Though he left behind a relatively small body of work, seventeenth-century Dutch painter Jan Vermeer became, generations after his death, one of the most celebrated artists in the European canon. Vermeer painted quiet, light-drenched interior scenes that scholars and art-lovers revere as masterfully skilled slices of time and mood. The artist, wrote Jed Perl in the New Republic, "went public with private experiences, and he did it with a daringly understated sneakiness that gives his solitary seventeenth-century moments their contemporary pop-icon status."

Little is known about Vermeer's life save for a few financial details. He left behind no letters, journals, or even early sketches. He produced two or three paintings a year, while the average for other Dutch painters in the era was around 50 works annually. Scholars have disputed which paintings can be attributed to him, and when he painted them, and there have even been a number...