Master of Light: Vermeer was a painter of light and genre art. He worked and lived in Delft. He left no letters and no drawings. He did around 60 paintings of which only 36 survived. The themes he chose were what he encountered in daily life. There is a brilliant use of day light always coming from a window, which is on one side of the room. The light bathes the room. It lights on the figures. You never see anything outside the window, it’s always only light. His use of light playing on different textures that he wants to portray, which have different meanings. Shadows are transparent and there is always clarity of form. He has used pointillism and impasto techniques way before impressionists.

His paintings were calculated. He had a mastery of perception. He designed his painting very carefully. He calculated his effects, every stroke, every part of the painting had a meaning.

He had great expertise in painting textures. His colors are intense. In his painting the girl with red hat , he highlights the dress not with light blue but with yellow which is opposite to blue and that brings the sheen to it. He works in glazes and specially blues are very thinly painted. He uses colors very selectively. Suggestion of form, suggestion of space, suggestion of color, suggestion of narrative, suggestion of emotional energy done with very minimum means.