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Travels in Vermeer: A Memoir
A lyrical and intimate account of how a poet, in the midst of a bad divorce, finds consolation and grace through viewing the paintings of Vermeer, in six world cities. In the midst of a divorce (in which the custody of his young daughter is at stake) and over the course of a year, the poet Michael White, travels to Amsterdam, The Hague, Delft, London, Washington, and New York to view the paintings of Johannes Vermeer, an artist obsessed with romance and the inner life. He is astounded by how consoling it is to look closely at Vermeer’s women, at the artist’s relationship to his subjects, and at how composition reflects back to the viewer such deep feeling. Includes the author’s very personal study of Vermeer. Through these travels and his encounters with Vermeer’s radiant vision, White finds grace and personal transformation.
"White brings [sensitivity] to his luminous readings of the paintings. An enchanting book about the transformative power of art." - (Kirkus Reviews)
"… Figures it took a poet to get it this beautifully, thrillingly right.” - (Peter Trachtenberg)
"A unique dance among genres...clear and powerful descriptions touch on the mysteries of seduction, loss, and the artistic impulse." - (Clyde Edgerton)
"White brings [sensitivity] to his luminous readings of the paintings. An enchanting book about the transformative power of art." - (Kirkus Reviews)
"… Figures it took a poet to get it this beautifully, thrillingly right.” - (Peter Trachtenberg)
"A unique dance among genres...clear and powerful descriptions touch on the mysteries of seduction, loss, and the artistic impulse." - (Clyde Edgerton)
192 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2014
16 people are currently reading
406 people want to read
About the author
Michael White
6 books6 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Originally from Missouri, I had the enormous good fortune to study with the legendary Larry Levis as an undergraduate at the University of Missouri and also as a doctoral student at the University of Utah (PhD, 1993). Since 1994, I’ve lived in Wilmington, North Carolina, and taught at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where I currently serve as Chair of the Creative Writing Department. My books are the poetry collections The Island from Copper Canyon, Palma Cathedral (winner of the Colorado Prize, judged by Mark Strand), Re-entry (winner of the Vassar Miller Prize, judged by Paul Mariani), and Vermeer in Hell (winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky Editors Prize). Most recently, I also have a memoir, Travels in Vermeer, from Persea Books. I have published poetry and prose in The Paris Review, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, The Best American Poetry, among many other magazines and anthologies. My teaching awards at UNCW include the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the UNCW Graduate Mentor Award. I have a daughter named Sophia.
Originally from Missouri, I had the enormous good fortune to study with the legendary Larry Levis as an undergraduate at the University of Missouri and also as a doctoral student at the University of Utah (PhD, 1993). Since 1994, I’ve lived in Wilmington, North Carolina, and taught at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where I currently serve as Chair of the Creative Writing Department. My books are the poetry collections The Island from Copper Canyon, Palma Cathedral (winner of the Colorado Prize, judged by Mark Strand), Re-entry (winner of the Vassar Miller Prize, judged by Paul Mariani), and Vermeer in Hell (winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky Editors Prize). Most recently, I also have a memoir, Travels in Vermeer, from Persea Books. I have published poetry and prose in The Paris Review, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, The Best American Poetry, among many other magazines and anthologies. My teaching awards at UNCW include the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the UNCW Graduate Mentor Award. I have a daughter named Sophia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
February 1, 2023
In many ways, this was something of an odd book. The initial passage had me hooked, and I loved the premise. On the whole, I enjoyed the narrative and the writing. But a few things troubled me. For starters, and maybe most importantly, this book is very much about the male gaze. The plot involves a man traveling around America and Europe to look at paintings of (mostly) women, painted by another man. However, while this book is about the male gaze, it does not seem to be cognizant of that fact. It does not know it is a book about the male gaze. Not at all. White travels around looking at Vermeers, but he also looks at women: teenage girls sunbathing in a park; young female students in museums; lady security guards; random citizens walking the streets of London. He looks at, describes and judges not just the Vermeers but nearly every woman he encounters in the book. Is she attractive? Not attractive? Thin? Not thin? This would not be such a big deal, except for the fact that he does not give a physical description of even a single male who appears in the book. They have attributes, but he does not describe them almost at all, let alone with the same kind of detail. I hate to say it, but fairly early on in the book I started to feel that I did not entirely trust the narrator, because there seemed to be a certain lack of awareness related to the above. In fiction that can be exciting. In nonfiction it's a touch scarier. I began to worry each time White was going to interact with a woman, especially a young woman. This may have stemmed mostly from the fact that he describes the eroticism of Girl with a Pearl Earring while also noting that the model was likely Vermeer's 12-year-old daughter, without remarking on the creepiness of these two assertions taken side by side. I may be making too much of this point, but it just seemed that women in general were a mystery to the author. I cringed when reading about the "exotic" women from places like Colombia or South Asia. Had this book been written fifty years ago, I would not feel compelled to say anything. I enjoyed reading this and would recommend it to others, especially anyone interested in the healing power of art or romantic personal quests. But the above bears mentioning, and mentioning pointedly, all the same.
