Vermeer and Rembrandt

The fact that Vermeer kept his viewer slightly uninformed is probably the least like something that Rembrandt would do. Rembrandt kept the world informed about his aging face, his sagging skin. His many self-portraits paint a diary of his life.

Vermeer, however, may have taken a few hints from Rembrandt in the way he painted.

Rembrandt van Rijn 1
Self-Portrait, 1659
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
1937.1.72


The darkened background and the sunlight in A Lady Writing calls to mind a self-portrait Rembrandt painted late in his life. Although the painting styles couldn't be more different, Rembrandt and Vermeer seem to have treated light in similar ways. Painted several years before the Vermeer was painted, Rembrandt painted this portrait most likely without the camera obscura's help, though the opposite has been argued for Vermeer. In Rembrandt's case, it could well have been a stylistic choice,  or really, it could have been that his eyes were failing him at this point. We will never know. The legacy of this choice, though, has been a relevant one ever since. Vermeer's light often surpasses Rembrandt's, but the convention was broken by Rembrandt. He fuzzes over the unimportant details, just letting the viewer see enough of his face, his hair, his hat.

Another thing that may well have influenced Vermeer is the way Rembrandt loved to portray people lost in thought. His etching of Jan Six reading by a window strikes me as similar to A Lady Writing.

Rembrandt van Rijn 2
The Portrait of Jan Six Reading
1647
342 x 194 mm.

The etching obviously doesn't use the glowing yellows and blues of the Vermeer, but it does relate to the lady's face and attention. Here, Jan Six is entranced in his reading, but more importantly, his expression cannot be read because his attention is elsewhere. We will never know what exactly he was reading or what he thought of the text. These are the same issues and curiosities associated with Vermeer's A Lady Writing. Rembrandt broke conventions stylistically as well as in his paintings' meanings, and Vermeer followed suit. The influence may not have been a direct one to Rembrandt's work, but the association of the two is striking.


1"Self-Portrait - Image." National Gallery of Art. Web. 07 May 2011. <http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/timage_f?object=79>.
2"XXXXXX by Rembrandt Van Rijn." Rembrandt Van Rijn: Life and Work. Web. 07 May 2011. <http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/rmbrdnt_selected_etchings/six.htm>.