Vermeer's Family Secrets: Genius, Discovery, and the Unknown Apprentice (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Binstock resembles the detective Hercule Poirot in his methodical disentangling of the historical Vermeer from the accretion of too generous attributions and from the multiplicity of critical views, all directed to the uncovering of the artist whose autobiographical immersion in Delft, in home, and in family so fully constituted his art.—Richard Brilliant, Columbia University, author of Portraiture and My Laocoön: Alternative Claims in the Interpretation of Artworks

Impassioned and fascinating, this novel account of the intimate links between Vermeer’s art and life bristles with intelligence. It offers not only sympathetic and imaginative readings of the paintings, but questions some basic assumptions in art history. Anyone interested in Vermeer will be struck by Binstock’s audacity, erudition, and deep love of art.—Martha Hollander, Hofstra University, author of An Entrance for the Eyes: Space and Meaning in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art

Vermeers Family Secrets is a highly original and searching account of one of the most elusive of painters. Written with delightful verve, visual subtlety, and the courage to upend the platitudes and received wisdom of certain forms of art history, Binstocks book promises a revolution in the study of Vermeer, his circule, and his milieu.—Jonathan Gilmore, Yale University, author of The Life of a Style: Beginnings and Endings in the Narrative of Art History

This book offers strong, informed opinions, bold claims, and precise chronology about one of art history’s favorite painters. While Binstock’s forceful arguments are sure to be controversial, they will inevitably provoke fresh scholarly discussion and rekindle close examination of Vermeer’s luminous pictures (and those of Carel Fabritius).—Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania, author of Hieronymus Bosch and Rembrandt’s Faith (co-authored with Shelley Perlove)

Product Description

Johannes Vermeer, one of the greatest Dutch painters and for some the single greatest painter of all, produced a remarkably small corpus of work. In Vermeer's Family Secrets, Benjamin Binstock revolutionizes how we think about Vermeer's work and life. Vermeer, The Sphinx of Delft, is famously a mystery in art: despite the common claim that little is known of his biography, there is actually an abundance of fascinating information about Vermeer’s life that Binstock brings to bear on Vermeer’s art for the first time; he also offers new interpretations of several key documents pertaining to Vermeer that have been misunderstood. Lavishly illustrated with more than 180 black and white images and more than sixty color plates, the book also includes a remarkable color two-page spread that presents the entirety of Vermeer's oeuvre arranged in chronological order in 1/20 scale, demonstrating his gradual formal and conceptual development. No book on Vermeer has ever done this kind of visual comparison of his complete output. Like Poe's purloined letter, Vermeer's secrets are sometimes out in the open where everyone can see them. Benjamin Binstock shows us where to look. Piecing together evidence, the tools of art history, and his own intuitive skills, he gives us for the first time a history of Vermeer's work in light of Vermeer's life.

On almost every page of Vermeer's Family Secrets, there is a perception or an adjustment that rethinks what we know about Vermeer, his oeuvre, Dutch painting, and Western Art. Perhaps the most arresting revelation of Vermeer's Family Secrets is the final one: In response to inconsistencies in technique, materials, and artistic level, Binstock posits that several of the paintings accepted as canonical works by Vermeer, are in fact not by Vermeer at all but by his eldest daughter, Maria. How he argues this is one of the book's many pleasures.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 428 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (December 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415966647
• ISBN-13: 978-0415966641
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #470,613 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating, readable, informative, January 2, 2009

By	R Brooks (Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews

I found this book fascinating, readable and very informative. Binstock has a genuinely fresh perspective on both a star of the art world and the process by which such stars are made. I admire his ability to step away from standard wisdom and reconsider, for instance in being the first Vermeer scholar to attempt a chronological ordering of his work. He tries to explain inconsistencies others have left unexplained; no one can be correct 100% of the time but at least he is trying, and I enjoy following his reasoning.

The portait of Vermeer's family life, including the revelation of the identity of the "unknown apprentice", is immensely interesting and lots of fun. On the whole I find Binstock's conclusions very plausible. They may upset some but his path to them is authentic and he does an excellent job backing them up.

I think this is a good book for anyone who wants to learn about Vermeer as well as enjoy his paintings. Through his eloquence, his passion for his subject and an remarkable knack for identifying, connecting and making sense of critical detail, Binstock encourages us to grasp the whole of the man and the artist as best we can. To him, Vermeer and other artists are fit objects of passion and vital interest for anyone who has been moved by the works. I am not an art historian but I felt the respect the author has for me as someone who (like him) loves Vermeer.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Over 180 black and white images and over sixty color plates accompany insights key to understanding Vermeer and his era, February 13, 2009

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Any library strong in art history will relish Vermeer's Family Secrets: it provides a powerful ion-depth collection offering new solutions to the riddle of the 'Sphinx of Delft', providing the first detailed examination of Vermeer's family member as models and offering re-interpretations of essential documents about Vermeer. Over 180 black and white images and over sixty color plates accompany insights key to understanding Vermeer and his era.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Pinnacle of Vermeer Studies, January 6, 2009

By	Michael Prete (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Binstock has done what most art historians have failed to do in the past: apply rigorous scholarship into a fun, amusing, tour de force read. He has combined the canonical works on Vermeer and taken them one step further, presenting convincing arguments that piece together a plausable history of the "Sphinx of Delft."

The other reviews here unfairly portray the book as academic, but anyone with an interest in Vermeer, art history or art in general would be fascinated by the conclusions made, and the methods used along the way.