NEW YORK, NY.- Of the approximately thirty-four paintings attributed to Johannes Vermeer—whose extraordinary art has captivated viewers since his rediscovery in the nineteenth century—wall maps and other cartographic objects are depicted in nine of them, including The Frick Collection’s renowned Officer and Laughing Girl and the artist’s masterpiece in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, The Art of Painting. With stunning reproductions and incisive text, the Frick’s new publication, Vermeer’s Maps, is the most comprehensive study of the artist's depiction of wall maps to date. Drawing on rare surviving examples of the physical maps and other primary sources, author Rozemarijn Landsman examines this intriguing aspect of Vermeer’s work, greatly enriching and expanding our understanding of the art and life of the “Sphinx of Delft.”

As Landsman writes in the book’s introduction, “While scholars continue to remark on the prominence of maps in Vermeer’s art, these objects are rarely the center of attention. […] Questions about the maps in Vermeer’s paintings linger: What kinds of maps are they? How were they made? For whom were they produced? What were their functions? Above all, the questions of what maps meant for Vermeer and his art and what may have motivated him to choose these specific objects to adorn his painted walls remain to be addressed.” A doctoral candidate at Columbia University, Landsman was the 2019–21 Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow at The Frick Collection.

Vermeer’s Maps is being published in October 2022 by The Frick Collection in association with DelMonico Books/D.A.P. New York. The 128-page hardcover volume includes 68 color images and 30 in black and white ($39.95, member price $31.96). It includes a foreword by Ian Wardropper, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director of the Frick, followed by Landsman’s introduction and her essays on maps and mapmakers in seventeenth-century Holland and Vermeer’s particular interest in rendering cartographic works, interpreting their significance to him and to his audience. The publication can be pre-ordered online at shop.frick.org by emailing sales@frick.org, or by calling 212.547.6849. It will also be available for purchase at the Museum Shop at Frick Madison this fall.

Few known documents record the early life of the Delft-born artist Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), and none describe his artistic training, which has been the subject of much speculation. Vermeer’s work commanded high prices during his lifetime. However, the expenses of his large family, his unsold inventory as a painter and art dealer, and the economic downturn of the 1670s in the Netherlands appear to have depleted his resources to the extent that he died in debt at the age of forty-three. Today, only thirty-four paintings are generally accepted to be by Vermeer’s hand, of which three are in The Frick Collection.