Paintings

The Astronomer

Johannes Vermeer

1668

A scholar leans toward a celestial globe, his hand touching it as light from a side window falls across his face and the table. On the desk lie an open book and an astrolabe. The painting is a study in contemplation and the pursuit of knowledge, characteristic of Vermeer’s serene, ordered interiors.

Historical Context

The picture was created at a time when science and exploration flourished in the Dutch Republic. The book on the table has been identified as a treatise on navigation and astronomy by Adriaan Metius. It is thought to be a pendant to The Geographer, now in Frankfurt, and both may have shared the same model, sometimes suggested to be the scientist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.

Provenance

Passed through Dutch and English collections before being acquired by Alphonse de Rothschild in Paris. It was seized by the Nazis during the Second World War and returned to the Rothschild family, who donated it to the Louvre in 1983 in lieu of inheritance tax.