Johannes Vermeer (1632 - 1675) worked almost exclusively in Delft, producing a remarkably small body of work — only around 34 to 36 paintings are securely attributed to him — yet they are among the most technically accomplished of the Dutch Golden Age. He had an extraordinary sensitivity to the behavior of diffused interior light, almost always entering from the left, and its interaction with different textures: silk, linen, plaster, earthenware. Very little is known about his life; he died in 1675 leaving his family in debt, and his reputation was largely forgotten until a major critical reassessment in the nineteenth century.
