CODART Canon

View of Delft

Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1660 — 1661
Mauritshuis, The Hague

The magnificent View of Delft, painted by Johannes Vermeer around 1660, is probably the best-known cityscape in the history of seventeenth-century Dutch art. But why does this painting seduce with such compelling power? Its charm is undoubtedly due in part to the purity of the light in which Vermeer plunged it, as well as to the subtle and rigorous construction that animates it, resting on large horizontals (water, city, sky). Strikingly, the clouds occupy a decisive place in the painting, as if the beauty of nature serves as a backdrop to the city. The color blue punctuates all the painting’s planes, from the sky to the metallic reflections of the water. With his poetic re-composition of the elements of reality, Vermeer arrives at an image of ideal harmony. Unlike images intended to emphasize the accurate features of a place, View of Delft is a personal and lyrical painting.

— Blaise Ducos, Curator of Seventeenth– and Eighteenth–century Dutch and Flemish Paintings, Musée du Louvre, Paris