Jan Vermeer
Artist
The artist Jan Vermeer apparently produced fewer than 40 paintings in his lifetime. Despite this he has become one of the most respected of the Dutch tradition. Most of Vermeer's paintings are serene, luminous interiors populated by one or two figures. His most famous paiting inspired novelist Tracy Chevalier to write Girl with a Pearl Earring in which she imagines the life of the girl in Vermeer's painting of the same name.
