The Essential Vermeer Website

The Essential Vermeer Website
http://essentialvermeer.com

Artist Howard Kerber recommended this site to me. (Thank you!) I have barely opened the door and looked around in this huge mansion of a website, but I've seen enough to know that it's great fun to poke around in and probably would be for anyone who has any interest at all in Vermeer. It's not just "fun," though. It's serious and there's quite a lot of interest and much to learn.

The "Author and Webmaster" of Essential Vermeer is artist Jonathan Janson.

There is so much related to Vermeer on the site that I don't know how to explain it without making long lists of so many things you can find here, but you can more easily see for yourself and don't need long lists from me.

There is not only what you'd expect to find on a site devoted to a single artist (links to books, bibliographies, posters and prints, etc.), but also such things as "Vermeer's paintings in scale" (see them all hung side by side on a virtual wall to see the difference in sizes of Vermeer's paintings), several interviews with experts on Vermeer, a section on Vermeer's painting techniques, and on and on....and how is this for something different: He offers free Vermeer and Delft Wallpapers for your computer. (I'm going to try one of those myself, but I haven't decided which one yet.)

Of course there are reproductions of Vermeer paintings on the site, too, in "The Complete Vermeer Catalogue." Just be warned that if you click on the small-size picture trying to get to the large version, you will get to a page that says you are in the wrong place -- You must click on the title of the painting (which is not underlined, so it's not obviously a link).

There is also a link on Essential Vermeer to Jonathan Janson's own website, which shows many of his paintings including "interiors" which are present day versions of Vermeer paintings, with titles such as "Young girl writing an email, "Girl with a baseball hat," and "Young man in front of a computer screen." These may sound like jokes, but really they're quite nice.

There is oh-so-much-more on the site, or reached via the site, but you will want to discover these things for yourself. Here it is: http://www.essentialvermeer.com.

Jan Vermeer
View of Delft - 1660-61
Source: Wikimedia