Johannes Vermeer's Work

Johannes/Jan Vermeer focused on painting portraits and landscapes and was greatly influenced by the Italian Baroque style and the Art school of Antwerp, which shows through in his early works.

However, during the period of 1660-1669, he developed his own technique based upon the use of the camera obscura discovering new and unique ways of enhancing the difference between the light and dark areas in his paintings, also called chiaroscuro. It was during this period when most of his famous paintings came out of his hands.

It wasn't just the way he portrayed the subjects of his paintings which changed over time, but he also perfected the way of his brush strokes through experiments, in order to make it look as realistic as possible. After finishing a painting, he would cover them with a kind of glaze to protect it and add a glossy shine to it.

Even though Johannes Vermeer had married in to wealth, he accumulated a lot of debt during his life. He didn't find many buyers for his paintings outside of Delft and used expensive paint in abundance like ultramarine, which was made from the crushed gemstone lapis lazuli. He used it as an undercoating for his work and was not stingy with it either, while creating his projects.

His unique painting techniques made his work stand out and distinguished him from all the other painters in his time.