The Astronomer (Dutch: De astronoom) is a painting finished in about 1668 by the Dutch Golden Age painterJohannes Vermeer. It is in oil on canvas, 51 cm × 45 cm (20 in × 18 in), and is on display at the Louvre, in Paris, France.[1]
Johannes Vermeer, The Geographer 1668-69 oil on canvas; 53×47 cm. Steadelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, Germany. The Geographer used the same model and other elements as The Astronomer.
Portrayals of scientists were a favourite topic in 17th-century Dutch painting[1] and Vermeer's oeuvre includes both this astronomer and the slightly later The Geographer. Both are believed to portray the same man,[2][3][4] possibly Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.[5] A 2017 study indicated that the canvas for the two works came from the same bolt of material, confirming their close relationship.[6]
The astronomer's profession is shown by the celestial globe (version by Jodocus Hondius) and the book on the table, the 1621 edition of Adriaan Metius's Institutiones Astronomicae Geographicae.[2][3][4][7] Symbolically, the volume is open to Book III, a section advising the astronomer to seek "inspiration from God" and the painting on the wall shows the Finding of Moses—Moses may represent knowledge and science ("learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians").[8]
Provenance[]
1720 catalog listing the work.
The provenance of The Astronomer can be traced back to 27 April 1713, when it was sold at the Rotterdam sale of an unknown collector (possibly [nl] or his father, of Rotterdam) together with The Geographer. The presumed buyer was , whose estate sale held in Amsterdam on 28 March 1720 included both The Astronomer and The Geographer, which were described as ‘Een Astrologist: door Vermeer van Delft, extra puyk’ (An Astrologist by Vermeer of Delft, topnotch) and ‘Een weerga, van ditto, niet minder’ (Similar by ditto, no less).
Between 1881 and 1888 it was sold by the Paris art dealer to the banker and art collector Alphonse James de Rothschild, after whose death it was inherited by his son, Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild. In 1940 it was seized from his hotel in Paris by the NaziEinsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg für die Besetzten Gebiete[clarification needed] after the German invasion of France. A small swastika was stamped on the back in black ink. The painting was returned to the Rothschilds after the war, and was acquired by the French state as giving in payment of inheritance taxes in 1983[9][10] and then exhibited at the Louvre since 1983.[10][11][12]
David: Andromache Mourning Hector; The Coronation of Napoleon; The Intervention of the Sabine Women; Leonidas at Thermopylae; The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons; The Loves of Paris and Helen; Minerva Fighting Mars; Oath of the Horatii; Portrait of Madame Marie-Louise Trudaine; Portrait of Madame Récamier; Portrait of Pope Pius VII; Self-portrait; Unfinished portrait of General Bonaparte
La Tour: The Adoration of the Shepherds; The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds; Joseph the Carpenter; Magdalene with the Smoking Flame; Saint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene
Philippe de Champaigne: Ex-Voto de 1662
Poussin: Et in Arcadia ego; The Four Seasons; The Funeral of Phocion; The Inspiration of the Poet; Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice
Bellini: Christ Blessing; Madonna and Child with Saint Peter and Saint Sebastian; Portrait of a Young Man
Botticelli: Three Scenes from the Life of Esther; Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman; A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts
Caravaggio: Death of the Virgin; The Fortune Teller; Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page
European maritime exploration of Australia (Janszoon voyage of 1605–06, Brouwer Route, Hartog's Plate, Eendrachtsland, Anthoonij van Diemens Landt, Nova Hollandia/Nieuw Holland)
European land exploration of Australia
Dutch discovery, exploration and mapping of Australasia (cartography of Australasia)
Dutch discovery, exploration and mapping of Nova Hollandia (cartography of Australia / New Holland)
Dutch discovery, exploration and mapping of Tasmania/Van Diemen's Land (cartography of Tasmania)
Dutch discovery, exploration and mapping of the Australian continent (cartography of the Australian continent)
Dutch discovery, exploration and mapping of the Australian mainland (cartography of the Australian mainland)
Dutch discovery, exploration and mapping of Nova Zeelandia (cartography of New Zealand / Nova Zeelandia)
Dutch exploration and mapping of Taiwan/Formosa (cartography of Taiwan/Formosa)
Dutch exploration and mapping of the East Indies (cartography of the East Indies)
Dutch exploration and mapping of Southern Africa (cartography of Southern Africa)
Dutch exploration and mapping of South Africa (cartography of South Africa)
Dutch exploration and mapping of the Americas
Dutch exploration and mapping of the Pacific
Dutch discovery and exploration of Easter Island
VOC cartography (cartography in the VOC World)
WIC/GWIC cartography (cartography in the WIC/GWIC World)
Dutch colonial cartography
Science and technology in the Dutch Republic (Golden Age of Dutch science and technology)
History of cartography (First true atlas in the modern sense, 1570)
History of geography (First undisputed non-Indigenous discovery, exploration and mapping of Australasia, including the Australian continent and New Zealand, excluding New Guinea, 1606–1646)
History of geodesy and surveying (First published systematic uses of the triangulation method in modern surveying and mapmaking, 1533–1615)
History of navigation (First published use of the Mercator projection for maritime navigation, 1569; Discovery of the Brouwer Route, 1611)
History of hydrography (First printed nautical atlas in the modern sense, 1584)
History of selenography / lunar cartography (First published scientific map of the Moon with a topographical nomenclature, 1645)
History of uranography / celestial cartography (First documented systematic mapping of the far southern sky, 1595–1599)
Note: 1 Depictions of early modern Netherlandish cartography, geography and cosmography (especially in the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography, approximately 1570s–1670s) in works of art