Johannes Vermeer is now recognized as one of the great Dutch painters, but while he was alive he could barely make ends meet, and his artistic achievement was almost entirely ignored for 200 years after his death.

Little is known about his personal life, other than he died poor and young and left behind a wife and eleven children.

Vermeer is admired for his realistic style, his subtle use of color and light and his unusual and inventive brush technique, but fewer than forty of his paintings exist. His most famous works include domestic scenes such as Girl With a Pearl Earring (1665) and The Music Lesson (1662-65), and tranquil landscapes such as The Little Street (1657-58) and View of Delft (1659-60).

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Only thirty-five paintings have been ascribed to him. There is evidence to show he painted more works and it may be supposed he painted some forty-five to sixty paintings between 1653 and 1675, in other words just two or three a year.

What is unknown is any personal documents, drawings, studies or letters.

He was baptised Joannis in Delft's New Church. He was the second child and first son of Reynier Jansz. Vos and Digna Baltens. For reasons unknown, his father only started to use Vermeer as the family surname in 1640.

In April 1653, Vermeer married Catharina Bolnes. The marriage ceremony is held in Schipluiden, about an hour's walk from Delft.

Vermeer converted to Catholicism shortly before his marriage.

In 1660 Vermeer and Catharina Bolnes, together with Maria Thins, his mother-in-law, moved into a building on Delft's Oude Langendijk.

Maria Thins lived apart from her husband, Reynier Bolnes, from 1641.

The large-scale View of Delft was not a commission. This meant that its high production costs had to be borne by Vermeer himself.

Vermeer was elected head of Guild of St. Luke in 1662.

It is known that by 1669 he was already recognised as an artist beyond the confines of Delft. Pieter Teding von Berckhout, a well-known burgess of The Hague, visited his studio in this year and praised the artist's paintings.

It is in 1672 when Vermeer experiences great financial difficulties because of the dire economic situation following the French invasion under King Louis XIV.

A consequence of Vermeer's exacting and time-consuming style of painting was that his output was far smaller than that of his contemporaries.

The problem for anyone interested in Vermeer is that there is precious little detail of his life. Lost in the midsts of Time. History really has swallowed him up and left us few signposts to find the road back to Vermeer. Apart from a few dates and a few hard facts we have nothing but the paintings, invariably hypnotic little pieces of figures forever enclosed in the walls of meticulousness rooms. Thus we know not, and will never do so, how he arrived at the subject matter of the master works.

Between 1655 and 1674, he had only one buyer, a Pieter Claesz. Van Ruijven (1624-74) and his wife. As members of Delft's upper classes, they had a considerable fortune at their disposal. This meant, of course, that yet again Vermeer's paintings did not leave Delft and that his work could only be seen in the private collection of one family.

Except for the Allegory of Faith, no other commissioned work is known by Vermeer. The painting was commissioned by Delft's Jesuit Order.

Delft's most famous artist just as Vermeer was becoming established was Leonard Bramer (1596-1674).

Both his mother and elder sister, his only sibling, died in 1670. Both are buried in Delft's New Church.

Through her cousin Jan Geensz. Thins, Maria Thins (mother-in-law) was distantly related to the renowned Utrecht painter Abraham Bloemaert. She owned a small collection of pictures by members of the Utrecht school that she and her siblngs had inherited from their parents and so was familiar with painting. Vermeer knew certain works in her collection and drew on them in his own interior scenes; they are seen as paintings within paintings on the back walls in some of his works.

In View of Delft, Vermeer shows us Delft from the south with its harbour alongside the canal leading to Rotterdam, Schiedam and Delfshaven. The painting was signed by Vermeer in the left-hand corner on the boat; although it is not dated, it was presumably painted around 1660-61.

In 1674 his father-in-law Reynier Bolnes died and he trabelled to Gouda to settle his estate.

He died aged 43. He is buried in the family grave in Delft's Old Church.

Vermeer's use of a 'pointillistic' technique, with which he creates a diffuse light, causes a certain fuzziness that becomes apparent only when the painting is viewed at close range. At a distance, his details blend to form a picture that gives an overall homogenous, atmospheric effect.

Johannes Vermeer: The works, in date order, are as follows and details of where each painting is housed. Low quality scans - to see really beaufiful reproductions then get the book Vermeer's World. Direct link to this book @ ebay.co.uk. Nothing on the internet comes close to seeing a Vermeer in real life or, failing that, obtaining a book with top quality reproductions. Moreover it supports the book in question - encourages publishers to publish more and supports the author. The book in question is hardly expensive so if you can support the book before it becomes extinct or as dead as the Dodo. Make a difference in the world - buy something that means something to someone else. Don't just walk on by.

