HOW TO PAINT YOUR OWN VERMEER
The Book

Click here to access  the complete Chapter 9, "Underpainting."

A brief introduction to the Book

The Great Masters of the past, including Johannes Vermeer, painted efficiently and economically. In their times artistic content and craftsmanship were inseparable and so it is no coincidence that until the mid-nineteenth century, all of the greatest Masters were likewise the greatest technicians. Even though their few tools were crude, painters had learned to turn their inherent limitations to their advantage through a systematic and highly rationalized method of painting which varied from country to country but remained structurally the same for centuries.

Vermeer, like every other painter of the time, did not produce his work within a vacuum. All evidence gathered so far points to the fact that he painted according to well-established technical procedures diligently practiced by many of his contemporaries.

The THREE-STEP METHOD used by Seventeenth-Century Painters

Research into painter's terminology has revealed that seventeenth-century paintings were constructed in three principle stages: "inventing", the "dead-coloring", and the "working-up", followed (according to De Lairesse) by "retouching." Direct observation of Vermeer’s canvases combined with modern scientific research confirms that he followed this working method faithfully.

For this reason, individual recipes and isolated procedures drawn from period texts, no matter how fascinating, will lead us astray unless they are part of a single plan. What it is important to today's painter is to discover the proper materials and procedures which will permit him to get the results he desires by certainty and not by accident. How to Paint Your Own Vermeer provides just that plan.

In the case of the Great Masters, we should always remember that we are dealing with a preconceived, clearly thought-out pictorial project, where every phase of the painting is executed according to a schedule. The rationale behind this system was that, unlike today, the problems of composition, form and color were addressed separately. This step-by-step system, far from stifling artistic inspiration, allowed the most talented painters to “program” masterworks of exceptional artistic level in considerable numbers and vast dimensions while less-talented artists fashioned dignified, well-crafted paintings.

By emulating art and craftsmanship of those times we may find fresh inspiration and means for our own work.