Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)

• Was a Dutch Baroque Period painter.
• He specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle class life.
• He was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime but evidently was not wealthy.
• He left his wife and children in debt at his death, perhaps because he produced relatively few aintings. 
• Vermeer produced a total of fewer than 50 paintings, of which 34 have survived.
• Only three Vermeer paintings are dated: The Procuress, 1656; The Astronomer, 1668; and The Geographer, 1669.
• Catharina Bolnes attributed her husband's death to the stress of financial pressures.
• The collapse of the art market damaged Vermeer's business as both a painter and an art dealer.
• She had to raise 11 children and therefore asked the High Court to relieve her of debts owed to Vermeer's creditors.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: Woman with a Pearl Necklace, c. 1662-65.