February 8, 2021
Travels in Vermeer: A Memoir by Michael White is part travelogue, part memoir, and part art appreciation.
Michael White, an award-winning poet, chairs the creative writing department in the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. He opens his memoir with an account of his bitter divorce as he and his wife argue over custody of their young daughter, Sophia. He travels to Amsterdam during his spring break to recuperate. At the Rijksmuseum, he stands transfixed in front of The Milkmaid by the seventeenth-century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer. So entranced is he by the painting that he embarks on a year-long pilgrimage to see the works of Vermeer in museums and galleries across Europe and the U.S.
White travels to The Hague, Delft, Washington, and New York, concluding his tour of Vermeer paintings in London. Along the way, he shares intimate details of his childhood, his first and second marriages, his attempts at dating after his divorce, and the overwhelming love he feels for his daughter. The personal stories act as segues to take the reader from one location to the next, from one Vermeer painting to the next. The writing is engaging and lucid. But it is when he stands in front of a Vermeer painting that White’s diction soars to new heights in a luminous description of what he sees and what feels as he sees.
White builds anticipation by walking the reader through each museum and gallery as he hastily makes his way toward a Vermeer. As soon as his eye catches a Vermeer, he stands in front of it, transfixed. He is riveted by what he sees. He observes intricate details in each painting, details that are inevitably missed by the untrained eye. He gushes at the interplay of light and shade, the bright reds and golds, the shifts in perspective, and the overall composition. He explores the faces of Vermeer’s women as they look back at him, speculates on their temperament and the circumstances captured in each frame. At times he stretches the interpretation further than seems warranted. Above all, he is enthralled by the serenity and stillness and luminosity that the paintings exude.
At the conclusion of his year-long odyssey, White recognizes his intimate discourse with Vermeer’s art has been profoundly transformative and facilitated his healing. His reading of Vermeer’s paintings is fascinating and shows a discerning eye sensitive to shape, form, color, and detail. He speaks with a breathless intensity infused with passion as he explores each painting, extolling Vermeer’s skill and vision in poetic, glowing terms. With astute insights and a skillful use of language, White captures Vermeer’s radiance with an infectious appreciation for the artist’s body of work.
Highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
Michael White, an award-winning poet, chairs the creative writing department in the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. He opens his memoir with an account of his bitter divorce as he and his wife argue over custody of their young daughter, Sophia. He travels to Amsterdam during his spring break to recuperate. At the Rijksmuseum, he stands transfixed in front of The Milkmaid by the seventeenth-century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer. So entranced is he by the painting that he embarks on a year-long pilgrimage to see the works of Vermeer in museums and galleries across Europe and the U.S.
White travels to The Hague, Delft, Washington, and New York, concluding his tour of Vermeer paintings in London. Along the way, he shares intimate details of his childhood, his first and second marriages, his attempts at dating after his divorce, and the overwhelming love he feels for his daughter. The personal stories act as segues to take the reader from one location to the next, from one Vermeer painting to the next. The writing is engaging and lucid. But it is when he stands in front of a Vermeer painting that White’s diction soars to new heights in a luminous description of what he sees and what feels as he sees.
White builds anticipation by walking the reader through each museum and gallery as he hastily makes his way toward a Vermeer. As soon as his eye catches a Vermeer, he stands in front of it, transfixed. He is riveted by what he sees. He observes intricate details in each painting, details that are inevitably missed by the untrained eye. He gushes at the interplay of light and shade, the bright reds and golds, the shifts in perspective, and the overall composition. He explores the faces of Vermeer’s women as they look back at him, speculates on their temperament and the circumstances captured in each frame. At times he stretches the interpretation further than seems warranted. Above all, he is enthralled by the serenity and stillness and luminosity that the paintings exude.
At the conclusion of his year-long odyssey, White recognizes his intimate discourse with Vermeer’s art has been profoundly transformative and facilitated his healing. His reading of Vermeer’s paintings is fascinating and shows a discerning eye sensitive to shape, form, color, and detail. He speaks with a breathless intensity infused with passion as he explores each painting, extolling Vermeer’s skill and vision in poetic, glowing terms. With astute insights and a skillful use of language, White captures Vermeer’s radiance with an infectious appreciation for the artist’s body of work.
Highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
August 6, 2015
A short book worth reading for its close inspections of many of Vermeer's paintings, esp the masterpieces--View of Delft, The Milkmaid, Woman Holding a Balance, Girl With a Pearl Earring--and also others not as well known. Best way to read this is at your Internet device so you can get all the details as he talks about them. All the museums have websites that allow you to pull up anything in their collection with wonderful color reproduction, blow it way up, move it around, and inspect it minutely.
As art interpretation, it's illuminating. But it's also written as a kind of journal of a psychological plague year. White is a poet and professor who, trying to get through a bad divorce that separates him from his little daughter, decides to travel to all the museums that have multiple Vermeers b/c he's been gobsmacked by the sudden, accidental sight of The Milkmaid while visiting Amsterdam. He spends the next year in an extended state of gobsmackery that gets a bit wearing for the reader trying to sift out the nuggets of observation and insight into the art.
It's unclear how much of White's observations are first-hand and how much are taken from the critics and experts he cites and talks about throughout. He's a romantic whose reaction to every painting is evoked by his own shaky emotional state. He is somehow able to interpret every facial expression and glance and read every model's character in these 350-year-old paintings. Even more, he often feels they are sussing him. He says things like,
"We are the unexpected subject--we . . . are what is seen into. The barriers the paintings erect are turned inside out, and figures like this fiery woman reach out to us passionately across the fourth wall and into our own dreams."
and
"Her eyes are matter-of-fact, expectant and unsurprised by my presence in the room. She's waiting calmly for me to take my seat . . . .We're used to each other by now."
He goes into detail about his first wife's death, his current divorce, his alcoholism, and his unsuccessful attempts at emotional connection via Match.com. It's hard not to think that this survey of Vermeer's women isn't a series of similar tries with dates who won't contradict or reject him b/c their reactions and emotions reside safely in his own head.
I wanted to cut him a good deal of slack b/c apparently he had a tough childhood, he's a recovering alcoholic who withstood the terrible ordeal of his first wife's cancer and this current divorce without relapsing, b/c his descriptions of AA meetings are spot on, and b/c who knows what I would do in his shoes-probably not nearly so well.
Maybe this confessional work told through the medium of Vermeer's paintings is part of his step work. But I could't escape the feeling that the trip and the book are a rather self-indulgent first-world solution to a first-world problem. And I couldn't get over the fact that this published poet doesn't know the difference between the verbs "to lie" and "to lay", and didn't have a copy editor to catch him, and that repeatedly he uses the euphemism "passed" when he means died. Language is his medium.
Nonetheless the close observation and the insight into Vermeer are worth all the rest. Definite recommendation.
As art interpretation, it's illuminating. But it's also written as a kind of journal of a psychological plague year. White is a poet and professor who, trying to get through a bad divorce that separates him from his little daughter, decides to travel to all the museums that have multiple Vermeers b/c he's been gobsmacked by the sudden, accidental sight of The Milkmaid while visiting Amsterdam. He spends the next year in an extended state of gobsmackery that gets a bit wearing for the reader trying to sift out the nuggets of observation and insight into the art.
It's unclear how much of White's observations are first-hand and how much are taken from the critics and experts he cites and talks about throughout. He's a romantic whose reaction to every painting is evoked by his own shaky emotional state. He is somehow able to interpret every facial expression and glance and read every model's character in these 350-year-old paintings. Even more, he often feels they are sussing him. He says things like,
"We are the unexpected subject--we . . . are what is seen into. The barriers the paintings erect are turned inside out, and figures like this fiery woman reach out to us passionately across the fourth wall and into our own dreams."
and
"Her eyes are matter-of-fact, expectant and unsurprised by my presence in the room. She's waiting calmly for me to take my seat . . . .We're used to each other by now."
He goes into detail about his first wife's death, his current divorce, his alcoholism, and his unsuccessful attempts at emotional connection via Match.com. It's hard not to think that this survey of Vermeer's women isn't a series of similar tries with dates who won't contradict or reject him b/c their reactions and emotions reside safely in his own head.
I wanted to cut him a good deal of slack b/c apparently he had a tough childhood, he's a recovering alcoholic who withstood the terrible ordeal of his first wife's cancer and this current divorce without relapsing, b/c his descriptions of AA meetings are spot on, and b/c who knows what I would do in his shoes-probably not nearly so well.
Maybe this confessional work told through the medium of Vermeer's paintings is part of his step work. But I could't escape the feeling that the trip and the book are a rather self-indulgent first-world solution to a first-world problem. And I couldn't get over the fact that this published poet doesn't know the difference between the verbs "to lie" and "to lay", and didn't have a copy editor to catch him, and that repeatedly he uses the euphemism "passed" when he means died. Language is his medium.
