Master of stillness, silence and the poetry of everyday life, Jan Vermeer lived and worked in the small commercial town of Delft in Holland. He died at the age of forty-three in 1675, having produced some forty oil paintings, of which only thirty or so still survive. He left no drawings, sketches or writings. In fact, there is very little documentary evidence concerning the circumstances of his life. So all we are left with are his incomparably beautiful paintings.
