The painter paints not what he sees but what he will see.
De schilder schildert niet wat hij ziet, maar wat hij zal zien.

Artists
Johannes Vermeer
Born in 1632 in Delft, Vermeer secured an enduring place in art with barely three dozen paintings. Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid capture natural light so precisely that fleeting moments feel eternal.
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Johannes Vermeer's Other Quotes
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What I am looking for is neither the real nor the unreal, but the mystery of the instinct of the human race.
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Mountains are the bones of the earth; clouds are its breath.
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