Nonetheless the close observation and the insight into Vermeer are worth all the rest. Definite recommendation.
October 3, 2015
For long periods of time while I was reading this book, I remembered how it is to stand in a museum in front of a painting that I've known only in books and be transfigured by it. I would never have thought I could be so moved by a book that essentially describes romantic love, paternal love, grief, and happiness through the experience of traveling to see every Vermeer in the world. (I do love the experience of puzzling out the sources of power in a painting, but I wouldn't have thought I could love someone else describing that process.) The whole memoir, though, is suffused with the same kind of magical, enduring light that illuminates Vermeer's paintings, and the beauty of the language White finds to understand each one spills over into his descriptions of daily life in a way that made me believe, all over again, in the power of art to save us.
April 20, 2015
In the wake of a harrowing divorce from a much younger woman (a former student, in fact), Michael White flees on a whim to Amsterdam, where he seems to find peace for the first time in months when looking at the Vermeer paintings at the Rijksmuseum. Knowing that there are only 35 Vermeers left, he decides to spend all his vacation time seeking out the remaining Vermeers, travels that take him to Delft and the Hague, New York, Washington, D.C., and London. An enviable itinerary! As he travels, he comments on the paintings and also weaves his stories from his life, including the two Match.com dates he goes on.
I've got conflicted feelings about this book. What I liked about it: White's passion for Vermeer, the way he captures so perfectly what it's like to travel and enjoy traveling alone, his writing. He is a wonderful writer-- a poet, and it shows-- which alone makes the book worth reading.
He really gets into the Vermeer-- spending pages describing each one. I admit, I started to skim them after a while, but a few times I pulled up the painting on my phone and followed along. I could see myself taking this book along as a resource if I were going to view a Vermeer (and in fact may do so next time I'm in NYC).
What I noticed was that Micheal White spends a lot of time on the superficial-- which makes sense, given that he's studying paintings. I was left with the impression that White does not really understand women, which makes the unchanging, superficial female subjects of Vermeer the perfect study for him. Then when he writes about his second wife (even his first wife) and the dates he goes on, I noticed even more that women seem to be a mystery to him or a means to an end. This perhaps knocked the book down a star, which might not be fair at all.
However, I really admired his enthusiasm for a subject I had no prior interest in and ultimately ended up learning a lot about Vermeer from White. He also gets points for a unique and compelling premise.
I've got conflicted feelings about this book. What I liked about it: White's passion for Vermeer, the way he captures so perfectly what it's like to travel and enjoy traveling alone, his writing. He is a wonderful writer-- a poet, and it shows-- which alone makes the book worth reading.
He really gets into the Vermeer-- spending pages describing each one. I admit, I started to skim them after a while, but a few times I pulled up the painting on my phone and followed along. I could see myself taking this book along as a resource if I were going to view a Vermeer (and in fact may do so next time I'm in NYC).
What I noticed was that Micheal White spends a lot of time on the superficial-- which makes sense, given that he's studying paintings. I was left with the impression that White does not really understand women, which makes the unchanging, superficial female subjects of Vermeer the perfect study for him. Then when he writes about his second wife (even his first wife) and the dates he goes on, I noticed even more that women seem to be a mystery to him or a means to an end. This perhaps knocked the book down a star, which might not be fair at all.
However, I really admired his enthusiasm for a subject I had no prior interest in and ultimately ended up learning a lot about Vermeer from White. He also gets points for a unique and compelling premise.
December 19, 2015
Michael White is a poet who teaches at UNC Wilmington. A few years back he was in the middle of a nasty divorce and decided on a whim to use his frequent flyer miles to "get away." He chose to go to Amsterdam for no reason he can now remember. He expected to enjoy the Rembrandts in the many museums thereabouts.
But it was a Vermeer that knocked him off his pins. He became so obsessed that he decided to travel about and see every painting by the Dutch painter that was on public view. First he read some books about Vermeer, in particular Edward Snow's A Study of Vermeer (1994) and Lawrence Gowing's Vermeer (1955.)
As he goes from one country to another, one museum to another, one painting to another, his understanding and appreciation of Vermeer grows and develops and he shares this intellectual and emotional trip with the reader.
He also shares his ongoing problems with his soon to be ex-wife and their tussle over custody of his beloved daughter. And he tells some amusing (sometimes verging on heartbreaking) stories about his forays into the world of Internet dating.
A delightful book and a good way to get to know Vermeer better before heading into the more academic studies of the painter. No illustrations except for the cover (above), so you need to get to the library and find a collection of good reproductions of the painter's works.
