Drawing on a life-time of close looking and in-dedpth study, this book offers a fresh, grounded view of Vermeer that moves well beyond familiar myths. It asks simple but revealing questions: why certain details look “wrong,” how his paintings were actually made, and what everyday constraints shaped his choices. Small anomalies—a missing object, an odd perspective, a puzzling gesture—become keys to understanding how Vermeer worked and what he cared about.
Along the way, the book brings Vermeer back into his lived world: a busy household, financial pressure, shifting taste, limited time, and practical compromises that rarely appear in polished museum narratives. His fame, such as it was, emerges slowly and unevenly, shaped as much by circumstance as by talent, while his studio practice is shown to be thoughtful, experimental, and occasionally fallible.
Written for readers who enjoy looking closely, this is not a grand theory but a series of sharp observations that accumulate into a more human, believable Vermeer—one whose achievement feels all the greater for having been won under ordinary, and sometimes difficult, conditions.
VERMEER: TRICKS, TROUBLES AND TRIUMPHS OF A GREAT DUTCH MASTER
author: Jonathan Janson
date: 2026 (second edition)
pages: 294
format: PDF
illustrations: 100-plus illustrations and diagrams
