In a world of increasing fragmentation, hostility, and disconnection, the paintings of Johannes Vermeer offer us a balm. How? How can the nearly 400 year old paintings of a nearly unknown artist in his time from a small town in the Netherlands offer us a vision of the healing we need? How can paintings help us be better neighbors, better citizens, better parents, and better workers?
As I visited the Netherlands in April 2023 for the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer exhibition, I slowly moved among the dispersed paintings in the galleries. From across the large gallery room nearly 100 feet away, someone’s eye caught mine. My breath caught for a moment and I made my way, almost magnetically, over to her. There she was frozen in time, eternally gazing out at me. And gazing at the 20 others crowded around to see her. She is known as the Meisje met de parel or Girl With a Pearl Earring. And though she has been frozen in time for centuries, still she looks out at us, and welcomes us in. There is a generosity, hospitality, and invitation to this painting. In fact, this is a hallmark of nearly all of Vermeer’s works.
Generosity
Many of Vermeer’s works are marked by an abundance. Sumptuous table carpets, true to life maps painted as background on the wall, fine Delft vases, richly ornamented glasses. Vermeer has a keen eye for what Oscar Wilde called ‘the art we live with.’ And as he paints these everyday objects with a generosity, the question for us is: will we see generously? Will we recognize the abundance and beauty that already fills each of our homes and share it with others? Will we create lives, homes, and communities that more richly embody and share the art we live with? Will we labor to develop temperaments exquisitely susceptible to beauty?
Hospitality
Nearly all of Vermeer’s subjects are caught ‘in the act’ or ‘mid-sentence.’ Many seem to have just stopped what they were doing to look up or glance over their shoulder at us. Vermeer’s subjects aren’t just seeing us, they are welcoming us in. Even when his subjects aren’t seeing us, there is a ‘just pulled back the curtain’ hospitality. We are not meant to see the painting so much as we are meant to see into the painting. We are meant to inhabit the space, as a welcome guest.
I wonder if Vermeer doesn’t offer us a model for how we ought to be living in this way as well. The latest technology ‘advances’ like the Apple Vision Pro offer us a “future in which people with enough disposable income can retreat from the physical world into the gated-face community of a 360-degree iPhone screen.” In contrast to the generous welcome of the world of Vermeer, the Vision Pro presents an invitation to tune-out the world. To retreat from those around us, to narrow our gaze and turn further inward. The question we are confronted with when seeing into Vermeer’s paintings is: will we receive the hospitality offered to us. Will we accept the gift of being seen?
Invitation
Vermeer offers us an invitation through his work. The invitation for us is to come and see. Then with the generosity and hospitality that we have been extended to go and do likewise. As the Girl With a Pearl Earring looks out at us we can almost hear her say ‘Won’t you join me?’ Will we recognize the generosity and goodness of the art we live with? Will we take that focused gaze directed upon us, and share that same welcoming, hospitable gaze with with others? Will we welcome, as we have been welcomed?