But it was a Vermeer that knocked him off his pins. He became so obsessed that he decided to travel about and see every painting by the Dutch painter that was on public view. First he read some books about Vermeer, in particular Edward Snow's A Study of Vermeer (1994) and Lawrence Gowing's Vermeer (1955.)
As he goes from one country to another, one museum to another, one painting to another, his understanding and appreciation of Vermeer grows and develops and he shares this intellectual and emotional trip with the reader.
He also shares his ongoing problems with his soon to be ex-wife and their tussle over custody of his beloved daughter. And he tells some amusing (sometimes verging on heartbreaking) stories about his forays into the world of Internet dating.
A delightful book and a good way to get to know Vermeer better before heading into the more academic studies of the painter. No illustrations except for the cover (above), so you need to get to the library and find a collection of good reproductions of the painter's works.
June 19, 2015
I could have written this book! Except I really did see all the Verneers except the one stolen from the Gardner in Boston. White did not go to Germany or Scotland although he did see The Art of Painting in the States. His writings about the paintings themselves were interesting but nothing not seen by others. The story of his first wife and her illness and death was extraordinary. The other brief meetings with women seemed more fanciful than real. They were all a little too beautiful. I presume stories about his own love life were to be juxtaposed to Vermeers lovers in his paintings. I found the subtlety of Vermeer far more intriguing than White's derailed encounters. I discovered this book in The New York Times Book Review and am frankly surprised that it got any mention. It is certainly not a memorable book.
March 7, 2015
Striking contrasts. Lovely descriptions of the Vermeers. A haunting book finished.
January 28, 2021
A lovely read for anyone who, like me, has felt hit between the eyes by a painting. An exploration of love, humanity, redemption, and a painter’s art.
December 10, 2018
This memoir is about the transformative power of art interwoven with personal story. The art in question is by the Dutch painter Vermeer, the author’s need to see all 35 of them that are displayed in various museums, and interspersed with that is the story of his childhood and early life, his not-so-loving parents, his own battle with alcoholism, his two marriages—the first ended with the tragic death of his wife Jackie from cancer and the second in a bitter divorce—and life in between and after, and also his daughter who he clearly dotes upon. Lyrical, exhaustively researched, and poignantly honest, this is a stellar memoir.
June 20, 2015
Overall, I really enjoyed this and look forward to reading White's poems about his experiences studying Vermeer's work as he recovered from a particularly brutal divorce ("Vermeer in Hell") as well. However, I found myself wanting to skim through many of White's lengthy "close readings" of the Vermeer masterpieces he describes--not because they lacked thoughtfulness but because I longed to see and study Vermeer's paintings myself as I read, a frustration I'm sure I must share with other readers and one that could easily have been remedied by the inclusion of black-and-white reproductions of the paintings White describes, as well as photographs of the many galleries around the world to which he traveled in search of these visually stunning and thought-provoking works. I had hoped to be able to teach White's book as part of an undergraduate course on "life journeys" next fall, but without illustrations of any kind to engage the reader, I think that White's text will just prove to be too dry for my twenty-something audience, no matter how well he articulates his admiration for Vermeer's talent as a painter or his heartbreak over the loss of his first wife and the end of the short-lived marriage that followed.
May 30, 2016
Take a poet who enjoys prolonged periods of silence; one whom has just undergone an acrimonious divorce and expose him to Vermeer’s The Milkmaid in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; and the author becomes obsessed with the painter. White makes it ‘his mission’ to see all of Vermeer’s paintings over the course of a year. So—there are visits to the Mauritshuis in The Hague, the National Gallery in Washington D.C., the Frick Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and The Kenwood House and the National Gallery in London.
White studied how Vermeer created the luminescence in his paintings hoping to find out just why they resonate so strongly with the viewer. I’m not sure he ever discovers just how Vermeer does it; but he does find healing in Vermeer’s quiet, domestic scenes. Recommend.
White studied how Vermeer created the luminescence in his paintings hoping to find out just why they resonate so strongly with the viewer. I’m not sure he ever discovers just how Vermeer does it; but he does find healing in Vermeer’s quiet, domestic scenes. Recommend.
July 9, 2015
If you like art and Vermeer in particular, this book is a great read. The writer (a poet) uses his quest to study paintings by Vermeer as a means to heal following an ugly divorce and custody battle. I too have a goal to see all the Vermeers on the planet (not THAT hard to do, since there aren't many of them), although thank goodness it's based on interests rather than to recover from personal challenges. Anyway...his descriptions of the paintings are lovely and free of jargon. And he tells of his journeys as well as the paintings...and what the paintings teach him. Beautifully written and a pretty quick read. There is a companion book of his poetry, Vermeer in Hell, which I have not read.
