Andrew Graham-Dixon talked about his new book, Vermeer—A Life Lost and Found.
He has been working on the book since 1998, determined to find the key to the mystery of Vermeer’s pictures. It all went back to the death of a lady in Delft in 1683, leaving behind two thirds of all the artist’s known paintings.
It turned out that the woman and her mother, who commissioned the pictures, were Collegiants and Remonstrants – Christian groups. 80 per cent of those groups were women – thus the preponderance of women in Vermeer’s pictures.
In another scoop, Graham-Dixon discovered the house where those paintings were found – in the porter’s lodge at a Remonstrant institution in Delft.
The book, said Graham-Dixon, proves all other books about Vermeer wrong.
The lunch was kindly sponsored by Hebridean Island Cruises.