Saint Praxedes (Detail), 1655
Oil on canvas, 101.6 x 82.6 cm
The Barbara Piasecka Johnson
Collection Foundation, Princeton

Christ in the House of Mary and Martha (Detail), c. 1655
Oil on canvas, 160 x 142 cm
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh

Diana and her Companions (Detail), c. 1655-56
Oil on canvas, 97.8 x 104.6 cm
Royal College of Paintings
Mauritshuis, The Hague

The Procuress, c. 1656
Oil on canvas, 143 x 130 cm
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,
Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

Sleeping Girl, c. 1657-56
Oil on canvas, 87.6 x 76.5 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, Bequest of Benjamin Altman

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (Detail), c. 1657
Oil on canvas, 83 x 54.5 cm
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

The Little Street, c. 1657-58
Oil on canvas, 52.3 x 43.5 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Soldier with a Laughing Girl (Detail), c. 1658-60
Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 45 cm
The Frick Collection, New York

The Milkmaid (Detail), c. 1658-60
Oil on canvas, 45.4 x 40.6 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Glass of Wine (Detail), c. 1658-60
Oil on canvas, 65 x 77 cm
Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen,
PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin

The Girl with the Wineglass, c. 1659-60
Oil on canvas, 77.5 x 66.7 cm
Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick

View of Delft (Detail), c. 1660-61
Oil on canvas, 96.5 x 115.7 cm
Royal Cabinet of Paintings
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Girl Interrupted at her Music, c. 1660-61
Oil on canvas, 39.9 x 44.4 cm
The Frick Collection, New York

The Music Lesson (Detail), c. 1662-64
Oil on canvas, 74 x 64.5 cm
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11, The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle

Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (Detail), c. 1663-64
Oil on canvas, 46.6 x 39.1 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Woman Holding a Balance (Detail), c. 1664
Oil on canvas, 40.3 x 35.6 cm
The National Gallery of Art
Washington D.C., Widener Collection

Woman with a Pearl Necklace (Detail), c. 1664
Oil on canvas, 51.2 x 45.1 cm
Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen
PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin

Woman with a Lute (Detail), c. 1664
Oil on canvas, 51.4 x 45.7 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Bequest of Collis P Huntingdon, 1900

Woman with a Water Jug (Detail), c. 1664-65
Oil on canvas, 45.7 x 40.6 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889, Marquand Collection

The Pearl Earring (Detail), c. 1665
Oil on canvas, 44.5 x 39 cm
Royal Cabinet of Paintings
Mauritshuis, The Hague

A Lady Writing, c. 1665
Oil on canvas, 45 x 39.9 cm
The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Gift of Harry Waldron Havemeyer and Horace Havemeyer Jr, in memory of their father Horace Havemeyer

Girl with a Red Hat (Detail), c. 1665
Oil on canvas, 22.8 x 18 cm
The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Andrew W. Mellon Collection

The Concert (Detail), c. 1665-66
Oil on canvas, 72.5 x 64.7 cm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

The Art of Painting (Detail), c. 1666-67
Oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Portrait of a Yong Woman, c. 1666-67
Oil on canvas, 44.5 x 40 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Gift of Mr. and Mrs Charles Wrightsman, in memory of Theodore Rousseau, 1979

Mistress and Maid, c. 1667-68
Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 78.7 cm
The Frick Collection, New York

The Astronomer (Detail), 1668
Oil on canvas, 51.5 x 45.5 cm
Musee du Louvre, Paris

The Geographer (Detail), 1669
Oil on canvas, 51.6 x 45.4 cm
Stadelsches Kunstinstitut,
Frankfurt am Main

The Lacemaker (Detail), c. 1669-70
Oil on canvas, 23.9 x 20.5 cm
Musee du Louvre, Paris

The Love Letter (Detail), c. 1669-70
Oil on canvas, 44 x 38 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Guitar Player, c. 1670
Oil on canvas, 53 x 45.3 cm
English Heritage as Trustees of the Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood House, London

A Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, c. 1670
Oil on canvas, 72.2 x 59.7 cm
The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Allegory of Faith (Detail), c. 1671-74
Oil on canvas, 114.3 x 88.9 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931

A Lady Standing at the Virginal, c. 1672-73
Oil on canvas, 51.8 x 45.2 cm
The National Gallery, London

A Lady Seated at the Virginal, c. 1675
Oil on canvas, 51.1 x 45.6 cm
The National Gallery, London

A Young Woman with a Flute (Attributed to Vermeer), c. 1665-70
Oil on panel, 20.3 x 17.8 cm
The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Widener Collection

Source for 'More': The excellent reference book on Vermeer, beautifully presented with top quality reproductions: Vermeer's World by Prestel. Direct link to this book @ ebay.co.uk