There is a constant need for people to imagine the lives of those from the past. The artist Vermeer is no exception to this quest for knowledge. Barbra Shoup tries to fill the void of knowledge with her novel Vermeer’s Daughter. The story is told through the eyes of one of Vermeer’s daughters. Her name is Carelina. In the story, Vermeer eventually begins to teach her how to paint. While the story is well written, there are instances were Shoup dramatizes the story for the purpose of good fiction this leap makes for very good fiction after all, drama helps make for a good story. While it would be easy to claim, such a leap distorts the image of Vermeer. However, I feel that it does help to provide a slightly different insight into the life of Vermeer.
There are some archival gaps in the life of Vermeer, so both historians and non-historians have to make assumptions based on what they can piece together. In one case, one just does not have to provide the appropriate citations for how they made that assumption. In the author’s note, Shoup is up front and states that the book is fiction, and that the narrator is fictional. Shoup placed Carelina between the ages of two of the known daughters of Vermeer. In the author’s note as well, she mentions the books by Montias, Gowing, and several others as her sources for her work. It is commendable that Shoup gives credit for the works of others, the average reader cannot tell where the evidence begins, and the fictional coloration begins.
To add to the plot of the novel, Shoup makes Carelina’s birthday the day of the powder explosion in Delft. We know from Montias that artist Carel Fabritius died from his wounds. One of the charters in Shoup’s novel points to the fact that the narrator was named after the dead artists. Even if we will never find out just how close Vermeer and Fabriius were, one could view this plot twist as a way to show the impact that the explosion had on the painting community of Delft. Most artist had either moved to places that gave more opportunity by the year after the explosion, Vermeer was one of the only artists left. Perhaps for the sake of plot Shoup wanted to Vermeer to pass his knowledge on to the daughter that is named after his friend. There are several instances for drama in the life of Vermeer; most of them are a mixture of the stories behind the paintings, and Vermeer’s milieu. Even the number of children Vermeer had is still debated. Shoup mentions this in the author’s note. There is another point in which Shoup portrays Vermeer’s mother-in- law Maria Thins as a very course woman who could not stand or understand her son-in- law’s profession.
Maria Thins was a harsh woman Shoup’s novel, and we know through Montias’s book Vermeer and His Milieu that her married life was rather tumultuous and that her husband was a violent man who treated her horribly. The pattern continued to Maria Thins son who attacked his sister, Vermeer’s wife, while she was pregnant. Since Montias is not writing a work of fiction his account of the incident is more cut and dry. Shoup however takes it to the next level. Shoup adds to the tension of Williem’s presence, by saying that he tried to force Carelina, and her mother to go to the festival that was happened and drink until they become friends. While Montias claims that it is pure speculation that Vermeer created Woman Holding a Balance, Shoup makes one of the next scenes in the novel Catherina posed for the painting Woman Holding a Balance. Here the accuracy ends and the speculation for Shoup begins. In Shoup’s case, she does not have to claim that such an idea for the painting was just a supposition yet just such an idea is not harmful, since according to Montias, the painting was completed shortly after Williem’s attack on Cantreina.
Before Vermeer painted such beautiful pictures, he needed to be apprenticed for a time. However, there are no records of such an apprenticeship. This is a point where even historians have to get creative as the when and where he might have done it. Shoup mentions in the novel, that Vermeer did his apprenticeship in Gouda, and shortly after that, he met the artist Fabritius. Montias poses several theories on when and where Vermeer was apprenticed. One idea includes Vermeer splitting up his six years between teachers. Montias also poses the theory that Fabritius might have taught Vermeer. He however quickly, points out that such a theory can neither be confirmed nor denied. If such a theory exists then it, interesting that Shoup did not make him Vermeer’s teacher in the novel. Especially she portrays Fabritus as such an integral part of Vermeer’s life. Fabritius is such an integral role that the narrator mentions the painting referred to as goldfinch that her father had a cherished. We do know that Vermeer had three of his paintings in his possession at the time of his death, but one can only speculate as to how much he cherished them. For fiction’ sake one needs to be dramatic and say that Vermeer cherished a painting, while a historian can just state a fact and possibly speculate what happened based on the facts.
Shoup’s novel does have several correct components with regards to Vermeer’s life. She does however use her imagination to create a cohesive story. She manages to take the basic facts, and help shape Vermeer in a positive light, to show how his family and surroundings might have shaped his work.

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[ 1 ]. Barbra Shoup, Vermeer’s Daughter (Zionville: Guild Press Emmis Publishing, 2003),11.
[ 2 ]. ibid,161,162.
[ 3 ]. Ibid,29.
[ 4 ]. John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu:a Web of Social History Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1989), 137.
[ 5 ]. Barbra Shoup, Vermeer’s Daughter (Zionville: Guild Press Emmis Publishing, 2003), 134.
[ 6 ]. John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu:a Web of Social History Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1989), 137.
[ 7 ]. Barbra Shoup, Vermeer’s Daughter (Zionville: Guild Press Emmis Publishing, 2003), 21.
[ 8 ]. John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu:a Web of Social History Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1989), 118.
[ 9 ]. ibid, 162. And Barbra Shoup, Vermeer’s Daughter (Zionville: Guild Press Emmis Publishing, 2003), 51.
[ 10 ]. Barbra Shoup, Vermeer’s Daughter (Zionville: Guild Press Emmis Publishing, 2003), 51.
[ 11 ]. John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu:a Web of Social History Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1989), 162.
[ 12 ]. Barbra Shoup, Vermeer’s Daughter (Zionville: Guild Press Emmis Publishing, 2003), 84.
[ 13 ]. John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu:a Web of Social History Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1989), 103.
[ 14 ]. Barbra Shoup, Vermeer’s Daughter (Zionville: Guild Press Emmis Publishing, 2003), 134.
[ 15 ]. John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu:a Web of Social History Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1989), 104.