Vermeer

Anyone who is interested in Vermeer will enjoy this book alot. its sturdy and a nice big size. The book goes into detail about every painting, all which are reproduced well. It compares his work with other paintings and discusses his use of a camera obscura, along with some details of his life...although not much is really known about Vermeer....All in all, this book is a great value, and i plan on buying other books from this series in the near future.

I was looking forward to this book based on the reviews, but I was disappointed. Though the book seems to include all of Vermeer's work, it does so in a very scattered fashion, mixed with other artists' works, furthermore, obliterated by them, with the full list of works sorely missing. Paralells to similar works by other artists can be very useful if done correctly, but I found the comparisons in this book to be distracting, confusing and even annoying. The full images of paintings and their details are often separated, and I had to go back and forth between several pages when trying to examine one painting. The text is dry, poorly edited, with too much information and not enough insight. Not deserving of the high rating it got.

Pre War II forgeries of Vermeer paintings described in great detail. It read almost like a detective story, although sometines there are too many details, that seem to me irrelevant.

This is no Tashchen or Steidl quality book.
I would have paid more if it was.
I think Vermeer has fallen into this vortex of all the rest. But his work deserves to be printed with great care and quality.
If anyone knows of a higher quality and comprehensive book on his work, let us know please!

If you like paintings but aren't a scholar, you are likely to find this work satisfying. It's a brief and well-written review of what's known about Vermeer (which isn't much). I recommend it highly.

I purchased this book for a friend based on seeing The Girl with the Pearl Earring exhibit at the High back in August. It is the same book that was available at their museum store during the exhibition, but a few days before the end of the show, it sold out. She was thrilled with the book ~photos are superb and it was well worth the price.

To see this great artist in face to face or reproduction, is a thing of beauty. Wish there were more than 30 of his paintings known!

Excellent