The Wine Glass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| The Glass of Wine |
| Johannes Vermeer, circa 1658–1660 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 25.5 × 30.25 cm |
| Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
The Wine Glass (Dutch: Het glas wijn), also known as The Glass of Wine and Lady and Gentleman Drinking Wine, is a painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer that portrays a seated woman and a standing man drinking in an interior setting. The work is, in many aspects, typical of the genre painting of the Delft School developed by Pieter de Hooch in the late 1650s. It contains figures situated in a brightly lit and spacious interior, while its architectural space is highly defined. In addition, the work's figures are set in the middle ground, rather than positioned in the foreground.[1]
Vermeer was about twenty-seven when he painted The Glass of Wine, and according to the critic Walter Liedtke "No analysis of artistic conventions can suggest the sheer beauty and extraordinary refinement of a painting like The Glass of Wine, which may be considered one of Vermeer's first fully mature works".[2]
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[edit] Figuration
The concept of figures drinking around a table, and the portrayal of a woman drinking from a glass are taken directly from De Hooch's A Dutch Courtyard. However, Vermeer's work breaks away from the prototypes of De Hooch in that the interior is rendered in a far more elegant and higher-class setting than the older master's works. The clothes of the figures, the patterned tablecloth, the gilded picture frame hanging on the back wall, and the coat of arms in the stained window glass all suggest a wealthier setting.[1]
Compared to his earlier paintings, Vermeer's brushwork in The Wine Glass is subdued, while the faces and clothes of the figures are depicted with wide smooth outlines. Only in the tapestry of the tablecloth and the window glass did the artist apply finely detailed linear brush strokes. At the time Vermeer was not the only Dutch artist attempting to develop the ideas of De Hooch; contemporary paintings from Jan Steen, Gerard Ter Borch, and Frans van Mieris also display a refined technique.
The painting shares elements with other Vermeer works. The Girl with the Wine Glass (1659–1660) portrays two men, but in common with The Wine Glass it has a woman seated at a table with a glass of wine, and the tiled floors and stained-glass windows in both are very similar.[3] The same wine pitcher appears in an earlier Vermeer, A Girl Asleep (1657).
The Wine Glass is a transitional work, and as such, is not commonly viewed as one of Vermeer's finest. According to the art critic Lawrence Gowing, it "…lacks the sociable fluency, the ingratiating inventiveness…" seen in Gabriel Metsu's The Duet. He sees Vermeer's understanding as finer but narrower.[4]
The painting is currently housed in the permanent collection of the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Wheelock, p.68.
- ^ Liedtke (2001), pp. 376-378.
- ^ Konowitz, Ellen (Autumn, 1998). "Vermeer: Reception and Interpretation. (Book Review)". Sixteenth Century Journal 29 (3): 817–819. doi:.
- ^ Janson, Jonathan. "The Glass of Wine". essentialvermeer.20m.com. Retrieved on 12 October 2007.
[edit] Sources
- Liedtke, Walter. "Vermeer and the Delft School". (New York), Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001. ISBN: 0-3000-8848-5.
- Wheelock, Arthur. "Vermeer". Yale University Press; 1st edition, 25 October 1995. ISBN: 0-3000-6558-2.
[edit] Further reading
- Gowing, Lawrence. "Vermeer". University of California Press; 1 edition 5 December 1997. ISBN: 0-5202-1276-2.
