Johannes Vermeer, Officer and Laughing Girl
ca 1657Paintings sorted by   Historical period  |   Painter  |  Subject matter  |  Pigments used
Overview
Medium: Oil
Support: Canvas
Size: 50.5 x 46 cm
Art period: Baroque
The Frick Collection New York
Accession number:Â 1911.1.127
Vermeer, ‘Officer and Laughing Girl’ is one of his first mature works showing masterful handling of light and space.
The pigment analysis revealed a limited palette consisting of brown, and red ochre, lead-tin yellow, natural ultramarine, azurite, and lead white.
Pigments
Pigment Analysis
This pigment analysis is based on the work of Hermann Kühn of Doerner Institute in Munich (1) and data compiled in reference (2).
1 Yellowish area in the window: lead white mixed with small amounts of lead-tin-yellow, and red ochre.
2 Blue area of the map on the wall: a lower layer containing lead white overpainted with a layer of natural ultramarine.
3 Dark blue area of the girl’s skirt: lower layer of azurite in a protein medium overpainted with a layer of natural ultramarine in oil.
References
(1) Kuhn, H., A Study of the Pigments and the Grounds used by Jan Vermeer, Reports and Studies in the History of Art, National Gallery of Art (Washington, 1968).
(2) Costaras, N., A Study of the Materials and Techniques of Johannes Vermeer, in Gaskell, I. and Jonker, M. ed., Vermeer Studies, in Studies in the History of Art, 55, National Gallery of Art, Washington 1998, pp. 148 – 167
Pigments Used in This Painting
Resources
See the collection of online and offline resources such as books, articles, videos, and websites on Johannes Vermeer in the section ‘Resources on Painters‘
PowerPoint Presentations
Painter in Context: Johannes Vermeer
A richly illustrated presentation on the painting technique and pigments employed by Johannes Vermeer specially crafted for Art Education. (Number of Slides = 24)
- Each presentation starts with the basic resources on the painter such as his biography, main catalogs of his paintings, and a bibliography.
- Next, you find slides describing the painting technique of the artist and the pigments he usually employed in his work.
- The majority of the slides show examples of paintings containing the specific pigments.
Slides showing the basic resources on the paintings of the Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer.Â
The painting technique of Johannes Vermeer is described and illustrated in the next slides.
The majority of the slides show important examples of paintings where Vermeer employed specific pigments. The slides are organized according to the color of the pigments.
Videos
Video: 'Officer and Laughing Girl' by The Frick Collection
Publications and Websites
Publications
(1) Gaskell, I. and Jonker, M., Vermeer Studies, in Studies in the History of Art, 55, National Gallery of Art, Washington 1998.
(2) Evangelos Livieratos and Alexandra Koussoulakou, Vermeer’s maps: a new digital look in an old master’s mirror, e-Perimetron, Vol.1, No. 2, Spring 2006 [138-154].
(3) Marjorie E. Wieseman, Wayne Franits & H. Perry Chapman, Vermeer’s Women: Secrets and Silence, Yale University Press 2011. Vermeer’s Women, in Gaskell, I. and Jonker, M. ed., Vermeer Studies, in Studies in the History of Art, 55, National Gallery of Art, Washington 1998, pp. 309-322.
Websites
Janson, J. (2017). Officer and the Laughing Girl by Johannes Vermeer. Essentialvermeer.com
Janson, J. (2017). Understanding the Officer and Laughing Girl by Johannes Vermeer, Essentialvermeer.com.Â
