Johannes Vermeer is known for his radiant and meticulously detailed scenes of middle-class domestic life. Paintings such as Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665) and The Milkmaid (c. 1658) are recognised all over the world and attract huge numbers of visitors to the galleries that own them. Girl with a Pearl Earring in fact, is one of the best-known paintings in the world, since the film version of Tracy Chevalierís novel about the painting was released in 2003.

Less well known, however, are the Delft-born artistís early works, from the years before he found his form as a genre painter and was still experimenting with style, subject and scale. The Young Vermeer, which opens at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh on December 10, brings together three early paintings with the aim of shedding light on Vermeer’s development as an artist.

Tico Seifert, senior curator of Northern European art at the National Galleries and the man responsible for The Young Vermeer during its sojourn in Edinburgh (the exhibition has already been on display in the Hague, the Netherlands, and in Dresden, Germany), explained that although the paintings have been exhibited together before as part of larger Vermeer shows, it was ìvery temptingî to put together an exhibition that would focus on these works alone.

ìNormally people think of a different sort of Vermeer painting, so the idea of bringing together the rather unknown early work of his was very attractiveî, says Seifert.
The three paintings that make up The Young Vermeer are Diana and her Companions (c. 1653-54), Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (c. 1654-55) and The Procuress (1656). Although this latter painting is the only one of the three that is dated, because the Diana and Christ pieces are signed by the painter, art historians feel fairly confident dating them too. As with a great deal of art history, their theories are based on a combination of educated guesswork and documentary evidence rather than solid fact. In this case, we know that Vermeer was only allowed to sign his work once he had been officially registered with the artistsí guild, which he joined in 1653. Given that The Procuress is ìstylistically closeî to the Diana and Christ paintings, yet ìalready one step further down the road to the Vermeer we know bestî, experts believe it was the last of the three to be painted and that therefore Diana and Christ were produced between 1653 and 1656.

While the Vermeer we know best painted scenes of domestic life ñ servants working in well-to-do homes, young ladies reading love letters and practising musical instruments, academics working on their theories ñ as a young man, the artist was busy trying his hand at the most fashionable artistic subjects of the time. Or at least thatís how the theory goes, explains Seifert.

ìIf you look at the 17th-century and the hierarchy of subjects, then history painting was at the top. So quite a lot of painters, not only Vermeer, tried to start as history painters, because the reputation was the best, the paintings were the best priced. He obviously tried to establish himself as a history painter and only then went into genre pieces.

It is tempting to see The Procuress as the work that bridges the gap between young and mature Vermeer: its large scale is reminiscent of that typically used in history paintings (the enormous Christ in the House of Martha and Mary included); yet its subject matter is everyday, as with the later genre paintings. The Procuress features a lower grade of Delft society than that seen in later paintings, but the artist is clearly shifting towards the style of work that would, so many years after his death, bring him worldwide fame.

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary and Diana and her Companions may appear radically different from the paintings that Vermeer is famous for, but Seifert is quick to point out the early clues of the mastery to come. In Christ, for example, Vermeer is “very much engaged with the depiction of light, and light is something that really links the whole of Vermeerís oeuvre together. The problem of depicting light and colour and the relationship of light and colour, light and shade in a painting, is something that he is working on and struggling with in these early paintings”.

“Normally these early works are somewhat overlooked and almost detached from the rest of the Vermeer family,” says Seifert, delighted to be able to rectify the situation and give these paintings the attention they deserve. “He’s trying to find his own very particular and characteristic way and I think heís achieving this already in these very early paintings.”

The Young Vermeer is at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK, from December 10 to March 13 2011. www.nationalgalleries.org


Gabriel Metsu – A master rediscovered
Another master of the Dutch Golden Age, Gabriel Metsu experienced considerable success in his lifetime, selling work for high prices in the Netherlands and abroad. Metsu was a contemporary of Vermeer’s, but usurped him in popularity well into the 18th and 19th-centuries; Vermeer’s work was sometimes even attributed to him in this period. This exhibition brings together 35 pieces, including some of the best examples of Golden Age painting, such as The Sick Child (c. 1664) and Woman reading a letter (1665).
Gabriel Metsu – A Master Rediscovered is at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from December 16 to March 20, 2011.
www.rijksmuseum.nl

Karel Kreta (1610–1674): His times and work
While both Vermeer and Metsu only dabbled briefly in the historical and allegorical subjects that feature so heavily in much of Baroque painting, the Czech artist Karel kréta embraced this kind of work, and is acknowledged in some quarters as the founder of Baroque painting in Bohemia. This is the largest ever show of kréta’s work and also includes paintings by his son, students and workshop assistants, as well as paintings from other Baroque traditions that inspired him in his artistic practice.

Karel kréta (1610–1674): His Times and Work is at the Wallenstein Riding School Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic, from November 26 to April 10, 2011