The Astronomer

Vermeer painted this astronomer in 1668, in his house on the Oude Langendijk in Delft. He was 36, painting slowly, producing perhaps two or three canvases a year, and this is one of only two surviving paintings that show a male figure alone in a room. The other is The Geographer, painted the same year, which may be its companion piece. A man in a blue robe sits at a table, leaning forward to touch a celestial globe with his right hand. His left hand rests on the table, gripping the edge. He is looking at the globe, his face in profile, his expression intent. On the table beside the globe, a large open book, identified by scholars as Adriaan Metius's Institutiones astronomicae et geographicae, a standard astronomy textbook of the period. On the wall behind him, a painting of the Finding of Moses, visible as a dark rectangle in the upper right. The painting is about the pursuit of knowledge. Vermeer painted the astronomer at the moment of discovery, his hand on the globe, his eyes on the stars that the globe represents. The book on the table is open to a page that advises the reader to seek inspiration from God in the study of astronomy. The painting of Moses on the wall may be a reference to divine revelation, Moses having received the law from God on Mount Sinai. Vermeer had been painting domestic interiors for about a decade when he produced this canvas. His paintings of women reading letters, playing instruments, and pouring milk are better known, but his two scholar paintings, The Astronomer and The Geographer, show a different side of his work. The models for both paintings may be the same man, possibly Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the Delft microscopist who was Vermeer's contemporary and who was appointed executor of Vermeer's estate in 1675. Oil on canvas, 51 by 45 centimeters, roughly 20 by 18 inches. Vermeer painted with a smooth, controlled surface, building the blue robe in thin layers of natural ultramarine over a light ground. The globe is rendered with careful attention to the constellations visible on its surface, each star a tiny dot of white paint. The light comes from the window at the left, falling on the globe, the book, and the astronomer's face in a soft, even wash. The nearly square format and quiet subject make this print work well in a study, office, or library. The scholarly subject suits an academic setting or a room with books. A dark wood frame matches the painting's tonal range. The 12x16 or 16x20 size gives the globe and the book enough detail to appreciate up close. The painting is in the Louvre in Paris, where it has been since 1983, when it was acquired from the Rothschild collection. This is a public domain artwork. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.