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Vermeer was born in the prosperous Dutch city of Delft in 1632. He lived only 43 years and during this short life he barely made ends meet with a dual career as an art dealer and painter. He left behind 34 works that we are sure were painted by Vermeer. Each work took him long periods to complete and were painted with very expensive materials thus turning very small profits if at all. He and his wife had 15 children and this large family would have been totally impoverished if his wife’s mother had not been able to support them. When he died, he was not famous and was soon totally forgotten. Then in 1860 an art critic rediscovered him—and the rest is history. In 2023 the Rikjsmuseum in Amsterdam presented the biggest show of Vermeer’s works ever and more people came to see it than any other exhibition in the museum’s history. What an art story: from a failure to an international art rock star!
William H. Fredlund, the Director of the Institute, obtained his B.A. and M.A. from UCLA, where he specialized in European history and art history. He studied in Italy on a Fulbright Fellowship and completed a double Ph.D. in history and humanities at Stanford, specializing in Renaissance Italy. Dr. Fredlund has taught for UCLA, the University of Florence, Stanford, and UCSC Extension.
