Samuel van Hoogstraten: Mastery of Trompe-l'oeil and Perspective Boxes

 

Every once in awhile, I come across an artist who is multi-gifted. Given the limitation of a blog, I have the problem of narrowing down examples of their talent. Such an artist is Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678). He was a painter, a poet, and a writer. Of those skills, there's so much about his art and his contributions to art, that I'll save the rest for another blog. 

 

His early training in art was with his father, Dirk van Hoogstraten, a noted artist,who died when Samuel was 13. After that, he moved to Amsterdam to complete his training with Rembrandt. Following his tutelage when he was about 18 years of age, he traveled to Vienna. 

 

 

 

 

While in Vienna, he met the emperor, Ferdinand III, and showed him 3 of his paintings. One of the paintings was such a well-done trompe-l'oeil that the emperor commented, "painting for the first time  had ever deceived him."

 

While other known painters were happily making portraits,van Hoogstraten was too restless and spent his time experimenting with subjects such as perspective. He created what he named, "perspective boxes." He created miniature rooms with viewing holes on the outer walls. (Much like the small knot holes in fences) Through these holes, the viewer could see a 3-D view of the interior of a Dutch home.

 

His restlessness and thirst to learn led him to Genoa, Rome and eventually to London. There, he was commissioned to paint a perspective work. It was so remarkable that it was mentioned in Samuel Pepys' famous diary.

The fame of van Hoogstraten grew to the point that he was able to share his knowledge as a teacher and author of a famous art treatise, Introduction to the Academy of Painting; or the Visible World. Upon his death at age 51, his holdings were auctioned off and today there's only a small glimpse into this talented man's works.

Scattered throughout this blog are examples of his perspectives boxes, the time and influence of studying with Rembrandt, and his trompe-l'oiel paintings. 

 

The Sphinx of Delft - Part Two

As I mentioned in last week's blog, very little is known about Vermeer (1632-1675). It's as if he arrived a fully-developed master painter into the Delft Guild of Saint Luke. To this day, the identity of his master(s), the nature of his training, and the period of his apprenticeship remain a mystery.

Naturally, this leaves room for speculation. The one thing certain is that styles of art, composition and subjects are a cultural matter and culture evolves slowly.

Artists generally start by copying popular styles and slowly developing their own individual expression. Based on that notion, it is possible to speculate that Vermeer was influenced by several contemporary painters.

Carel Fabritius (1622-1654), who apprenticed with Rembrandt, could have been an influence. His portraits were very similar to Rembrandt and he used perspective in innovative ways which seems to have influenced Vermeer.(left: Fabritius; right: Vermeer)



Another influence often speculated was Gerard Ter Borch (1617-1681), who painted "genre" or scenes of daily life. (Left: Ter Borch; right: Vermeer)



Then there was Pieter de Hooch, who lived in the same town as Vermeer and shared Vermeer's style and subject matter. His paintings, like Vermeer’s, are usually small and display the same great power of composition.



So, there you have it, dear reader. When you compare their styles and subjects, do you agree that Fabritius, ter Broch or de Hooch could have influenced Vermeer?

The Sphinx of Delft

The artist, Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), left no evidence of his biography except for a few legal documents. No confirmed images. No information about his art training. No evidence of having served an apprenticeship. Yet, he is in full bloom as a master painter in 1653 when he joined the Guild of Saint Luke - meaning he had completed an apprenticeship with someone, somewhere.

In fact, on three occasions, he served as head of the guild. So, why is there so little mention of him in the notes of other artists in the guild?

Vermeer needed money to support his wife and 11 surviving children, but it appears that he only produced 3 paintings a year and never took on apprentices. How did he manage?

All the questions led Théophile Thoré-Bürger, the 19th century art critic, to refer to Vermeer as the "Sphinx of Delft."

All the gaps in his background and his artworks have provided authors with a wonderful opportunity to make stuff up. There are many books of fiction about his subjects, his works and his life. If we can't know who was his master, at least we can know something about who influenced him - and that will be the subject of next week's blog.