Less than two score of Vermeer’s pictures are known to us today, and, of these, eight or nine are now in the United States. Any one of them is worth a fortune. In this case artistic and commercial values go together. Little is known about Vermeer. The dates of his birth and death (1632-1675) have been found in his native Delft. There he lived and worked for forty-three years. An early traveler, describing Delft, mentions Vermeer, and states that his pictures were much sought after. They were originally valued at six hundred livres, equivalent to about one hundred and fifty dollars, in those days considered a large sum. Vermeer’s family was large, and he was fairly prosperous. But after his death, for some unknown reason, he seems soon to have been forgotten. Houbraken, the chronicler of the Dutch painters, did not mention him, and this neglect possibly accounts partly for the oblivion into which his work sank.

The reason why Vermeer’s contemporary fame was not greater is not far to seek. The Dutch artists were all finished craftsmen. De Hooch, Terborch, and Metsu are painters of the same high rank as Vermeer. Jan Steen, the Van Ostades, and some of the lesser men were hardly inferior. Moreover, not only was there little traveling on the part of the art patrons in those days, but the artist could seldom think of moving from one town to another because he would have had to purchase burgher-rights and guild-rights in each new place of residence. After settling, and having once established a demand for their pictures, we seldom find the Dutch artists moving on to evils they knew not of in other cities. In consequence, the artist’s fame, however well-deserved, rarely spread beyond a very limited range. Vermeer’s early death and the small number of pictures finished by him prevented his work from being widely known, and contributed more than anything else to its being soon forgotten.

In 1866, interest in Vermeer revived through the publications of E. T. J. Thore, who wrote under the pen name of W. Bûrger. The greater part of Vermeer’s pictures consist of light-flooded interiors, with usually but a single figure. Sometimes a “Music Lesson” will show master and pupil, but seldom are there more than three or four figures. There are two famous outdoor scenes—the smaller in the Jan Six Collection at Amsterdam, the larger in the Maritshuis (marits-heuse) at The Hague. Then there are three or four portraits, surrounded by atmosphere, and brilliant in lighting. Lastly there are a few canvases very different from any of these others, painted with a broad brush on a larger scale and with great fluency. This seems to be the style towards which Vermeer was changing when he died. Five of this artist’s pictures were shown at the Hudson-Fulton Exhibition. The one in the Altman Collection has suffered seriously through cleaning and restoration, and is not so fine as the subject of this gravure.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 9. SERIAL No. 157
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK

SALOME, BY REGNAULT

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Henri Regnault

FIVE