A couple of days ago I was told to watch a movie called, “Tim’s Vermeer”.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to, some myths are not meant to be solved, but at the same time the concept of what Tim Jenison was proposing intrigued me.  At the end of the day Vermeer was a master, whether he used optics or not.  It could be argued that this was a vanity project.  Maybe it was, I don’t know, and neither do I care.  His study was a fascinating insight, as well as a possible solution into a possibility, that the art world has been pondering over for years.

The irony of a documentary about Vermeer using mirrors and optics to create this masterpiece of composition, light, and detail being created and directed by the magicians Penn and Teller was not lost on me!  It’s a brilliant theory which falls flat in my mind when looking at a Vermeer in real life.  The idea considering X-rays of Vermeer originals show no indication of pencil sketches under the paint makes Tim’s and others theories very feasible.  Looking at the documentary from this angle it was fascinating.  As an artist I found it frustrating.  The final rendering was flat and lacking in vibrancy telling me there is so much more to a Vermeer than just this theory.  And as for the documentary content! I would have preferred to see less of how he lathed exact replicas of the chair, and more on the science behind how he mixed those paint’s and varnishes to their original formula.

Jenison believes Vermeer himself used a mirror and camera obscura to get his “photographic” views. Manufacturing and working with such an arrangement, over a period of about 5 years, Jenison reproduces a painting that both he and the film-makers see as a convincing Vermeer.  The Music Lesson was in an exhibition at the National Gallery and is a painting of hypnotic intrigue, as are all Vermeer’s in my mind.  Definitely a painting to get obsessed with. What I find unusual, is Tim Jenison never speaks with any passion of the painting, or any reverence for Vermeer, but rather for uncovering the conundrum of the method behind the painting. Neither he nor the filmmakers show any sense of the greatness of great art and I think that is what bothered me throughout the documentary.  In his obsession for solving the puzzle he forgot the mastery behind the art.  As fascinating as I found this documentary I felt it missed the true genius behind the art.  His statements that Vermeer looks “photographic” and “cinematic”, and the documentary focuses on proving that the artist’s magic lay in the use of an optical machine.  His final product, is in my mind, a very sophisticated paint by numbers.  The reality is for me, what this documentary uncovers is the failure of Jenison’s device to create any of the power of a real Vermeer.  It puts all these theories about painting and the camera obscura and “secret knowledge” in their place.  The tricks don’t matter.  If you are a master, irrespective of what tricks you use, the mastery will always shine through!

On the right is the real Vermeer.  On the left is Tim Jenisens recreation using his “invention”.  The softness and the subtlety of light in the original is just pure mastery in my mind and is completely lacking on the replica.  Yes he did replicate a possible technique used by Vermeer, but he did NOT replicate a Vermeer.  

Did Vermeer use some kind of camera obscura in his workshop? It seems highly possible. Philip Steadman’s book Vermeer’s Camera, cited in the film offers very strong circumstantial evidence that he did. Vermeer has to be a prime candidate for the experiments with optics that David Hockney thinks pre-modern artists engaged in.  Was the instrument hypothesised by Jenison the actual device Vermeer constructed for himself? Again, perfectly possible, I have no problem with the science of it all, or even that Vermeer may have used it.  All it tells me is Vermeer was passionate about recording exactly what he saw down to the smallest detail.  He was quite simply a perfectionist.  Did I enjoy the film? Yes.  Did it frustrate me? Yes, but it made me think, and most of all it has made me want to experiment with this and recreating and replicating photographic images in paint just to see how possible it is.  Tim Jenison’s curiosity is definitely infectious! And last, but not least, I loved the choice of music for the credit roll!