The Milkmaid (detail) (canvas without frame)

Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) was a Dutch Baroque painter, born in Delft where he lived and worked his whole life. Although Vermeer began as an art salesman, he considered himself more of a painter. He only worked on commission and did not produce more than two or three paintings a year. This allowed him to provide for his wife and their eleven children. Vermeer worked the blues and yellows like no other painter. Considered the "master of Dutch light", his "Portrait of the Girl with the Pearl" is sometimes called "Mona Lisa of the North". Johannes Vermeer painted only 45 paintings in his lifetime, 35 of which have survived to this day. The painter is placed, with Rembrandt and Frans Hals, among the masters of the Dutch Golden Age.