November 5, 2015
Those of us who love Vermeer will greatly appreciate White's memoir. While in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, on his way to see some Rembrandts, he is entranced by Vermeer's Milkmaid; and this leads him on a pilgrimage to the Vermeers in Holland, England, and America. Like me, White is caught by the calm that the artist's women pour out. He pays much closer attention to the different elements involved in the paintings than I ever have managed. All this overlaps the author's own personal story.
At the end, you'll find yourself planning a trip to revisit some old favorite. Right now of course there's a special exhibit in Boston .... Plus, the book introduces you to a great website, The Essential Vermeer.
At the end, you'll find yourself planning a trip to revisit some old favorite. Right now of course there's a special exhibit in Boston .... Plus, the book introduces you to a great website, The Essential Vermeer.
June 14, 2015
I may be a little biased because this book combines two of my interests - travel and art history. I have done a somewhat similar pilgrimage with Carivaggio so I relate to the author's thrill at seeing each new painting. I also thought the author did a nice job of interposing his life story with his travels. It was a very enjoyable read that inspires me to check out Vermeers the next time I am in NY or DC.
August 9, 2016
Michael White's exploration of Vermeer's paintings is transcendent. To find oneself in paintings is not uncommon, but to surrender oneself to them in the hope of healing is. I loved the luminescence of his language, which mirrored the paintings he loves. I loved that the paintings live in him, like they do in us all, if only we'd take the time to look.
April 17, 2015
This one was a memoir focused on Vermeer's known art works. Being a huge fan of Vermeer, I liked his descriptions of the paintings. I don't read much non-fiction, but this was a good change of pace.
July 31, 2015
Very personal -- he's obviously a sensitive soul. Nice descriptions of the paintings and his mini quest.
December 26, 2016
Travels in Vermeer was a nominee for the National Book Award in 2015. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, and I even had an opportunity to hear the author give a lecture earlier this year, but I just couldn’t get into this book.
After the death of his first wife and a bitter divorce from his second, poet Michael White finds himself wandering through an art museum. He comes face-to-face with a tiny Vermeer painting that ends up changing his life. He’s so enamored with the painting that he decides to travel the world to see all of Vermeer’s works. Travels in Vermeer blends art and travel with scenes from the author’s life. By studying Vermeer’s art, the author hopes to come to terms with his own string of failed relationships.
I have to start by saying that this memoir is very well-written. I know that the author is mainly a poet, but he’s a talented prose writer, too. I especially like the contrast between the descriptions of artwork and the descriptions of the author’s failed Match.com dates. I was just hoping for more from Travels in Vermeer.
The male gaze is strong in this one. The book is about women, but the author and Vermeer are both men. This didn’t bother me at first, but as the book went on, the author’s descriptions of women (both real and painted) started to get off-putting. The author spends a lot of time focusing on women’s appearances and wondering what women (both real and painted) can do for him. He inserts himself into the lives of the women in the paintings. He claims to know what they’re thinking. It comes across as very self-indulgent and quickly turned me against the author/narrator.
I may have been able to forgive the narrator if he had changed by the end of the book, but he seems completely unaware of his self-obsessed, "Everything is for me" behavior. Maybe I would have enjoyed this book if I was a man? As a woman, it just made me sad and irritated. I like to believe that men care about more than just my sexiness. I know it doesn’t always show, but I work really, really hard on my brain.
I also had a difficult time getting through the long-winded descriptions of paintings. They’re beautifully written, but reading about a painting isn’t the same as looking at it. I felt the author’s passion for Vermeer, but the descriptions didn’t spark the same passion in me, so most of the book fell flat. My reading experience with Travels in Vermeer was a mixture of interest, irritation, and boredom.
This book just isn’t for me. I tried.
After the death of his first wife and a bitter divorce from his second, poet Michael White finds himself wandering through an art museum. He comes face-to-face with a tiny Vermeer painting that ends up changing his life. He’s so enamored with the painting that he decides to travel the world to see all of Vermeer’s works. Travels in Vermeer blends art and travel with scenes from the author’s life. By studying Vermeer’s art, the author hopes to come to terms with his own string of failed relationships.
I have to start by saying that this memoir is very well-written. I know that the author is mainly a poet, but he’s a talented prose writer, too. I especially like the contrast between the descriptions of artwork and the descriptions of the author’s failed Match.com dates. I was just hoping for more from Travels in Vermeer.
The male gaze is strong in this one. The book is about women, but the author and Vermeer are both men. This didn’t bother me at first, but as the book went on, the author’s descriptions of women (both real and painted) started to get off-putting. The author spends a lot of time focusing on women’s appearances and wondering what women (both real and painted) can do for him. He inserts himself into the lives of the women in the paintings. He claims to know what they’re thinking. It comes across as very self-indulgent and quickly turned me against the author/narrator.
