of Delft, of whom I shall have much to say both at the Hague and
Amsterdam. He was born at Delft in 1632, he died there in 1675; and
of him but little more is known. It has been said that he studied
under Karel Fabritius (also of Delft), but if this is so the term
of pupil-age must have been very brief, for Fabritius did not reach
Delft (from Rembrandt's studio) until 1652, when Vermeer was twenty,
and he was killed in an explosion in 1654. One sees the influence of
Fabritius, if at all, most strongly in the beautiful early picture at
The Hague, in the grave, grand manner, of Diana? but the influence of
Italy is even more noticeable. Fabritius's "Siskin" is hung beneath
the new Girl's Head by Vermeer (opposite page 2 of this book),
but they have nothing in common. To see how Vermeer derived from
Rembrandt viâ Fabritius one must look at the fine head by Fabritius
in the Boymans Museum at Rotterdam, so long attributed to Rembrandt,
but possessing a certain radiance foreign to him.

How many pictures Vermeer painted between 1653, when he was admitted
to the Delft Guild as a master, and 1675, when he died, cannot now
be said; but it is reasonable to allot to each of those twenty-three
years at least five works. As the known pictures of Vermeer are very
few--fewer than forty, I believe--some great discoveries may be in
store for the diligent, or, more probably, the lucky.

I have read somewhere--but cannot find the reference again--of a ship
that left Holland for Russia in the seventeenth century, carrying a
number of paintings by the best artists of that day--particularly,
if I remember, Gerard Dou. The vessel foundered and all were lost. It
is possible that Vermeer may have been largely represented.

Only comparatively lately has fame come to him, his first prophet