Details of Vermeer's Painting Technique

Painting with the Brush Handle

Girl with a Red Hat
Johannes Vermeer
c. 1665–1667
Oil on panel, 23.2 x 18.1 cm.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The Girl with a Red Hat occupies a unique place in Vermeer's oeuvre. It is one of the only two works on a wood panel and it is extraordinarily original in both conception and execution. ^{Girl with a Red Hat and Girl with a Flute and are the only two pieces painted on wood that might have been made by Vermeer. Some critics have doubted they were authentic because they are on wood panels, not canvas. However, records show that when Vermeer died in December 1675, he had six wood panels ready for painting, along with ten canvases. It's possible he was saving those wood panels for small portrait-like paintings, known as tronies.}

Under the surface we now observe lies a male portrait by an unknown artist (although there is no reason why it should not be by Vermeer's hand) which can be seen in and x-ray image of the work. Just why Vermeer used such an unusual support has long been questioned. The answer might be a very simple: the artist wished to realize as rapidly as possible the seductive image which had grasped his imagination and had no time for the long and laborious task of preparing a new panel from scratch. The harder and less absorbent surface of the painted panel accentuates the flowing brushwork seen in the background and the blue wrap while at the same time permiting a very fine degree of detail in the rendering of the face.

Upon close examination, the audacious paint application in Girl with a Red Hat is astoundingly efficient in describing the light, space, and textural effects of the motif. Vermeer's technical confidence had reached such a level that, in order to render the shadows of the cravat, he simply removed the wet white paint with the tip of the brush handle exposing the brown ground beneath rather than applying the appropriate gray shade of paint to the panel.