Complete Catalogue of the Painting of Johannes Vermeer

To access the an INTERACTIVE STUDY of any painting in the catalogue, click on the title or thumbnail of the work below.

AUTHENTICITY There are thirty-four paintings which modern scholars overwhelmingly agree should be attributed to Johannes Vermeer of Delft.

Three works are included in this catalogue that have not received unanimous acceptance: Saint Praxedis, Girl with a Flute and Young Woman Seated at the Virginals (the latter not to be confused with the London National Gallery picture of similar title and motif).

1. After being initially accepted only by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. as an authentic work by Vermeer, leading scholar Gregor Weber has also enlisted the Saint Praxedis to Vermeer, but many scholars continue to reserve doubts. It has been listed in an appendix as work "A."

2. The Girl with a Flute was recently ousted from Vermeer's oeuvre by the National Gallery of Art, maintaining it is a work by an unknown frequenter of Vermeer's studio. Many scholars still accept it as authentic. It is accepted as no. 25 in the Essential Vermeer catalogue.

3. A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals (again, not to be confused with the London National Gallery picture of similar name and motif) was proposed as an authentic work Vermeer by leading a Vermeer expert Walter Liedtke and included it in his Vermeer: The Complete Catalogue of 2008 (no. 36). Since then Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Wayne Franits and the curators of the Rijksmuseum 2023 Vermeer exhibition have also accepted it as authentic.

Nonetheless, the lack of open scholarly discussion regarding this work has encouraged the author of this site to label this work as questionable. Current acceptance is largely based in scientific evidence which, however, has proven that the painting originated in the seventeenth century. It is the opinion of the author that further research and scholarly discussion is necessary. It has been listed in an appendix as work "B."

DATING Since only three Vermeer's paintings are dated by his own hand, the dates of each picture proposed in the Essential Vermeer catalogue covers the range of those estimated by four authoritative scholars of Dutch art and Vermeer: Albert Blankert (Vermeer: 1632–1675, 1975), Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (The Public and the Private in the Age of Vermeer, 2000), Walter Liedtke (Vermeer: The Complete Catalogue, 2008) and Wayne Franits (Vermeer, 2015). Catalogue numbers were calculated by averaging their total estimates.

For a complete table of estimated dates, including those the recent 2023 Vermeer retrospective at the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, click here.

TITLES Over the years, scholars and museums have given a number of titles to each of Vermeer's paintings. For the sake of uniformity, the titles used in this catalogue are those found in Arthur K. Wheelock's Vermeer and the Art of Painting (pp. 169–186).

VISITING THE REAL PAINTINGS Although digital imaging technology as applied to works of art has reached unparalleled levels of sophistication, experiencing a real painting cannot be adequately duplicated by such means. For this reason, the author of this website strongly encourages readers to visit the works which interest them most whenever it is possible. In any case, although EV makes best efforts to maintain the whereabouts of each painting up to date, ALWAYS contact the art collection where the paintings(s) you wish to see are housed BEFORE making travel plans.

Click here for a sortable table of all paintings by Vermeer.

Launch the EV Survey of Vermeer's Paintings and vote for your favorite Vermeer.