The Astronomer by Johannes Vermeer

Where? Second floor, room 837 of the Richelieu wing in the Louvre
When? 1668
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What do you see? A seated man with long hair inspects an astronomical globe in front of him. Next to the globe lays an astrolabe, an instrument to make astronomical measurements. In front of the astronomer is an open book on astronomy on the table. The book is opened on a section on the stars. There are also some other books on the table, as well as a divider tool. The table is covered with a blue-green, thick tapestry with yellow flower decorations.

The astronomer wears a voluminous blue cloak and gently touches the globe with his right hand. He is in the middle of his activities and Vermeer captures a frozen moment in time. It seems that he is making a discovery. The astronomer is the same person as the man in Vermeer’s The Geographer, which he painted one year later.

​In the background is a large closet with books on top of it. In front of the closet hangs a drawing of a chart with radial lines on it (a celestial planisphere). Below this chart is the inscription of Vermeer’s name and the date of the painting.

On the right side of the wall hangs a painting on The Finding of Moses, which may be another painting by Vermeer that has gone missing. The Finding of Moses is also used in the background of Vermeer’s Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid in the National Gallery of Ireland.

The Geographer by Vermeer

Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid by Vermeer

Light: ​The light is coming through the window on the left and Vermeer masterfully incorporates this light into the painting. The light illuminates the globe, the face and hands of the astronomer, and part of the tapestry of the table.
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Backstory: This painting was sold several times together with The Geographer by Vermeer. The two paintings were probably companion pieces given the many similarities between the two (the same man, tapestry, and closet, as well as the similarity in the size and fabric of the paintings).

The two professions often went together. A geographer was often also an astronomer at that time, as geography was related to the positioning of the stars. Globe makers at that time usually made both a celestial and a terrestrial globe. The terrestrial globe can be seen in Vermeer’s The Geographer.

​The Astronomer was considered the better of the two paintings. For example, in 1797, The Geographer was sold for an equivalent of $53 and The Astronomer for $108, both at the same auction. The painting has been in the Louvre since 1983.

Who is Vermeer? Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) was a perfectionist in his paintings and did not quickly produce his works to earn money. However, because of this, and the eleven surviving children that he had, he died as a poor man suffering from depression. He often took multiple months to finish a painting and regularly completely repainted big parts of a painting. He is known for his brilliant use of light in his works and may have been inspired by Caravaggio for that.

​Vermeer had a preference for females in his paintings, and this is only one of two paintings in which a solitary man was depicted (the other one being The Geographer in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt). No known image of Vermeer has ever been painted. He is mainly remembered for his genre pieces, which include The Lacemaker in the Louvre and The Milkmaid in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The Lacemaker by Vermeer

The Milkmaid by Vermeer

Fun fact: Jacob Hondius created the celestial globe in this painting in 1600. It is the oldest known celestial globe in the world and is currently on display in the Scheepvaart Museum in Amsterdam (a great picture of the globe can be found on their website).

​The Dutch book in front of the astronomer is the second edition of Basic Volume on Geography and Astronomy (Google Books link) by Adriaan Metius (which means Adriaan the Measurer) from 1621. It is opened to the first two pages of the Third Book (pages 108 and 109), entitled On the Investigation or Observation of Stars. On the left page of the book is a cartwheel astrolabe invented by Metius, while the right page is full of text. The text describes that measurement tools, geometry, and inspiration from God are necessary for astronomical research.

Adriaan Metius

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Written by Eelco Kappe

References:

• Hale, Philip L. (1913), Jan Vermeer of Delft, Small, Maynard and Company, Boston, MA.
• Potter, Polyxeni (2004), “Johannes [Jan] Vermeer (1632–1675). The Astronomer (1668),” Emerging Infectious Diseases, 10(1), 162–163.
• Welu, James (1986), “Vermeer's Astronomer: Observations on an Open Book,” The Art Bulletin, 68(2), 263-267.
• www.essentialvermeer.com/cat_about/astronomer.html#.WmtKmmnwapo​