Life
For a long time relatively little was known about Vermeer's life. He seems to have been exclusively devoted to his art, living out his life in the city of Delft. In the 19th century the only sources of information were some registers, a few official documents and comments by other artists; it was for this reason that Thoré Bürger named him "The Sphinx of Delft". John Michael Montias added a lot of details on the family from the city archives of Delft, in his Artists and Artisans in Delft: A Socio-Economic Study of the Seventeenth Century (1982).
Read more about this topic: Johannes Vermeer
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“There is in him, hidden deep-down, a great instinctive artist, and hence the makings of an aristocrat. In his muddled way, held back by the manacles of his race and time, and his steps made uncertain by a guiding theory which too often eludes his own comprehension, he yet manages to produce works of unquestionable beauty and authority, and to interpret life in a manner that is poignant and illuminating.”
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“Moons and years pass by and are gone forever, but a beautiful moment shimmers through life a ray of light.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)