Shop art print and framed art Le géographe by Johannes Vermeer

The Geographer (De geograaf) is a painting by Johannes Vermeer (oil on canvas, 53 × 46.6 cm) painted around 1668-1669, now in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main. The Astronomer, now in the Musée du Louvre, was long considered to be the counterpart of The Geographer, given the many similarities between the two works. Rarely seen in Vermeer's work, the two paintings are both dated and signed, and their execution appears to be contemporary, since The Astronomer bears the date "MDCLXVIII", i.e. 1668, painted on the armoire, while The Geographer bears the date "MDCLXVIIII", i.e. 1669, inscribed on the back wall in the upper right-hand corner of the canvas. The man used as a model is clearly the same: these are the only two Vermeer canvases to use a male figure as the sole subject, a figure that does not reappear in any other of his currently known works. Their dress is comparable: they wear the same "Japanese" silk dressing gown, probably made of silk, although their respective colours differ slightly - blue for the geographer, blue tending towards green for the astronomer - and the geographer's gown has a red-dyed fur trim, which is absent from the astronomer's gown. A reconstruction of the set has shown that the space depicted was identical, Vermeer having simply changed the angle and framing slightly from one painting to the next. The exterior opening on the left-hand wall, for example, is similar, a double window surmounted by a third occupying the entire width [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the baroque style.

 

Find the full description of Le géographe by Johannes Vermeer on Wikipedia.