Jan vermeer paintings girl in hyacinth

Similar to the ability of literature to captivate the reader through words, paintings inspire an overflow of emotions through colors and lines. Many artists were and still are being inspired by the pictorial quality of different literary works. These artists manage to look beyond the words into the wells of emotions and bring them to life on canvas, producing artworks that are almost always as exceptional as the source of inspiration.

Similarly, many literary works center around famous paintings, especially the still-lifes of enigmatic nature. This inspires Susan Vreeland to trace down the ownership history of a fictional Vermeer masterpiece in her story collection Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Susan Vreeland is an American writer and novelist who was born in Wisconsin in January 20, and died at the age of 71 in August 23, Her fascination with art is revealed in most of her works where she traces the strong connection between art and fiction and the powerful impact that art can have on our lives.

Vreeland also expresses her admiration of antiques, which is another driving factor for her art fiction. In Artemisia, she gives voice to the Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi who was raped at the age of seventeen by her art teacher. This passion extends to the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, which is shown in her Girl in Hyacinth Blue where the events revolve around an lost painting for him.

Johannes Vermeer is one of the most famous artists of the Dutch Baroque period. In Octoberhe was born to a middle-class family in Delft, the Netherlands. Unfortunately, very little is known about his personal life and almost nothing about how he became an artist. Even the nature of his art training and the name s of his art teacher s remain a mystery Wheelock.

Many of these paintings got lost after his death and so the world only came to know the thirty-four paintings that survived. Starting his career in the midth century, Vermeer painted Biblical and Mythological scenes following the lead of the Old Masters. However, as he started gaining recognition and with the climax of the Dutch Golden Age, he shifted his focus to painting domestic interior scenes from everyday life.

Jan vermeer paintings girl in hyacinth: "Girl in Hyacinth Blue"

He became well known for his artistry in the still-lifes where the use of rich colors and the contrast between light and shadows render them exceptional. Vermeer also adapted a special technique in his paintings, making them share some common features. He painted the checkerboard tiles in most of his still-lifes to create dimension, and placed a window almost always on the left to serve as the source of light.

In her book, Vreeland honors Vermeer by creating a painting that follows his techniques and includes many of the common features that can be found in most of his paintings. Girl in Hyacinth Blue is what H. Told in reverse chronological order, the book is a collection of eight interlinked stories that follow this imaginary painting back in history to when Vermeer paints it.

Unlike writers that center their narrative on a painting that exists in real life, like Chevalier in her Girl With Pearl Earring, Vreeland invents her own painting of Vermeer in this book. However, it makes the reader wonder why she did not build her stories around one of these existing painting. It gave her the flexibility of being able to fashion the characters and create the events the way she wanted, without being bound by the facts that surround a real Vermeer painting.

The calmness of the scene in the painting, the window on the left letting in the warm light of Delft and the girl sitting in profile looking out of the window makes it seem like a lost Vermeer. She sets almost every vignette in a significant period in the history of the Netherlands, and links the painting with these periods. The story is set in present-time America and mostly narrated by his colleague Robert, an art teacher, which gives more depth to the story.

In this vignette, the painting represents a dark past and a crime that cannot be forgotten. From the very beginning, the death of Dean Merrill sets the gloomy tone of the story and foreshadows the inevitable end to come. Therefore, driven by the feeling of selfishness that he is keeping a masterpiece from the eyes of the world and his longing for enjoying it with someone that can appreciate it, he invites Robert to his house to see it.

This leads to the revelation of the secret attached to the painting and eventually to its destruction. For Cornelius, the painting is a physical representation of a crime committed by his father. His job was to take the Jewish families from their homes to the concentration camps where they were executed. During the Raid of the Two Thousand inand amidst all the violence and cruelty, the beauty of the painting hanging on the wall in a Jewish family house beguiled him.

Therefore, the painting stands as a reminder of that day when thousands of innocent lives were taken. During the Holocaust, many art collections had to be deposited from the Jewish houses and were later displayed in museums with their provenance being unknown to the viewers. However, the painting was not the only thing that he tried to keep a secret.

Jan vermeer paintings girl in hyacinth: The "lost Vermeer" painting in Susan

He advised Cornelius to hide their German identity by telling his school friends that we were Swiss Their possession of a Dutch masterpiece cannot be justified without revealing the dark secret that accompanies it. With inheriting the painting, Cornelius inherits the guilt, solitude and fear that comes with it. The painting is also a source of an inner conflict for Cornelius.

In it we see the back of a painter, brush in hand, studying a young girl in blue, holding a book, who stands by a window. Scene-by-scene the story takes you back in time, following through the centuries the owners of the painting which author Susan Vreeland imagines Vermeer was painting. First, we meet a maths master who has a secret. A painting, inherited from his father, which came to him in the Second World War.

The painting is passed from owner to owner, sometimes as an inheritance or gift, sometimes as payment of a debt, sometimes stolen. But there were also dissenters. Art critic Jonathan Jones published a takedown in The Guardianwhere he accused Jenison that he actually copied a poster with a reproductionbut not the masterpiece by Vermeeras the original painting was in Buckingham Palace and was not at his disposal.

The result of the seven-month work of Tim Jenison: "almost" Vermeer. He also recalled that Teller and Penn — the director and producer of the movie "Tim's Vermeer" - are a popular duo of illusionists on American television. Vermeer: Master of Light, The most scrupulous and aesthetic documentary dedicated to the work of Vermeer. The film contains valuable close-ups of original picturesallowing to view them in the smallest detailincluding intricate craquelures.

His efforts were recognized by nominating for the American Emmy Awardthat recognizes excellence in the television industryin categories "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Direction" and "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Graphic and Artistic Design" winner in the second category. An important bonus for viewers: the film is narrated by actress Meryl Streep whose voice can hypnotize just as well as paintings by Vermeer slowly floating on the screen.

So if you can watch the movie in the original language or with subtitlesdo not deprive yourself of this pleasure. Recommended artists. Russia, artworks. Alexei Evgenievich Shalaev. Russia, 37 artworks PRO. Irina Petrovna Chernova. Russia, 7 artworks. Julia Petrovna Titova. Russia, 11 artworks PRO. Ilya Vladimirovich Peida. Russia, 13 artworks.

Galina Izosimovna Fyodorova. He got interested in a servant girl who was punished by being put in stocks. It is revealed in this story where the baby came from.

Jan vermeer paintings girl in hyacinth: In Susan Vreeland's Girl

The next story was very brief, and in it, a woman, who was unsuccessful in bidding for the painting at an auction, seemed to know more about the painting than the auctioneer. The next story revealed how Vermeer came to paint the girl's picture. Finally, Cornelia tells us how she came in possession of the painting. Contents move to sidebar hide.

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