Painters and authors use their skills to address issues that affect their societies. It is very easy for one to understand the happenings in a community by viewing a painted work or reading a literary work established in a given society within a specific time. Looking at different pieces of literature and paintings offers the understanding that humans do not choose to fit into specific movements as often implied. For example, an author writing about social injustice mostly does that after experiencing the issue in their society. Artists living during such a period will also tend to depict images of society members in postures or situations depicting plights or sufferings. The present work delves into the paintings and literary works of Vermeer Johannes and John Steinbeck, respectively, to show that painters and literature developers mainly generate their jobs as directed by their immediate environments. Vermeer and Steinbeck’s works, lives, and choice of the realism movement and themes are worthy aspects that depict the characters’ parallels.
General Analysis
There exist numerous similarities between Vermeer and Steinbeck based on their lives and works. For example, both Vermeer and Steinbeck were their parents’ dearest children, with each set determined to see the child excel in life (Newlin, 2019). Vermeer was introduced to the art world by his father, an art dealer, who wanted the boy to inherit the family’s art business. Furthermore, Steinbeck was introduced to writing by her mother and father, who wanted him to become a scholar. Such settings thus show the role of the folks’ childhood lives and their parents to their later careers. Similarly, Vermeer and Steinbeck’s determination in life made them make tough decisions in life. Vermeer joined Catholicism to get a wife and become a member of a wealthy family. Steinbeck further struggled with the idea of religion to the point of assuming a pagan life that insisted on human’s inability to explain the nature of God. The similarities in such occurrences make Vermeer and Steinbeck substantially similar.
Vermeer’s paintings depict his immediate surroundings, just like Steinbeck’s writings. The painting of Christ in the House of Martha and Mary is influenced by Vermeer’s conversion to Catholicism, while Steinbeck’s narrative on Oklahoma immigrants to California is influenced by his real-life experiences. The desire to present their work as reality also led Vermeer and Steinbeck to choose the realism movement and themes (Wuestman, 2017). Vermeer uses expensive color to depict his painted characters as real as possible. Steinbeck also uses real location names and true historical incidents to establish his work and themes. All these concepts make Vermeer and Steinbeck very comparable. The characters’ lives and works provoke one to think that the two lived during the same time. However, the point that Vermeer lived during the seventeenth century, while Steinbeck is a twentieth century writer implies their connectedness.
Specific Works’ Examination
Nothing makes the understanding of Johannes’ artistic work better than the investigation of his pieces. The Girl with the Glass Wine and the Girl with a Pearl Earring, for example, present some of his most-liked pieces of art. The two show classic female characters in calm surroundings and a wealthy lifestyle. For instance, The Girl with the Glass Wine depicts a luxuriously cladded young woman. The character’s economic freedom allows her to interact with the wine and elite male folks, some things only known to the wealthy families during the age. Johannes also prints the girl in the image using classy paints and pigments to show her social status. Red, yellow, and blue shades are prevalent in the painting to show influence. Other items appearing in the printed work, such as cut lemon, white (costly) jug, and a large portrait of the family’s grandparent, also work together to depict the prevailing culture of then Elite Dutch society. Vermeer applies expensive warm colors and fine artistic skills to present the art as authentic as possible, giving the piece its realism aspect.
On the other hand, John Steinbeck’ works mainly capture real-life familiarities directly experienced during the writer’s life in the state of California. Born in February 1902, Steinbeck encountered first-hand all the happenings of the First World War and the great depression, which made the lives of many Americans unstable. Steinbeck’s father (Ernst Steinbeck) was a Monterey County treasurer, while his mother (Olive Hamilton) served as a school teacher of English literature. The parents played a significant role in the author’s life and the eventual writing career. Having money allowed the parents to send the young John to school to have formal education. Therefore, the author’s situation is similar to that of Vermeer Johannes, whose wealthy father led him to the art world through academic training. John’s local home stood in agriculturally fertile soil that supported commercial farming. This background forms the author’s context in almost all his narratives as a writer (Souder, 2021). The situation further adds to the similarities between the author and Vermeer.
Realism is highly depicted in almost all of John Steinbeck’s writings. The author describes real cases involving American farmers, especially those living in California during the great depression. Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath are some of the most celebrated writings of John (Souder, 2021). The two narratives recount the lives of California people and their neighbors during the First World War and the subsequent global economic downturn. In the last story, John narrates the movement of a deprived family (of tenant farmers) from Oklahoma home to California due to drought, agricultural industry failure, and economic hardship (Souder, 2021). The story also captures the real hurting account of the Dust Bowl and the intensive losses resulting from the same. Of Mice and Men also tells a similar story, where two tenant farmers leave Oklahoma for California to find work due to the challenging economic times caused by the Great Depression. However, the friends, George and Lennie, fail to realize their targets as one of them ends up dying in the hands of the other, just like it happened in reality.
In conclusion, the centrality of realism themes and similarities in lives depict the noteworthy connectedness between Vermeer and Steinbeck. The two belong to different ages, cultures, and social settings that would otherwise make their works very different. However, seeking to cover social issues in their respective communities makes Vermeer and Steinbeck’s works and themes very similar, one would even think they lived during the same period and in the same neighborhood. Developers of literary works and artists, especially in realism, can only depict the happenings in their communities for the work to be meaningful. That is because the surroundings serve as the field from where writers and painters gather information.
References
Newlin, K. (2019). The Oxford handbook of American literary realism. Oxford University Press.
Souder, W. (2021). Mad at the world: A life of John Steinbeck. Norton & Company, Inc.
Wuestman, G. E. (2017). Rembrandt & the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum. Art Gallery of New South Wales.