Vermeer: The Complete Works

This volume--the new standard Vermeer monograph, now in paperback--reproduces in color all 34 of Vermeer's extant paintings, augmenting each with close-ups that lay bare the loving care that the artist lavished upon each painstaking work. Considered purely in terms of his subject matter--women reading letters, artist’s studios, servants at work--Vermeer conformed entirely to the Renaissance genre repertoire of Dutch Golden Age painting. What he brought to these genres was a realism so powerful that it captured the subtlest effects of light, opened up thrilling psychological tensions and disclosed incredible serenities of indoor reverie.