Vermeer has always been considered the most elusive of great artists, but this book tracks him down in his home town. It takes you back to seventeenth-century Delft, in a piece of historical writing that does justice to its now timeless subject.
This 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 out of Holland. He examines Vermeer's effect on many creative and some destructive people, including Proust and Hitler.
