Johannes (or Jan) Vermeer was a citizen of the small Dutch town of Delft.
An obsession with detail characterises his paintings, which are superbly precise and skillfully colored.
But it’s often thought that Vermeer’s approach was too meticulous and time-consuming for a professional – he and his family lived a simple life, and when Vermeer died he left a wife and 11 kids in debt.
His small body of work was completely forgotten for over 2 centuries, until a Frenchmen Etienne Thoré wrote a widely published article about Vermeer and his paintings. The art world realised that a true master had been uncovered.
Today Vermeer’s work is hugely popular, and impossible to value. In 2004, the first Vermeer to come up at auction in over 80 years was sold for $30 million (despite the fact that this particular Vermeer has shaky provenance).
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