermeer.
Wars and death '' (1657–1658) , Netherlands In 1672, a severe economic downturn known as the
Rampjaar struck the Dutch Republic, after French troops led by
Louis XIV invaded the country from the south during the
Franco-Dutch War. At the same time, troops from
Münster and
Cologne invaded the country from the east, causing more destruction. Many people panicked; courts, theaters, shops and schools were closed. Vermeer's sale of that year was his last. In the summer of 1675, Vermeer borrowed 1,000 guilders in Amsterdam from Jacob Romboutsz (grandfather of
Hendrick Sorgh), an Amsterdam silk trader, using his mother-in-law's property as a
surety. Vermeer died on 15 December 1675, after a short illness. He was 43 years old, and was buried in the Protestant
Old Church on the same day. In a petition to her creditors, Catharina Bolnes attributed her husband's death to the stress of financial pressures, and described his death as follows: ... during the ruinous war with France he not only was unable to sell any of his art but also, to his great detriment, was left sitting with the paintings of other masters that he was dealing in. As a result and owing to the great burden of his children having no means of his own, he lapsed into such decay and decadence, which he had so taken to heart that, as if he had fallen into a
frenzy, in a day and a half he went from being healthy to being dead. Catharina describes how the collapse of the art market had damaged Vermeer's business as both a painter and an art dealer. She had to raise 11 children and therefore asked the
High Court to relieve her of debts owed to Vermeer's creditors. Pioneering Dutch
microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who worked for the city council as a
surveyor, was appointed
trustee. The house had eight rooms on the first floor, the contents of which were listed in an inventory taken a few months after Vermeer's death. In his
studio, there were two chairs, two painter's easels, three palettes, 10 canvases, a desk, an oak pull table, a small wooden cupboard with drawers, and "rummage not worthy being itemized". Nineteen of Vermeer's paintings were bequeathed to Catharina and her mother. The widow sold two more paintings to
Hendrick van Buyten to pay off a substantial debt. Vermeer had been a respected artist in Delft, but he was almost unknown outside his hometown. A local patron named Pieter van Ruijven had purchased much of his output, which kept Vermeer afloat financially but reduced the possibility of his fame spreading. Several factors contributed to his limited body of work. Vermeer never had any pupils, though one scholar has suggested that Vermeer taught his eldest daughter Maria to paint. Additionally, his family obligations with so many children may have taken up much of his time, as would acting as both an art dealer and inn-keeper in running the family businesses. His time spent serving as head of the guild and his extraordinary precision as a painter may have also limited his output. ==Style==