Welcome to Significant Others. I'm Liza Powell O'Brien. While we inch ever closer to season two,

we are continuing with our series of monthly bonus episodes in exploration of our theme.

This time, we're speaking with Benjamin Binstock, art historian and author of the book

Vermeer's Family Secrets, who believes that Vermeer's daughter may actually have painted a couple

of the works attributed to him. Benjamin, thank you so much for being here with us.

Will you do me a favor and speak to me as someone who literally knows nothing about art history?

Because I'd love it if you could start for us by explaining the significance of Vermeer,

the artist in the pantheon of art history if it's not too entirely broad and intimidating or

request. No, it's really important. You can say it try to be succinct, but it kind of goes to the

crux of the matter because what my book is about is partly about why Vermeer is important.

And I think part of the issue is that might not be being asked enough. It's taken for granted

that he's important, but super overview was that he was probably well known that he was discovered

late, that he was not that successful in his own time, not really known outside his own town.

It gets disputed. He started to get a reputation in his own town and there were people who visited

but you know, he died owing money certainly wasn't recognized by writers on art in his time

as important. And that's why in the 19th century this man, Teofield Torre, it was a French

political activist and he was exiled to Holland and then he took up a new thing which was

writing about art in museums right at the time that the birth of the modern discipline of art

history, 1860 around there, 1859, 1860, overdetermined because they started using reproductions

so they could reproduce works. That has to do with the discovery of Vermeer. They started having

art historical journals, Torre under a pseudonym wrote these articles about the museums and then

he made this incredible discovery around the view of Delft where the view of Delft, a huge painting

...