Uploaded July 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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This video is an attempt to better understand Vermeer's Officer and Laughing Girl, but it takes the long way. In the video I explain the historical context of Dutch Genre Painting and some of the iconography associated with this style of painting.

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References

Brook, T. (2010). Vermeer’s Hat: The seventeenth century and the dawn of the global world. Profile Books.
Helgerson, R. (1997). Soldiers and enigmatic girls: The politics of dutch domestic realism, 1650-1672. Representations, 58, 49–87. doi.org/10.2307/2928823
Schama, S. (1988). The embarrassment of riches: An interpretation of dutch culture in the golden age. Univ of California Press.