Vermeer

Many believe the depiction of the painter in Vermeer's Art of Painting (1666-68) to be a self-portrait.

Johannes Vermeer, also known as Jan van der Meer, was born in 1632 in Delft, a small town near The Hague that was home to a busy art scene. Very little is known of his life other than general facts — his father was a silkworker, he worked as an artist for a period of around 20 years while also working as an art dealer, he married and converted to Catholicism, and he died in poverty. He painted just around 36 works in his lifetime.

Although he was well-known within Delft during his lifetime, following his death his work fell into obscurity, and it was not until the nineteenth century that he was rediscovered, after which he came to be considered one of the major European masters of his period. Like his contemporaries Rembrandt van Rijn, Carel Fabritius, and Frans Hals, Vermeer was a member of the Dutch Golden Age of Art, and like them he mainly painted genre works such as interior scenes and portraits.

Vermeer’s works specifically are known for their great attention to details and light, possibly achieved through the use of a camera obscura that helped him gain a greater understanding of perspective, as well as for his focus on Dutch women and their everyday lives.