Landscape of Delft/ Johannes Vermeer/ oil on canvas/ 1660/ Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague

"Marcel Proust" is the French writer who created the world's longest novel, "In Search of Lost Time"; A story whose volumes were published in France from 1913 to 1927 over 14 years. In those days, this work was an unparalleled masterpiece and many called it the greatest novel of the century or history. In this novel, Proust describes the experiences of the narrator (whose name is not mentioned throughout the novel) from childhood to adulthood and narrates the narratives of encountering and learning art, being in the community, and falling in love.

In the "Captive" section of this novel, Proust mentions the influence of the "View of Delft" painting on "Bergot", one of the novel's characters. Bergot reads an article about this "Vermeer" painting and goes to the exhibition of Dutch painters to see this work, which was brought from The Hague to Paris for a temporary display. While staring at the bright yellow color of the painting, he says to himself: "I should have written like this. My recent books are dry, I should have painted several times, I should have made the sentence itself beautiful and valuable, like this yellow wall."

Vermeer was Marcel Proust's favorite painter. Proust considers this painting to be the greatest painting in the world and praises it a lot in his book "In Search of Lost Time". And he writes about this work:

"After I saw the landscape of Delft in the Hague Museum, I am now convinced that it is the most beautiful painting in the world. On the side of Swann's house, I showed Swann doing research on Vermeer anyway."

"Landscape of Delft" is a work by "Johannes Vermeer", a Dutch painter, painted between 1660 and 1661. This painting from the artist's hometown is one of his famous works.

Prepared and arranged by: Narges Saheb Ekhtiari