The Jesuit Church on the Oude Langendijk in Delft, circa 1730, brush in gray ink, by Abraham Rademaker, coll. Stadsarchief Delft

Another pronunciation, / v ɛər ˈ m ɪər/ vair- MEER, is attested from the UK. v ər ˈ m ɛər/ vər- MAIR is also documented. The usual English pronunciation is / v ər ˈ m ɪər/ vər- MEER, with / v ɜːr ˈ m ɪər/ vur- MEER, with a long first vowel, also occurring in the UK. In Dutch, Vermeer is pronounced, and Johannes Vermeer as, with /v/ assimilating to the preceding voiceless /s/ as. Also, like Rembrandt, he was an avid art collector and dealer. Similar to other major Dutch Golden Age artists such as Frans Hals and Rembrandt, Vermeer never went abroad. Since that time, Vermeer's reputation has grown enormously. In the 19th century, Vermeer was rediscovered by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who published an essay attributing 66 pictures to him, although only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him today. He was barely mentioned in Arnold Houbraken's major source book on 17th-century Dutch painting ( Grand Theatre of Dutch Painters and Women Artists, pub 1718) and was thus omitted from subsequent surveys of Dutch art for nearly two centuries. His modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death. 'Almost all his paintings', Hans Koningsberger wrote, 'are apparently set in two smallish rooms in his house in Delft they show the same furniture and decorations in various arrangements and they often portray the same people, mostly women.' He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work. Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, and frequently used very expensive pigments. He was not wealthy at his death, leaving his wife in debt.

He produced relatively few paintings, primarily earning his living as an art dealer.

During his lifetime, he was a moderately successful provincial genre painter, recognized in Delft and The Hague. He is acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Johannes Vermeer ( / v ər ˈ m ɪər, v ər ˈ m ɛər/ vər- MEER, vər- MAIR, Dutch:, see below also known as Jan Vermeer October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life.

Vermeer, 1632-1675 by Norbert Schneider