Picture "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" (1658), framed
Picture "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" (1658), framed
Quick info
limited, 499 copies | numbered certificate | reproduction, Giclée print on canvas | on stretcher frame | framed | size 74 x 56 cm (h/w)
Detailed description
Picture "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" (1658), framed
The interior views of Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) radiate silence, security and inner peace. Vermeer strove for perfection in his painting, so he often produced just four pictures a year. Only 36 paintings by the artist have survived to this day.
Original: Oil on canvas, Gemäldegalerie Dresden.
Fine Art Giclée on 100% cotton artist's canvas. Stretched like an original painting on a wooden stretcher frame (adjustable by wedges for re-stretching). Framed in a handmade fine solid wood museum frame, gilded with metal leaf. Limited edition of 499 copies, with a numbered certificate on the back. Size 74 x 56 cm (h/w).
Producer: ars mundi Edition Max Büchner GmbH, Bödekerstraße 13, 30161 Hanover, Germany, [email protected]
About Jan Vermeer van Delft
Jan Vermeer is one of the most important Dutch painters of the Baroque epoch. He was baptised on October 31, 1632 in Delft and buried there on December 15, 1675. As there was no school of painting in Delft at that time, the son of a silk weaver, art dealer and innkeeper was trained as a craftsman. His admission to the Delft Guild of St. Luke in 1650 testifies to his activity as a master painter. Only 37 of his paintings have survived to this day. His main theme was genre painting, as there are only a few portraits or religious paintings in his œuvre.
The interior views radiate silence, security, and inner peace. The painter from Delft was able to achieve these effects with subtle colour harmonies and refined shadows. He was also a master of the photographic perspective. The genre paintings show few figurative scenes, to which symbolic content is often attributed.
A special mention should be given to Vermeer's Delft City View of 1661, whose naturalism testifies to a high level of mastery. In addition, "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" became the epitome of beauty and grace. For the painter, it was a challenge to bring the viewer into contact with the model. The young woman's eye contact skilfully establishes a connection, but at the same time achieves distance again through the body that is turned away. Many generations of art lovers have rightly been fascinated by the extraordinary expression of this painting.
Vermeer strove for perfection in his painting, often produced only just four paintings a year. As a result, the father of eleven children struggled with financial hardship, which increased during the last years of his life. Right after his death, Jan Vermeer fell into oblivion. It was not until the middle of the 19th-century that people learned to appreciate the quality of his paintings.
Term used to describe the art of the 17th century. The Baroque art style, which originated in Rome around 1600, quickly spread through the visual arts, literature, and music across nerly all of Europe, lasting in the visual arts until 1770. The final phase is generally characterised by Rococo.
Characteristic features include: the pulsating movement of all forms, the abolition of boundaries between architecture, painting, and sculpture, leading to the typical "Gesamtkunstwerk" ("total work of art"), and, above all, the purposeful use of light, which became an important artistic component. The subordination of the individual parts to the whole resulted in the creation of a unified yet dynamic space, which is fully expressed in the magnificent buildings of this period.
The Baroque art, with its penchant for grandeur, splendour, and rushing abundance, clearly reflects the desire for representation, which was a concern of secular and ecclesiastical, especially the Catholic patrons strengthened by the Counter-Reformation. In painting, characteristic features of the Baroque, are manifested in altar and ceiling painting, history scences and portraits.
Typical representatives include artists such as Anthony van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens, as well as Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the field of sculpture.
Depiction of typical scenes from daily life in painting, with distinctions between rural, bourgeois, and courtly genres.
The genre reached its peak and immense popularity in Dutch paintings of the 17th century. In the 18th century, especially in France, the courtly and gallant painting became prominent, while in Germany, a more bourgeois character developed.
Giclée = derived from the French verb gicler "to squirt, to spray".
The Giclée method is a digital printing process. It is a high-resolution, large-format print produced with an inkjet printer using special different-coloured dye- or pigment-based inks (usually six to twelve). The inks are lightfast, meaning they are resistant to harmful UV light. They provide a high level of nuance, contrast, and saturation.
The Giclée process is suitable for art canvases, handmade paper and watercolour paper as well as silk.