Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft, in the Dutch Republic, where his father was a silk weaver, innkeeper and art dealer. Little is known of his training. In 1653 he married Catharina Bolnes and joined the Delft painters' guild, which he later led. He spent his whole life in Delft, and the couple had fifteen children, eleven of whom survived. Vermeer worked slowly, and only about thirty-five paintings are known to be his. Most show one or two people in a quiet room lit by a window on the left: a maid pouring milk, a woman reading a letter, a girl at a music lesson. He used costly pigments such as natural ultramarine made from lapis lazuli. He also painted the View of Delft, a cityscape. His best-known work, Girl with a Pearl Earring, is not a portrait but a study of a face. When war with France in 1672 ruined the Dutch art market, he fell deep into debt, and he died suddenly in 1675. He was nearly forgotten until critics rediscovered him in the nineteenth century.

Faith: Married a Catholic woman in 1653; his own religious affiliation is not well documented. Source: Wikipedia