The Art of Painting by Johannes Vermeer Postcard

The Art of Painting (Allegory of Painting) by Johannes Vermeer, c. 1666, is the artist’s second largest and most elaborate composition, depicting an art studio interior with painter painting a model. Believed to be a complex allegory of the art of painting, the model wears a crown of laurel leaves, holding a trumpet and a large book. The painter, seen only from behind, is likely a self-portrait. On the wall behind them is a detailed map of the Netherlands, a trompe l'oeil curtain drawn across the foreground of the picture plane. Johannes (Jan) Vermeer (1632 - 1675) was a Dutch master painter of interior genre scenes whose works were rediscovered in the 19th century. In carefully constructed, geometric compositions drawn in meticulous linear perspective, Vermeer explored the effects of light and colour across human figures, objects and textures in sunlit, domestic rooms, building upon the optical discoveries and 3D perspectival depth of Leonardo and the Renaissance. Both a painter and an art dealer, Vermeer slowly produced a few of his painstakingly executed, richly pigmented compositions per year, living entirely within his home city of Delft, eschewing the fame of his near contemporaries Rubens and Rembrandt that he achieved finally in the modern era.