Johannes Vermeer

1632 – 1675 · died at about 43^[1][2]

Art

Fun Facts About Johannes Vermeer

• Johannes Vermeer is believed to have made fewer than 50 paintings in his whole career, and only 34 of them survive.^[1]
• Vermeer was almost forgotten for two centuries after his death: many of his paintings were credited to better-known artists until his rediscovery began in the 1860s.^[1]
• Vermeer used ultramarine, an extremely expensive pigment made from lapis lazuli, more lavishly than any other 17th-century artist, even putting it beneath earth colors to tint them.^[1]
• The theory that Vermeer painted with a camera obscura remains disputed: the inventory of his belongings drawn up after his death lists no camera obscura or lens.^[1]
• The forger Han van Meegeren sold fake "Vermeers" to the Nazis, then confessed to forgery to avoid being charged with treason.^[1]
• Vermeer's The Concert was stolen in the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft and has never been recovered.^[1]
• Johannes Vermeer was alive at the same time as Galileo Galilei — their lives overlapped for 10 years (1632–1642).^[1][2][3][4]
• Johannes Vermeer and Walt Disney died on the same day of the year, December 15.^[1][2][5][6]

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. During his lifetime, he was a moderately successful provincial genre painter, recognized in Delft and The Hague. He produced relatively few paintings, primarily earning his living as an art dealer. He was not wealthy; at his death, his wife was left in debt.^[1]

Contemporaries

John Locke

43 yr overlap

Christopher Wren

43 yr overlap

Baruch Spinoza

43 yr overlap

Molière

41 yr overlap

Rembrandt

37 yr overlap

Louis XIV

37 yr overlap

Isaac Newton

32 yr overlap

Matsuo Bashō

31 yr overlap

Blaise Pascal

30 yr overlap

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

29 yr overlap

Diego Velázquez

28 yr overlap

Oliver Cromwell

26 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Johannes Vermeer

When was Johannes Vermeer born?

Johannes Vermeer was born in 1632 and died on December 15, 1675.

How old was Johannes Vermeer at death?

Johannes Vermeer died in 1675 at about 43 years old (1632–1675).

What was Johannes Vermeer known for?

Johannes Vermeer was known for: Girl with a Pearl Earring. Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. During his lifetime, he was a moderately successful provincial genre painter, recognized in Delft and The Hague. He produced relatively few paintings, primarily earning his living as an art dealer. He was not wealthy; at his death, his wife was left in debt.

Who was alive at the same time as Johannes Vermeer?

Johannes Vermeer's closest contemporary was John Locke. Their lives overlapped for 43 years.