Face to Face with Vermeer

Paintings by Vermeer such as the Girl with the Pearl Earring and the View of Delft have become cultural icons of modern times - the former the basis for a novel and film, the latter celebrated by Proust as the quintessence of art. Along with this, the artist who created these seemingly immaculate masterpieces has become a figure of mystery - the so called ‘Sphinx of Delft’. Can we actually get to see Vermeer as a working painter facing the practical problems his fellow Dutch artists faced? Can we work out what it was about his approach and his intentions that somehow raised his art to a higher level than theirs? Bell explores how far this can be done. Julian Bell is a painter who teaches at the Royal Drawing School and who writes about art for the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books. A second edition of his 1999 book What is Painting?: Representation and Modern Art will be published by Thames & Hudson this autumn.