Category Archives: THE VERMEER WOMEN

Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime explores the life of the world famous Dutch artist, Johannes Vermeer. This book reveals observations that have never before been made about his paintings, his life, his friends and his family. This website is dedicated to revealing observations about the life and paintings of Vermeer, and the women featured in his painting — his family. As you will discover in the pages of the book, and in this website, Vermeer was a family man. His paintings are filled with portraits of his wife, Catharina, and his elder daughters. He and his wife produced 15 children during his life, most of whom survived. All but one were girls.

...and other stuff, ART, LIVES, PICTURE POEMS, READING MATTER, The Real Johannes Vermeer, THE VERMEER WOMEN, UNIVERSES, VERMEER REVEALED

MY PERSONAL MONA LISA

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

“Much like Leonardo da Vinci, I worked intermittently on this single painting over a period of many years, never satisfied that it was finished, and continually improving upon the original.  This painting is my personal Mona Lisa, my daughter, Maria.

We had a live-in servant for many years, named Tanneke Everpoel, hired and paid by Maria Thins.  She did all of the “heavy labor”, as it were: cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, carrying water, tending fires, and a myriad other chores, including helping with the children.  However, the expense of paying her wage and room did not include standing for endless hours, day after day, while I painted this portrait!  My daughter, Maria, was lovelier and much more readily accessible for the task of standing for this portrait.

It is argued, convincingly, that the immortal painting by Leonard was his own self-portrait as his own, feminine  reflection. What man, or woman, regardless of sexual preference in a given lifetime, has not inhabited the flesh of ten thousand bodies, some human, many not, through  a nearly infinite cascade of galaxies, stars and planets come and gone.  Is not survival a nearly infinite game, in which we interchange ourselves as the players of many parts?

Leonard kept his portrait with him all his life.  He never considered that it was complete or perfect.  Nor did he ever intend to sell it.  How could one sell a most cherished reflection of himself?  It is more meaningful than one’s own body, which only disguises the inner self, the essence of spirit that animates the fragile flesh.

In fact, a body hides the reflection of the soul!  How can any substance, especially that as rude and fragile as meat, reveal the inherent qualities an immortal nothingness?  Indeed, it is the fundamental challenge and the most formidable task of an artist to reveal it!

The name given to this painting by others, “The Milkmaid”, is a sacrilege!   It rivals the incomprehension others have for Leonardo’s personal masterpiece.  Yet, how can anyone truly understand that a painting is meant to reflect the  essence of an immortal being, seen through the eyes of another?

She is painted with angelic colors: blue, gold and white, in contrast to the menial nature of her station in life.  From her issues, for me, the Milk and Bread of Life.  Life is embodied in her and through her.  Women, are the source of children, the source of energy, the source of care.  There is no more vital responsibility for any being who plays the game of life, than to confront dreary daily tasks.  To humbly make the daily loaf.  To soak that bread, mix and soften it with milk, make it warm and feed it to a teething child.  Survival is made of such things.

In those days I viewed life as idyllic.  My dreams were more real than reality.  All things were a possibility.  Tragedy could not find me.  Until it did, of course.  Even when we lost a child, which we did with several, my wife, Catharina, remained resolute in her Faith.  God guided us.  He did what was best.  We knew not why and need not question His purpose for us.

I have no such faith in predetermination.  A loaf of grain, clean water and a bed was my fare.  Time and a place to paint, uninterrupted, were necessities.  My love, shared with wife and family, was the staple diet of my life.  I assumed, as a Fool who knows not his own mortality, that they would endure, even when I was gone.”

_______________________________________

Excerpt from the book VERMEER: PORTRAITS OF A LIFETIME, by Lawrence R. Spencer

DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK FROM
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/vermeer/id443800993?mt=11 

Share
...and other stuff, ART, INSIDE THE BOOK, READING MATTER, SOUNDS, THE VERMEER WOMEN, VERMEER REVEALED

NEW AUDIO BOOK! VERMEER – PORTRAITS OF A LIFETIME

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I am VERY pleased to announce that the Audible.com production of my book VERMEER: PORTRAITS OF A LIFETIME has been released and is now availabe through AUDIBLE.COM.  The book narration is performed by Mr. Alan Douglas.  Here is a brief overview of the book:

“Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime is a revolutionary reexamination of the mystique and mythology surrounding the 17th Century Dutch Master painter, Johannes Vermeer. For the first time in over 300 years names of people who posed for his paintings are identified. An unknown portrait of Vermeer, painted by his friend, Gerard ter Borch, is exposed. This book is an empathetic retrospective, built on observations that reveal answers to dozens of speculations about his paintings, his wife, his daughters, and contemporaries who were the subjects of his art, and with whom he shared his brief life in Delft. The PDF version of this book includes full color plates of each of the remaining works of Vermeer. The paperback version contains black and white plates of each of his paintings. Researched and written by Lawrence R. Spencer, author and master oil painter who, without training, “remembered” how to paint at the age of 30.

The few existing paintings by Vermeer our priceless works of art, housed in the most prestigious art museums of the world. In July 2004 Vermeer’s painting Young Woman Seated at the Virginals’ was sold at auction for $42 million. The value of an undisputed Vermeer would likely exceed $100,000,000. The authenticity of Young Woman Seated at the Virginals is disputed which explains the relatively low sales price. Because the few authenticated Vermeers are all in museum collections , the only way to acquire a Vermeer is to steal one which happened in 1990. The Concert was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and has not been recovered.”

©2010 – 2099 Lawrence R. Spencer (P)2012 Lawrence R. Spencer

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY FROM AUDIBLE.COM

Coming Soon on iTunes and Amazon.com

...and other stuff, ART, LIVES, The Real Johannes Vermeer, THE VERMEER WOMEN, VERMEER REVEALED

GIRL WITH A PEARLESCENT CAMERA

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

 This picture is a modern spoof on the world famous painting by the 16th century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer.   The girl in the legendary painting (as well as in several other of his paintings) is his second daughter, Elizabeth!  Vermeer never hired models — he painted only family and friends.  It doesn’t take a cosmetic surgeon to compare the features of the women in the majority of his paintings to observe that the same women are being painted in their own home, again and again in different poses, settings, lighting and clothing.  Most of his paintings feature his wife, Catharina, who was not only his constant accomplice in creating a family, she was his foremost ally in his life as an artist!

The painting named (by others), “Girl with a pearl earring”, as well as “The girl with a red hat”, and “The girl with a flute”, and others, are all of his second daughter, Elizabeth, who was a teenager when they were painted.  He used her as the model for a series of very small “tronie” or facial portraits, which were popular at the time.

These miniature “head shots” were especially well suited to the use of the camera obscura to create what we know now to have a photographic quality, rendering the light and perspective differently than the unaided lens of the human eye perceives it.

To learn all of the details about the women who posed for Johannes Vermeer in all of his famous paintings, read the book VERMEER: PORTRAITS OF A LIFETIME, by Lawrence R. Spencer.

DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK FROM iTUNES
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/vermeer/id443800993?mt=11