art
Vermeer's light
How a bankrupt small-town painter became the most quietly famous artist in the world.
Johannes Vermeer painted only 37 known works, lived all his life in Delft, died broke at 43 — and now hangs in every great museum on earth.
Vermeer (1632–1675) was born, married, and died in Delft. Likely used a camera obscura to achieve his uncanny light. Only ~37 paintings survive. Bankrupt at death after the French invasion of 1672 collapsed the Dutch art market. Forgotten for two centuries, rediscovered by French critic Théophile Thoré-Bürger in the 1860s. Today a single Vermeer would sell for hundreds of millions if one ever came to auction.