Lacemaker sheds light on Vermeer’s use of early camera
Biographer suggests Dutch artist achieved his realistic style after he inherited a forerunner of photography
JOHANNES VERMEER, the “Master of Light”, used a forerunner of photography to create his paintings, new research has suggested.
It has been said the Dutch master painter behind works including Girl With a Pearl Earring, achieved his hyper-realistic scenes through use of a camera obscura – a box that can project images so they then be faithfully traced.
Vermeer probably owned such a device, according to research which suggests the 17th century painter became the so-called “Master of Light” with the help of the technology. New evidence suggests a Jesuit priest and fellow artist in Delft possessed one of the devices and that, after his death in 1656, it may have been passed to his neighbour, Vermeer.
“It is precisely in this year that characteristics of camera projections first appear in his [Vermeer’s] paintings,” said Gregor J. M. Weber, an art expert, in his new Vermeer biography.
A camera obscura (Latin for dark room) would, by Vermeer’s time, have been a box with a small hole in one side allowing light from a scene to be projected against an internal surface with its perspective and colours intact, although upside down.
An angled mirror could then be used to reflect this image on to a piece of paper, allowing an artist to trace around it and copy the colours to achieve an extremely accurate picture, without having to paint entirely by eye.
Mr Weber’s research found the Jesuit, Isaac van der Mye, created a picture of St Apollonia using the device. The work appears to have been made on thin tracing paper and betrays signs it was made using reflected rather than an entirely natural light source.
Mr Weber, the head of fine art at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, claims this is clear “evidence that a box camera existed and was used for artistic purposes in Vermeer’s immediate vicinity”.
His book, Johannes Vermeer: Faith, Light, and Reflection, says the painter had strong links to the Jesuit community and would have been in contact with Van der Mye and familiar with the technology. He also argues that Vermeer’s painting shifts to a notably more “photographic” style, capturing subtle light variations, precisely after Van der Mye’s death, suggesting the device may have been bequeathed to him.
“Vermeer had already shown an extraordinary sense for the nuances of light and colour,” said Mr Weber, “the images of the camera obscura must, therefore, have been of particular interest to him”.
The theory fits with speculation that Vermeer used this device for The Lacemaker, in 1670, where the blurry foreground suggests the image may have been passed through some kind of lens.
Vermeer achieved only moderate success in his life (1632 to 1675) but his limited output was re-evaluated in the 19th century. He was played by Colin Firth in the 2003 film
Pearl Earring, which showed him using a camera obscura.