Vermeer exhibit. "Morning Edition, November 24, 1999 · NPR's Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg reports that a painting by Dutch artist, Johannes Vermeer goes on exhibit today. "The Art of Painting," perhaps one of Vermeer's favorite works from Vienna's Kunsthistoriches Museum, is the focus of a small exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC."Auction Displays Revived Interest in Vermeer. "Weekend Edition Saturday, July 10, 2004 · Until this week, the world had not seen a Johannes Vermeer painting publicly auctioned in 80 years. The small painting "A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals" -- a harpsichord -- sold for $30 million at Sotheby's in London. This is only the 36th known painting by Vermeer. Author Tracy Chevalier was seated squarely in the second row. Her novel Girl with a Pearl Earring and the film based on it brought major attention to the 17th century Dutch master. Chevalier describes the auction to NPR's Susan Stamberg."
Listen to author Tracy Chevalier discuss the movie based on her book, Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Musings
- How do you explain the popularity of Vermeer's Girl with a Gold Earring (called the "Mona Lisa of the North")? You can read about the painting at Wikipedia.
- View and read about other Vermeer paintings at Wikipedia, and speculate on the role you feel that simplicity or calmness plays in his paintings. What do you think it means that at the center of this simplicity or calmness is so often a woman?
- Wikipedia has a fairly long article on still of painting known as still life, a genre at which the Dutch like Vermeer excelled. What do you feel is the appeal of this genre--and what, if anything, does that appeal have to do either with the objects themselves? For example, do you think that these are objects intended (or valued) for consumption--why, why not?
