Johannes Vermeer (1632鈥�1675) is one of the most beloved painters in the world. But when an enterprising French journalist and art critic set out to recover his work in the mid-nineteenth century, both his name and achievement were virtually forgotten. Vermeer鈥檚 Afterlives tells the remarkable story of how one of the great masters of the Dutch Golden Age was lost to obscurity until the rise of art history as a new discipline introduced his work to modern audiences and asks why his art compels so many other artists to respond with works of their own.
Ruth Bernard Yeazell traces the cultural ascendency of this extraordinary painter, whose enigmatic subjects and quiet, introspective interiors, transfigured by light and color, continue to captivate viewers far removed from his native Delft. We meet the critics who first welcomed Vermeer into the canon along with the painters who sought to imitate him, the forgers who tried to pass off their work as his own, and the contemporary artists who openly repurpose it. The enquiry concludes by looking at Vermeer鈥檚 paintings through the eyes of the poets and novelists who have attempted to translate his silence into words and give voice to the stories he left untold. Along the way, Yeazell interrogates the changing assumptions that govern art history, while demonstrating how paintings live on not only in later paintings but in poetry, fiction, photography, and film.
Marking the 350th anniversary of Vermeer鈥檚 death, this beautifully illustrated book explores the variety of ways in which Vermeer鈥檚 art has been interpreted through the centuries and shows how his paintings take on afterlives of their own in the imaginations of those who view them.
Awards and Recognition
- A Reading the Art World Great Art Book for the Summer
"In Vermeer’s Afterlives, Yale professor Ruth Bernard Yeazell dwells not so much on Vermeer’s life, about which not much is known, but on the influence he has had on later artists, a remarkable feat of imagination considering that there are no more than 37 works attributed to him. . . . Yeazell eloquently explores what makes a Vermeer painting so special: its sense of privacy, its intimacy, its radiance. Her magnificent book will even make you look at Girl with a Pearl Earring—his most reproduced and appropriated work—with fresh and appreciative eyes."鈥擩im Kelly, AirMail
"[Vermeer’s Afterlives] deepen[s] our understanding of this singular figure, whose scant oeuvre of some three dozen pictures has bequeathed a continually radiating light."鈥擪elly Presutti, Art in America
"The volume, beautifully produced and with extensive color illustrations, covers swathes of fascinating territory. . . . Vermeer’s Afterlives summons a vast and compelling record of artistic and scholarly responses to which a literary scholar of Yeazell’s stature is the ideal guide."鈥擟laudia Swan, Literary Review
"Beautifully illustrated. . . . [Vermeer’s Afterlives is] an authoritative, insightful work of art history."鈥�Kirkus Reviews starred review
"[Ruth Bernard Yeazell] marshals rigorous analysis to show how the artists, filmmakers, writers, and critics who carried forward Vermeer’s “afterlives” have expanded, innovated, and sometimes transformed the meaning of his work. Serious admirers of the painter will want this on their bookshelves."鈥�Publishers Weekly
"Beautifully illustrated. . . . [Vermeer’s Afterlives’s] clarity, fluidity, and accessibility are impressive. Particularly noteworthy is Yeazell’s considerable skill in interweaving Vermeer’s oeuvre with paintings by other artists, films, poetry, fiction, photography, and scientific work."鈥擜my Ione, Leonardo Reviews
"Thoughtful and elegantly written, the book reveals how masterpieces continue to evolve long after they leave the easel, shaped by the imaginations of those who encounter them across centuries."鈥�Indulge Magazine
"What happens to a painting after its maker is gone — not to the canvas itself, but to its meaning, its reputation, its hold on the imagination? Ruth Bernard Yeazell asks this question of Vermeer with the kind of precise, unhurried intelligence that literary scholars bring to texts and art historians too rarely bring to pictures. . . . Compact, lucid, and quietly surprising."鈥擬egan Fox Kelly, Reading the Art World
“Ruth Bernard Yeazell provides a revelatory new account of a fascinating and multifaceted subject: the reception of the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Vermeer from the period of his putative ‘rediscovery’ in the 1860s through to the present day. The book covers not only the nuances of scholarship on Vermeer, but also the responses of artists, filmmakers, poets, and novelists. Yeazell’s deft and imaginative treatment makes these varied responses come alive and shows why Vermeer’s art has proved so compelling to modern audiences.”—Elizabeth Prettejohn, author of Modern Painters, Old Masters: The Art of Imitation from the Pre-Raphaelites to the First World War
“The story of the rediscovery of Johannes Vermeer in the mid-nineteenth century, and the subsequent fascination with his art until the present day, is at the core of Ruth Bernard Yeazell’s engaging and important book. Yeazell explores the various ways Vermeer’s paintings, which seem so perfect in their colors, compositions, and subject matter and yet reach deep into the emotional core of human life, inspired the imagination of artists, novelists, poets, and filmmakers. Yeazell’s book is a compelling in-depth study of Vermeer’s long-lasting impact on popular culture and the various ways in which artists and writers appropriated his imagery in their own creative works.”—Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., author of Vermeer: The Complete Works
