Johannes Vermeer

Johannes (or Jan) Vermeer lived in the Dutch town of Delft all his life.

His paintings are superbly detailed and colored. It's easy to imagine that he was consumed by an obsessive perfectionism which meant that each painting took months, if not years.

Perhaps this was the reason why Johannes Vermeer was never well-off, and died leaving a wife and 11 children in debt.

His work was entirely forgotten for over 200 years, until the 1850s, when a Frenchmen Etienne Thoré wrote and published an essay about Vermeer's work. The essay was widely read, and as a result the Art world quickly realized that Thoré had uncovered one of the great painters of all time. Vermeer's work became hugely fashionable and sort after.

His most famous works include interior scenes such as Girl With a Peal Earring and The Music Lesson, and gentle landscapes such as The Little Street and View of Delft.

Today, it's only possible to attribute 34 paintings to him.