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Charlotte Mason Picture Study Aid Johannes Vermeer

!e Art of Painting

1665-1668
oil on canvas
130 +&110 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

KEY TOPICS:

• In this piece we see two %gures: a man (possibly Vermeer himsel,) dressed in black with his back to us, seated on
a stool before a canvas on which he is presumably painting the woman or girl standing in front of him

(beginning with her laurel-wreath head covering - white outlines can also be seen on the lower part of the
canvas) with a brush and maulstick in his right hand. !e girl (possibly Vermeer’s oldest daughter, Maria),

wrapped in a piece of thick, blue fabric with a yellow dress beneath it, stands before the light source in the room

- most likely a window behind the thick drapery which dominates the le) side of the picture plane held back by
a wooden chair - and holds a trumpet as well as a heavy, yellow book. In front of her is a table on which rests a

box with straps, a large, plaster cast or mask looking up at the ceiling, several pieces of fabric, and a large
sketchbook. Behind her is a map of the Netherlands hanging on a white plaster wall above a wooden chair and

over both %gures is an ornate, brass chandelier. In the very top of the picture plane we can see a wooden-beamed

ceiling, and the bottom of the piece contains a black-and-white, marble (oor. 5
• !is piece di$ers from Vermeer’s other works in that it is much larger than the canvases he normally used (51

inches wide). It is also di$erent subject matter - while his other works were dominated by scenes from every-day

life (or genre paintings), this piece depicts a uni"ue occasion; that of an artist painting. !e fact that the scene
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is not realistic in that the artist is wearing %ne clothes rather than those in which he might paint and there is no

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