“Her eyes are matter-of-fact, expectant and unsurprised by my presence in the room. She’s waiting calmly for me to take my seat . . . . . We’re used to each other by now.” – Travels in Vermeer.
I may have been able to forgive the narrator if he had changed by the end of the book, but he seems completely unaware of his self-obsessed, "Everything is for me" behavior. Maybe I would have enjoyed this book if I was a man? As a woman, it just made me sad and irritated. I like to believe that men care about more than just my sexiness. I know it doesn’t always show, but I work really, really hard on my brain.
I also had a difficult time getting through the long-winded descriptions of paintings. They’re beautifully written, but reading about a painting isn’t the same as looking at it. I felt the author’s passion for Vermeer, but the descriptions didn’t spark the same passion in me, so most of the book fell flat. My reading experience with Travels in Vermeer was a mixture of interest, irritation, and boredom.
This book just isn’t for me. I tried.
October 11, 2017
Phyllis recommended. It provides an exquisite, detailed, sensitive description of a number of Vermeers in NYC, London, The Hague. The level of detail is compelling only if also viewing the painting at the same time. Woven with his personal story, it sometimes works, sometimes is tedious, but the ending where he brings them together is a fitting climax.
"There are moments when the terms of one's own life are irrevocably changed by simply looking into a lover's eye, when crazed with love or parting or sorrow---a handful of times, if we are lucky.In such times I have felt the weight of all I might have said---the impossibility of articulating anything out of the crushing welter of emotion---but the mercy of being released from such a burden because, just then, with nothing between you and the one you love, you both already know...What is a painter painted virtually nothing but such moments?" Indeed.
"There are moments when the terms of one's own life are irrevocably changed by simply looking into a lover's eye, when crazed with love or parting or sorrow---a handful of times, if we are lucky.In such times I have felt the weight of all I might have said---the impossibility of articulating anything out of the crushing welter of emotion---but the mercy of being released from such a burden because, just then, with nothing between you and the one you love, you both already know...What is a painter painted virtually nothing but such moments?" Indeed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2024
I turned to this memoir when I was moving through grief. It provided a beautiful escape and a soft, slow place to move through my own difficult emotions, as White did his own. I expected to get bored reading about paintings, but White builds on his detailed observations and draws connections from one piece to the next in surprising and thought-provoking ways. Languid and lovely, the memoir explores the meaning of love over a lifetime as seen through artistic and human expression. I’ve read another review that points out the male perspective and uncomfortable fixation/lens on women. I found that too, but pushed past it, accepting and appreciating the author’s honesty. Though I didn’t love his POV personally.
February 8, 2021
Such a stunning little book! Grab your laptop or iPad and prepare to pull up images of paintings, zoom in to see the fine detail, scroll out to examine the lighting or the point of view. As a travelogue, we go to Amsterdam, London, NYC and Washington DC to get up close and personal with 24 of Dutch Master Vermeer’s paintings. As a memoir, we are witness to the transformative power of art as poet Michael White struggles to find meaning after a series of monumental losses in his life.
August 3, 2025
I have never read descriptions of Vermeer’s works that describe so clearly and gracefully the experience of being in the presence of these paintings. Transportational and sublime. The descriptions of the paintings alone is worth it. The author weaves in his life experiences in recovery and the loss of his first wife in a way that is not a distraction but adds a new lens of peace and compassion to Vermeers work that I will never in-see.
September 25, 2019
It‘s a little bit creepy how this white male narrator conflates descriptions of Vermeer‘s women with descriptions of his two wives, random young girls and even his own daughter. He is completely oblivious to his aestheticizing, romanticizing, sexualizing and infantilizing male gaze. But it was still an interesting read and a new way for me to experience Vermeer‘s art.
June 17, 2025
This is so beautifully written. The author is captivated by Vermeer’s works and describes them more eloquently than most art historians. The story of his life is woven into his journey to see Vermeer’s works and I couldn’t put this book down.
January 14, 2018
Enjoyed the book, especially the descriptions of the Vermeer paintings
July 4, 2019
Life is too short for me to finish this shit book lmao.
June 9, 2017
Reeling from a nasty divorce and custody battle, White travels to Amsterdam and is taken with Vermeer’s “The Milkmaid.” He then decides to see all of Vermeer’s paintings and this takes him not only to The Hague and Delft, but to London, Washington, DC and New York. Interspersed throughout his writing about the paintings are his life experiences with women.
White is a poet and definitely knows how to use words. This is a unique memoir, mostly pleasing with a few hiccups here and there. Definitely worth a read if you like memoirs, art, or both.
