A painter who broke his own painting in history

Johannes Vermeer, one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, was known as the "Sphinx who slept for two centuries" and was a "mysterious painter". He is also known as

the master of light and shadow because he is good at using the source of light to create a flowing and elegant atmosphere in the picture.

However, such a great painter went bankrupt because the paint was too expensive!
Although Vermeer only left 35 oil paintings in his life, each painting was a fine workmanship after two to three years.

Vermeer has his own unique style of painting. He uses camera-like camera obscura technology to truly reproduce the daily home life of the middle class. Through the use of light and color in a limited

space, Vermeer makes the characters more tranquil, the space in the picture is more realistic, and his own understanding of the genre painting is conveyed through the characters and atmosphere in

the painting.

It’s hard to appreciate Vermeer’s works without being attracted by various blues, light blue, dark blue, sky blue...Different blues reflect different flavors
The "blue" used by Vermeer is not an ordinary blue paint. It has a very artistic name called Ultramarine. In ancient Europe, ultramarine was a substance five times more expensive than gold!
Ultramarine is produced from a long-lived golden gemstone-lapis lazuli, which was excavated from Afghanistan in Central Asia, through land and water, and finally reached Europe.
Such pigments, which are scarce in production, difficult to transport, and costly to purify, are rarely used by ordinary painters, so since the Renaissance, they are mostly used in religious themed paintings, so they are also called "Virgin Blue."
By the 17th century, in the golden age of Holland, painting themes had changed from religious to realistic genre paintings and figure paintings. Ultramarine is no longer a special color for religion, but because of the scarcity of raw materials and the increasing number of users, the price of ultramarine has risen instead of falling.

Under the situation where the price of ultramarine is still high, other painters carefully consider the use of ultramarine. They are very afraid of waste of paint in the process, and even more fear of

losing their own money. Vermeer does not use ultramarine so much. Worry, in order to express the ideal artistic effect, he doesn't care about the high price of ultramarine at all.

Although Vermeer runs a hotel and is still a painting dealer, these assets are not enough to support his love and dedication to ultramarine. At this time, I have to sigh the importance of having a wife who was born in a wealthy family. Vermeer's wife inherited a large amount of her mother's inheritance. Relying on his wife's support, she continued Vermeer's artistic creation for a long time.

However, good flowers don't bloom often, and good times don't always exist. The war disasters brought by Britain and France to the Netherlands and the problems of his own debt have brought

huge economic pressure to Vermeer, and these pressures made Vermeer fall into decadence and madness, and he passed away in just a day and a half.

Vermeer also became the only painter who was obsessed with ultramarine and went bankrupt. The reason why art is called art is not only because of the creator’s superb technique and unique personal style, but also because of the creator’s obsession and enthusiasm for art. Perhaps this also confirms that sentence, only paranoia. To succeed!