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A View of Delft: Vermeer Then and Now, by Anthony Bailey
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Vermeer has always been considered the most elusive of great artists, but this book tracks him down in his home town. It takes the reader back to seventeenth-century Delft, in a piece of historical writing that does justice to its now timeless subject. Anthony Bailey makes use of the scholarly research that has accumulated in the last century, as well as recent findings, and then reaches beyond these facts to expose the hidden Vermeer. The result is a vivid, convincing portrait of the Protestant innkeeper's son who married a prosperous Catholic girl and had 15 children of whom 11 survived. Vermeer died relatively young and left fewer than 40 pictures. Many of these pictures are indeed masterpieces, and Anthony Bailey examines the scientific expertise which lies behind their calm mystery. He introduces us to Vermeer's colleagues and fellow-citizens, and charts his celebrity as it slowly spread out of Holland and encompassed the world. He examines Vermeer's effect on many creative and destructive people, including Proust and Hitler. A View of Delft is a highly original attempt to get at Vermeer's life and personality, by setting him imaginatively in the context of Delft, its culture and history.
- Sales Rank: #4380169 in Books
- Published on: 2002-03-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .87" w x 6.02" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 288 pages
Review
"A delightful compilation of oblique reflections and partial views, bringing Vermeer to life through the place and the time in which he worked" The Times "Engaging and highly readable" Daily Telegraph "Bailey carries us back into the daily life and atmosphere of seventeenth-century Delft" Economist
About the Author
Anthony Bailey is the author of two studies of Rembrandt and a full-length life of Turner. For many years he was a writer for The New Yorker. He was born in Portsmouth and studied history at Oxford University. His many books include a novel, Major Andre, and two much-acclaimed memoirs, America, Lost & Found and England, First & Last. He lives in Greenwich.
Most helpful customer reviews
51 of 51 people found the following review helpful.
THE MASTERY OF DELFT -- THE MASTERY OF ANTHONY BAILEY
By TheReader23
I'm certainly no expert on the non-fiction genre and definitely no expert on art history but I do know a well-researched and enjoyable piece of work when I come across it. I came in the backdoor on this one having become fascinated by Vermeer after reading Tracy Chevalier's Girl With A Pearl Earring. I followed that one up with Susan Vreeland's Girl In Hyacinth Blue and then came across Anthony Bailey's book. What a wonderful way to continue my journey into this author's own portrait of this master painter and what a surprise to find that it contains black and white and some color pictures of Vermeer's paintings as well.
While very little is known about Vermeer's life, through the genius of Bailey, you come away from this book feeling you know the man. What we do know is that he lived in the mid 17th century, was a Reformed Protestant until he married the Catholic Catharina Bolnes and fathered 11 children as well as 35 masterpieces. At a time when painters were in abundance in Delft and industry was striving, the picture of Vermeer is still that of a struggling artist trying to feed and clothe a large family. It is a wonder, Bailey points out, that amidst all the noise and commotion that must have gone on in his house and the financial problems that must have weighed heavily on his shoulders, that he was still able to paint such masterpieces that put the beholder at ease merely by their stillness. Vermeer was never an "all-inclusive artist" notes Bailey and none of his paintings incorporate a single flower. He favored the use of the "local colours" of yellow, white and blue. Bailey also notes that he was "fond of rendering the effects of sunlight and sometimes succeeded to the point of complete illusion."
The author mentions the trademarks found in Vermeer's paintings -- the white wine jug, the map on the wall, the bowl of fruit on a carpeted table, finials in the form of a lion's head at the back of the chair and, my personal favorite, the black and white floor tiles that helped the artist establish perspective. He also explains Vermeer's possible use of the camera obscura to focus his view. There were so many interesting things presented by the author, one of which was the different way Vermeer signed his name. Bailey shows five different signatures all playing around with the V and M in Vermeer's name. Another thing I found engrossing was how Vermeer put things into his paintings and then painted them out. We can only see this now because of modern X-ray and infrared equipment.
I could go on and on about all I learned after reading this book but some of the more interesting parts occur after Vermeer's death and have to do with Hitler's possession of some of these masterpieces as well as Van Meegeren's forgeries of Vermeer's works in the 1900's. Of the 35 known Vermeer works, one painting, The Concert, is still missing, having been stolen in 1990.
I culminated my fascination of Vermeer with a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art this week to see the Delft/Vermeer exhibit. Having just read Bailey's book, I felt quite knowledgeable not only concerning Vermeer but all things Delft in general. Upon exiting the exhibit, I walked directly into the gift shop where Anthony Bailey's book was not only on sale but being purchased by all those around me. So not only do I congratulate this author on a work well done, but also on the best timing possible for publication that one could imagine.
I'll end this review with my favorite lines from the book -- those that sum up Vermeer's life in the eyes of Anthony Bailey. "He remains in some respects, the missing man in some of his own paintings: the person who has just left the room, or who is expected at any moment. He is impatient to be found, to be seen, but while he waits, he paints stillness."
Anthony Bailey has made Johannes Vermeer come alive for me with interesting stories, things that might have been and a wonderfully descriptive Delft region by which Vermeer was obviously inspired. To me he is no longer lost, but found on the pages written by Bailey.
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful.
A Dutch Treat
By Falco Gingrich
Anthony Baily's biography of the elusive Vermeer is really a study of the Netherlands, or more specifically, the town of Delft, in the mid-seventeenth-century. I suppose there is no other way to write a biography of a man of whom so little is known, and Baily's efforts are resoundingly successful. His descriptions of city scenes, cultural events, churches, houses, markets, etc., are rendered with astonishing skill and verve. His thumbnail history sketches are always lively and never seem rushed. There are surely more detailed studies of Vermeer's work, but Baily is far more interested in placing the artist in his context than he is in producing the definitive read of the master's painting. And while readers interested in all of Dutch culture in the Golden Age might find Simon Schama's "Embarrassment of Riches" a more detailed and global work, I think Baily is by far the superior writer, and the reader comes away with a full and stimulating picture of Vermeer's world.
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful.
Gentle and Serene
By Joseph P. Donnelly
Anthony Bailey is the ideal author to write about Vermeer: like his subject's paintings his prose is quiet, calm, introspective, and serene. He illuminates Vermeer and his work, but as in the paintings discussed the light is gentle, and golden, never harsh - like a good poet, Bailey leaves plenty of room for the reader to reflect on his/her reality as he describes his subject.
It's wonderful to think of Vermeer painting his silence-drenched, calm and mysterious images amid the noise and tumult of his house filled with eleven children. Perhaps his paintings were a world of perfect order and quiet that he could retreat to when his messy and noisy surroundings became overwhelming. I also liked Bailey's point that perhaps Vermeer painted so few images because almost all of his best work had sunlight streaming through a window, and the Dutch climate doesn't offer too many sunny days to paint from!
The book opened with a bit more 15th and 16th century Dutch history than I would have cared for, but hold tight, once he switches his focus to Vermeer's paintings the book takes flight, and you will never look at the paintings in the same way again. The black and white reproductions don't do the paintings justice however - I'd recommend having a book of color reproductions of the paintings (there are only 37 known Vermeers!) next to you as Bailey gently helps you see these familiar images in wonderfully new ways.
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