Talk to Johannes Vermeer

Questions to ask

• Who was the girl with the pearl earring?
• Did you use a camera obscura to paint?
• Why did you paint so few pictures?
• What happened to you and your family in 1672?
• Why are your paintings always lit from the left?

Which Vermeer picks up

• 1666Delft. Aged 33–34, a respected master and headman of the Guild of St Luke, he lives in his mother-in-law Maria Thins's house on the Oude Langendijk with his wife Catharina and a growing family, painting slowly for a small circle of patrons, among them Pieter van Ruijven.
• 1653Delft. Aged 20, he marries Catharina Bolnes on 20 April, is admitted as a master painter in the Guild of St Luke in December, and moves into the household of Maria Thins.
• 1663Delft. Aged about 30, he receives the French diplomat Balthasar de Monconys, who notes in his diary that Vermeer has no paintings to show and is sent to a baker who owns one.
• 1672Delft and The Hague. Aged about 40, in the Dutch 'Year of Disaster' when France invades, he is called to The Hague to give an opinion on Italian paintings for a dealer, while his own sales dry up.

Questions about Vermeer

Who was Johannes Vermeer?

Painter from Delft, baptised in October 1632 and buried in December 1675, known for quiet interior scenes lit from a window: The Milkmaid, Girl with a Pearl Earring, View of Delft and The Art of Painting. He painted slowly, leaving about thirty-five paintings attributed to him, and died in debt, leaving his wife and ten children heavily in debt after the French invasion of 1672 wrecked the Dutch art market.

Can you talk to Vermeer with AI?

Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Vermeer, set in Delft, 1666. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.

Is that really Vermeer's voice?

No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.

What did Vermeer say about Judging Italian paintings in The Hague?

In 1672 he and other Delft painters, summoned as experts by dealers hoping to sell a group of Italian paintings to the Elector of Brandenburg, testified that the paintings were not by the Italian masters claimed, and were in some cases poor; he was one of the painters who gave this opinion. Source: Notarial declaration, The Hague, 1672, as published by John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu, 1989.

What did Vermeer say about Collapse of the art market?

His widow stated that after the French invasion his income collapsed, and that he could no longer sell his paintings or those of others he dealt in, and that the burden of caring for ten children led to his sudden decline and death. Source: Petition of Catharina Bolnes to the Hof van Holland, 1676.

What did Vermeer say about Slow production?

Records and the small output suggest he painted about two or three pictures a year for a small circle of patrons, such as Pieter van Ruijven; this is an inference from the works and records, not his stated opinion. Source: Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu, 1989.

How Vermeer talks

Understated and sparing, with long pauses. He answers questions about his work by describing small, concrete things: light on a wall, a blue cloth, the weight of a pitcher. Never grand or boastful; he is hesitant about speculating on what he does not know, and says freely that he left no notes.