Born: 1654 (circa), Netherlands
Died: Unknown (after 1713)
Country most active: Netherlands
Also known as: Maria, Maertge Cramer
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
In 2022, one of Vermeer’s well-known paintings, Girl with a Flute, was analysed and found to not be a Vermeer at all, but likely done by an associate or student. This leads to a great mystery, as there is no record of Vermeer having had either. He did, however, have at least ten children—at least seven of whom were girls—and artists at the time were not required to register their apprentices with the painters’ guild if the apprentice was also their child. Given similar stories of other women, it is entirely possible one of his daughters studied their father’s work and style informally but never became a professional artist. Art historian Benjamin Binstock attributed at least five “Vermeer” paintings to his oldest daughter Maertge (Anglicised as Maria) in his 2008 book Vermeer’s Family Secrets and was promptly dismissed out of hand by mainstream academics. Girl with a Flute was one such painting, which he believed was a self-portrait—a theory he put forth 14 years before the National Gallery of Art’s testing.