Jan or Johannes Vermeer van Delft, who was born around 1632 and died in December 1675, was a Dutch genre painter who lived and worked in Delft and created some of the most exquisite paintings in Western art. His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All of his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. Vermeer possessed great o obstinacy