Title page from 'Vermeer de Delft' by Gustave Vanzype. Bruxelles: Librairie Nationale d'art et d'histoire, 1908. Fine Art Library 709.492VER
Researching Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) at the National Gallery of Ireland
A Lady Writing a Letter, with her Maid (c.1670) has been the subject of several articles in academic journals and in essays by art historians, including Arthur Wheelock (1997, 2010, 2011), Lawrence Gowing (1997) and Wayne Franits (2004). A common subject of each of the art historians cited is the interpretation of the elusive meaning of this painting, its hidden subject matter, as well as discussions on the treatment of geometry, and its provenance.
However the most extensive discussion of the painting’s meaning is found in the National Gallery of Ireland’s exhibition catalogue ‘Love letters: Dutch genre painting in the age of Vermeer’ (2003) with contributions by leading Vermeer experts including Peter Sutton, Lisa Vergara and Ann Jensen Adams, among others. Monographs on the life of the artist are increasing in line with Vermeer’s current popularity. The oldest monograph held in the National Gallery of Ireland’s library is an illustrated biography from 1908 (illustrated above).
Suggested Bibliography
Buijsen, Edwin. (2010). The young Vermeer. Zwolle: Waanders Publishers
Fine Art Library 709.492VER
Franits, Wayne. (2004). Dutch seventeenth-century genre painting: its stylistic and thematic evolution. London: Yale University Press
Fine Art Library 709.492/32
Gowing, Lawrence. (1997). Vermeer. London: Jenny Gowing
Fine Art Library 709.492VER
Nash, John. (1991). Vermeer. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum
Fine Art Library 709.492VER
Nash, J. M. (1972). The age of Rembrandt and Vermeer : Dutch painting in the seventeenth century. Oxford: Phaidon
Fine Art Library 709.492REM
National Gallery of Ireland. (2009). Vermeer, Fabritius and De Hooch : three masterpieces from Delft. Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland
Fine Art Library 708.15DUB/NGI
Rüger, Axel. (2001). Vermeer and painting in Delft. London: National Gallery Co.; [New Haven]: Distributed by Yale University Press
Fine Art Library 709.492VER
Sutton, Peter C. (2003). Love letters : Dutch genre painting in the age of Vermeer. Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland
Fine Art Library 708.15DUB/NGI
Vanzype, Gustave. (1908). Vermeer de Delft. Bruxelles: Librairie Nationale d'art et d'histoire
General Note: Text in French.
Fine Art Library 709.492VER
Waiboer, Adriaan E. (2010). Vermeer's impact on his contemporaries. Leiden: Brill Publishers
Fine Art Library P709.492VER
Wheelock, Arthur K. (2011). Human connections in the age of Vermeer. London: Scala
Fine Art Library 709.492VER
Wheelock, Arthur K. (1997). Vermeer: the complete works. New York: H.N. Abrams
Fine Art Library 709.492VER
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