you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 14 points 3 months ago (1 child)

I might be a little more informed because I'm Dutch, but Vermeer is fairly well-known, and e.g. The Milkmaid and View of Delft are, I believe, other fairly famous paintings of his (albeit less famous than The Girl with the Pearl Earring).

Vermeer might have been a pupil of Carel Fabritius, who was a pupil of Rembrandt. The interesting thing about Fabritius is that many of his paintings got destroyed in an explosion (that also killed Fabritius), and only about a dozen remain. Which I think is also mind-blowing: this potential important link between two famous painters might very well himself have produced such wonders, but we'll never know.

(If you're ever in the area, I would highly recommend a visit to the Mauritshuis in The Hague. And if you like reading, The Goldfinch (referencing the Fabritius painting) by Donna Tartt is the novel that got me into all this in the first place.)

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Vermeer is definitely famous worldwide. This person just didn't know him.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Yep, my schools didn't teach art history. I only learned of French impressionalists in school, and that's just because I took French class. Even art classes didn't touch the classics, so I'm learning through my own studies now as an adult. This is what a typical American education system gives us. :(

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments