ARTS & MORE: Vermeer exhibition summer's hottest ticket

Picasso bragged he'd painted more than 1,000 pictures, while Warhol silk-screened an even greater number. At the opposite end of the art-prolificacy spectrum is Johannes Vermeer (1632-75), who in his lifetime produced only around 36 canvases.

Vermeer was born and died in Delft, a southwestern Dutch city known for blue-glazed pottery and a style of painting which gave the world a new way of looking at interiors and quotidian life.

The Delft painters brought to their work an uncompromising attention to composition, perspective and light, aided by the adoption of innovative materials, techniques and devices such as the camera obscura.

Vermeer's geometrically elegant results would earn him a place among the masters of the Dutch Golden Age, where his stature is exceeded only by Rembrandt.

Alas, the greatest accolade Vermeer personally experienced was being elected president of the local painters' guild--his work did not make it out of Delft until many years after he died in poverty.

While it is unfortunate that there are but 36 paintings in Vermeer's oeuvre, the good news is that seven of them are currently in Japan for the exhibition "Vermeer and the Delft Style" at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.

Vermeer's work is joined by more than 30 works from other Delft painters, and the show is complimented by thoughtful supporting materials, such as photographs presenting contemporary views of the scenes in the paintings.

The Delft painters' use of perspective adjustment techniques is well evidenced in a pair of paintings by Jan van der Heyden. The original view down the Oude Delft Canal is enhanced in a second painting executed 15 years later, in which the artist introduces variable vanishing points to more naturally place the viewer in the scene.

Also noteworthy among the pictures by Vermeer's contemporaries are four of only around 12 known works by infecund Rembrandt student Carel Fabritius; and Cornelis de Man's "A Man Weighing Gold," which finds a well-heeled dealer in his home, doing business with a pensive female customer. As in many of the paintings, there are often subtle suggestions as to relationships, status and circumstance.

Vermeer was especially adroit in this respect, as seen in "Woman Writing a Letter, With Her Maid." A finely attired woman sits at a table, writing a letter as her maid gazes toward the window which provides the room's illumination.

Details--the vacant chair out of place at the front of the table, the crumpled piece of paper lying on the tile floor--give clues to draw the viewer into the scene. Enhancing the intimacy is the viewpoint, which puts the viewer at the same height as the seated woman.

Another characteristic work is "A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals," which sees a young girl with hands resting on the keyboard and head turned to gaze slightly downward at the viewer, a soft smile on her face.

The show also features one of only two landscapes Vermeer painted. "The Little Street" is a delight--rich red brick punctuated by a doorway in which a woman sits sewing, her bright white clothing contrasting with the dark black interior behind her.

Contemporary technical analysis, including X-rays and infrareds, have revealed the ruthless self-editing that Vermeer brought to his canvases. There may not be many of them, but they approach perfection.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum will be deluged for the exhibition, which could be the most popular painting show in Asia this summer. If at all possible, visit during off-hours to avoid the crowds.

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"Vermeer and the Delft Style" is on view through Dec. 14 at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum near JR Ueno Station.

Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (until 8 p.m. Fridays). Closed Mondays (except Sept. 15, Oct. 13, Nov. 3 and 24), Sept. 16, Oct. 14, Nov. 4 and 25.

Visit or call 0570-060-060.(IHT/Asahi: August 15,2008)