Video Documentaries

A team of ingenious art experts recreate The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, which was stolen from a Boston museum in 1990 in the biggest art heist of modern times.     Mystery of the Lost Paintings ep. 4 - Mystery of the Lost Vermeer The Concert (c. 1664) is a painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer which depicts a man and two women performing music. It belonged to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, but was stolen in 1990 and remains missing. On account of this circumstance, it has been the subject of a large number of popular allusions. The picture measures 72.5 by 64.7 centimetres and shows three musicians: a young woman sitting at a harpsichord, a man playing the lute, and a woman who is singing. The harpsichord's upturned lid is decorated with an Arcadian landscape; its bright coloring stands in contrast to the two paintings hanging on the wall to the right and left. A viola da gamba can be seen lying on the floor. The musicians are identified by their clothing a...

Dutch painter Jan Vermeer, the lowly son of an innkeeper and art dealer, lived an uneventful life, leaving fewer than 40 authenticated works and dying unknown outside his home town. Tim Marlow investigates how his talent came to be regarded as highly as Rembrandt's, and examines the simple domestic scenes that led to his posthumous rise to fame.  Great Artists This major 26-part series takes a fresh look at the most important artworks of some of the greatest artists in history. Shot on location in over fifty museums, churches and palaces throughout Europe and the United States, this series is a comprehensive survey of the history of Western art. Both intelligent and informative, it's the perfect introduction to the art of the Old Masters. This set contains all 26 episodes of the Great Artists series: Giotto , Leonardo , Durer , Michelangelo , Raphael , Titian , Bruegel , Rubens , Rembrandt , Vermeer, El Greco , Velazquez , Turner , Van Gogh, Piero della Francesca , Holbein , C...

Plunge into Johannes Vermeer world and rediscover this enigmatic master. One of the best known yet most mysterious painters of all time, he astonishingly ended up in oblivion. His work, reflecting everyday life in the 17th Century, has gained international recognition, despite only 37 paintings left behind. But who was this man, always portrayed as a solitary, who remained anonymous in his own day?   Discover the world of Vermeer, at times of economic boom and creative frenzy, in a small country that fostered the blossoming of hundreds of artists and thousands of exceptional paintings. This docudrama immerses us into 17th Century blooming Holland to rediscover Vermeer in a unique way. Unveiling the complexity and richness of the artist’s work, it reveals his painful fate, caught in a chaos that would lead him to an anonymous end. A beautiful voyage between present and past to understand how forgotten paintings finally became icons of our civilization. Johannes Vermeer Johannes Verm...

Girl with a Pearl Earring' by Johannes Vermeer is one of the most enduring paintings in the history of art, but despite its popularity, the painting itself is surrounded by mystery. Who was this girl, why and how was it painted, and why is it so revered? This film takes us on a journey through the masterpieces of the extensively-renovated Mauritshuis in The Hague in the Netherlands to try to answer many of the questions surrounding this enigmatic painting and its mysterious creator. Johannes Vermeer (October 1632 – December 1675) Was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime but evidently was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings. Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, and frequently used very expensive pigments. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in hi...