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9781846147104

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This book is going to revolutionize the way we understand Vermeer. I read it slowly, feeling 'like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken'. How extraordinary to realise that things are not the way you have imagined all your life -- Peter Carey, twice winner of the Booker Prize Andrew Graham-Dixon places Vermeer's work in the context of its time. He convincingly makes clear that Vermeer's paintings are not simply atmospheric genre pieces, but coded works with a deeply religious meaning. In doing so, he presents a completely new vision of the artworks of Vermeer -- Professor Paul Abels, Leiden University

Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found is a powerfully persuasive investigation into the intellectual and devotional world of Vermeer and his circle. Painting by painting, the riddle of the Sphinx is masterfully unravelled ... [Andrew Graham-Dixon] trawls the archives, lays out new evidence, links pictures never linked before, and teases new meaning from signs, symbols and sitters ... His reading of the paintings is revelatory -- Laura Freeman * The Times * Densely researched and highly original .... this book is an extraordinary portrait, flooded with light and colour, and a splendid unfolding of the pressure of meaning in everyday life; in other words, it emulates the special charge of Vermeer’s paintings -- Kathryn Murphy * Literary Review * Graham-Dixon puts forward a revolutionary theory... Right, or wrong, it is a theory that will change the way people look at that famous pearl earring, as well as at the painter’s other luminous portraits of lone women -- Vanessa Thorpe * Observer * With the skill of a good showman and the meticulousness of a scholar, [Graham-Dixon] .... sets out to illuminate the elusive life of Johannes Vermeer [and] to solve the riddle of the ''Girl'' herself .... In his quest to decode Vermeer's work, he draws together a piercingly analytical gaze and some well-informed speculation ... There are few better writers to take on the task -- Evgenia Siokos * Telegraph * Andrew Graham-Dixon seeks to return Vermeer to the scene of his art ... [he] create[s] rich sense of the worlds that Vermeer inhabited, focus[ing] in particular on the remarkable and seemingly unique relationship that Vermeer had with his patrons ... This book is well-grounded in scholarship and the writing is lively and adroit -- Joe Moshenska * Financial Times * Eloquently argued, engagingly written and ultimately rather moving -- Michael Hall * Country Life * Graham-Dixon is an experienced and diligent writer on art, and the book contains much absorbing factual information about Vermeer's mysterious life and his circle ... [it] attempts to return Vermeer to his own period -- Philip Hensher * Financial Times * This book is going to revolutionize the way we understand Vermeer. I read it slowly, feeling 'like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken'. How extraordinary to realise that things are not the way you have imagined all your life -- Peter Carey, twice winner of the Booker Prize This is a phenomenal book. The research and originality are staggering, suddenly creating a coherent character simply out of understanding the religious, social and political setting properly. I was utterly absorbed by it -- Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of <i>Lower than the Angels</i> Andrew Graham-Dixon places Vermeer's work in the context of its time. He convincingly makes clear that Vermeer's paintings are not simply atmospheric genre pieces, but coded works with a deeply religious meaning. In doing so, he presents a completely new vision of the artworks of Vermeer -- Professor Paul Abels, Leiden University

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Andrew Graham-Dixon is an art historian, biographer and broadcaster who has made more BBC television series about art than any other presenter. He was for many years the main art critic of the Sunday Telegraph and Independent. Of his biography of Caravaggio, Peter Carey said 'it is a thrilling lesson in the art of seeing' and Neil MacGregor wrote 'the man and his work emerge enriched and enlightened.' It has been translated into many languages.

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