Vermeer and the masters of genre painting Inspiration and rivalry

This impressive catalogue of a 2017-18 traveling exhibition (originating at the Louvre and concluding at Washington, DC's National Gallery Art) brings welcome and enduring order to a phenomenon in Dutch painting that occurred between about 1650 and 1675: a flourishing of paintings of indoor activities, rendered with extraordinary attention to light effects, color, and texture. Seven essays discuss the artistic exchanges of Vermeer, Gerard Ter Borch, Gerard Dou, Frans van Meiris, Caspar Netscher, and others, revealing their rivalry with one another as evident in shared motifs and depicted actions. These artists wrought captivating and stunningly beautiful indoor scenes of elegantly dressed men and women engaged in upscale, elite endeavors. Depicted alone or in small groups, the figures are engaged in music making, letter writing, lace making, child minding, flirting, eating and drinking, and studying the heavens and Earth. The compositions are meticulously arranged, not casually observed. Written by some of the foremost scholars in the field, the essays elucidate the paintings by examining their artistic, social, material, economic, technical, and artistic contexts. As depictions of intimate communication, these paintings invite interpretation and contemplation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Amy Golahny, Lycoming College

Johannes Vermeer (1632-75) is the best known of the Dutch genre painters, whose most prolific period spanned the years 1650-75. His paintings depicting ordinary life are breathtaking in their almost photographic detail. Though Vermeer is frequently portrayed as an enigmatic loner, this title, compiled by Waiboer (head curator, National Gallery of Ireland), reveals through essays and visual comparisons the symbiotic relationship among several Dutch painters of the 17th century. In addition to Vermeer, Gerrit Dou, Gerard ter Borch, Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch, Gabriel Metsu, and Frans van Mieris are all represented. Formulating a comparative study of these artists, with essays contributed by experts in the field to accompany the exhibition in Dublin, Paris, and Washington, DC, Waiboer illustrates how they frequently drew inspiration and borrowed from one another, copying and perfecting techniques with similar subject matter. The 180 gorgeous illustrations depict side by side the different artists' interpretations of the same subjects. -VERDICT A beautiful representation of Dutch genre painting and a true enlightenment of -Vermeer and his contemporaries.-Sandra Knowles, South Carolina State Lib., Columbia © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.