Friday 20 July 2007

The Geographer


Vermeer, The Geographer. A man of the mind, portrayed with light-filled clarity.

3 comments:

Berend de Boer said...

I can recommend the movie "The girl with the pearl earring", photography is just amazing.

Lindsay Mitchell said...

One of my favourite artists.

Jeffrey Perren said...

One of the finest paintings in the history of art. And, yet, doesn't it often seem as if every painting should be at least level to this?

According to my research on Vermeer, this may be a portrait of the great inventor Antony van Leeuwenhoek, who is reputed to be the first man ever to see micro-organisms through a microscope.



"... my work, which I've done for a long time, was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more than in most other men." Leeuwenhoek

It seems appropriate that these two neighbors should have been good friends, as well, as some evidence suggests.