Google Doodle celebrates Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer on November 12

Google Doodle on November 12, 2021, celebrated the long-forgotten Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer who was considered one of the greatest artists of the Dutch Golden Age. On this day on November 12, 1995, an eponymous exhibition featuring 21 of Vermeer’s 35 existing works was opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Google has dedicated a Doodle to Vermeer to mark the 26^th anniversary of the opening of the exhibition of his artwork.

The Google Doodle dedicated to Johannes Vermeer depicts three of Vermeer’s noteworthy paintings in a way as if they have been arranged in a gallery. Starting from the left, the three paintings are ‘The Art of Painting’ (also known as The Allegory of Painting), ‘Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid’, and ‘Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window’.

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Who was Johannes Vermeer?

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque Period Painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Vermeer was a famous provincial genre painter, especially in Delft and The Hague. He was particularly known for his use of light in his work and mostly portraying women in two small rooms in his house in Delft.

Vermeer was widely regarded among the greatest Dutch painters of all time. He was born in Delft, the Netherlands, in 1632. Though there is not much on his early life, historians believe that he was initially interested in historical painting.

By the 1650s, Vermeer started painting interiors with traditional Dutch motifs which later became his hallmark. He created masterworks such as ‘The Girl with the Pearl Earring’ in 1665 which is currently on display at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands.

In 1979, an X-ray revealed a hidden cupid in one of Vermeer’s paintings ‘Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window’.  In fact, for nearly 200 years, Vermeer’s paintings were undiscovered outside Delft, and in some cases, they were attributed to more well-known Dutch painters of that era.

After some rediscovery, journalist and art critic Théophile Thoré-Bürger published a comprehensive list featuring Johannes Vermeer’s artwork.

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