White is a poet and definitely knows how to use words. This is a unique memoir, mostly pleasing with a few hiccups here and there. Definitely worth a read if you like memoirs, art, or both.
December 21, 2015
I was attracted to this book first because I like art books and second, because it had an interesting premise. Here was a man, a poet, going through a bad divorce and a custody dispute who suddenly decides to hop on a plane and go to Amsterdam to look at paintings in an attempt to find some peace of mind. What can possibly be more civilized?
Well, yes and no. The part of the book dealing with Jan Vermeer is very good. Professor White is a published poet, has won many prizes and one of his books of poetry is called Vermeer In Hell: Poems so he knows what he's talking about. In a year's time, he visits the major museums and takes us through most of the 35 known works of Vermeer and does a beautiful job writing about them. There are occasional lapses. His lyrical writing falters when it comes to describing William of Orange's mausoleum in Delft. It, he remarks, gives him "....a faint case of the creeps." Slightly less than poetical. Still, he's not talking about Vermeer here. When he is, it's excellent. Oh and keep a computer handy. There's not a single picture in the book.
The book's low point comes in his remarks about his ex-wife. He manages to make her sound petty and small minded while not actually saying those words. He simply recounts all the things she said to him that made him feel bad and confused. All it succeeded in doing was to make me wonder what it was he actually did that made her want to leave. He should have taken the high road on his way to the museum and kept to that path. His daughter will read this one day and it will cause her pain. I don't even know him and it pained me.
Well, yes and no. The part of the book dealing with Jan Vermeer is very good. Professor White is a published poet, has won many prizes and one of his books of poetry is called Vermeer In Hell: Poems so he knows what he's talking about. In a year's time, he visits the major museums and takes us through most of the 35 known works of Vermeer and does a beautiful job writing about them. There are occasional lapses. His lyrical writing falters when it comes to describing William of Orange's mausoleum in Delft. It, he remarks, gives him "....a faint case of the creeps." Slightly less than poetical. Still, he's not talking about Vermeer here. When he is, it's excellent. Oh and keep a computer handy. There's not a single picture in the book.
The book's low point comes in his remarks about his ex-wife. He manages to make her sound petty and small minded while not actually saying those words. He simply recounts all the things she said to him that made him feel bad and confused. All it succeeded in doing was to make me wonder what it was he actually did that made her want to leave. He should have taken the high road on his way to the museum and kept to that path. His daughter will read this one day and it will cause her pain. I don't even know him and it pained me.
September 30, 2015
Strange, and at its best with this list (+ the two at Gemaldegalerie, The Wine Glass, Woman with a Pearl Necklace):
"There are only 35 Vermeers in the world. How many cities house groups of them?...I come up with an itinerary:
Amsterdam
(Rijksmuseum)
The Little Street (c. 1657-1661)
The Milkmaid (c. 1658-1661)
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (c. 1662-1665)
The Love Letter (c. 1667-1670)
The Hague
(Mauritshuis)
The Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665-67)
View of Delft (c. 1660-61)
Diana and her Companions (c. 1653-56)
Washington, DC
(The National Gallery)
Girl with a Red Hat (c. 1665-1667)
Girl Holding a Flute (c. 1664-1665)
Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1662-1665)
A Lady Writing (c. 1665-1666)
New York
(The Frick Collection)
Officer and a Girl Laughing (c. 1655-1660)
Girl Interrupted in her Music (c. 1656-1661)
Mistress and Maid (c. 1666-1667)
(The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
A Maid Asleep (c.1656-1657)
Young Woman with a Water Pitcher (c 1664-1665)
Study of a Young Woman (c. 1665-1674)
Woman with a Lute (c. 1662-1664)
Allegory of Faith (c. 1670-1674)
London
(The Kenwood House)
The Guitar Player (c. 1670-1672)
(The Royal Collection)
The Music Lesson (c. 1662-1664)
(The National Gallery)
A Lady Standing at a Virginal (c. 1670-1673)
A Lady Seated at a Virginal (c. 1670-1675)"
"There are only 35 Vermeers in the world. How many cities house groups of them?...I come up with an itinerary:
Amsterdam
(Rijksmuseum)
The Little Street (c. 1657-1661)
The Milkmaid (c. 1658-1661)
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (c. 1662-1665)
The Love Letter (c. 1667-1670)
The Hague
(Mauritshuis)
The Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665-67)
View of Delft (c. 1660-61)
Diana and her Companions (c. 1653-56)
Washington, DC
(The National Gallery)
Girl with a Red Hat (c. 1665-1667)
Girl Holding a Flute (c. 1664-1665)
Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1662-1665)
A Lady Writing (c. 1665-1666)
New York
(The Frick Collection)
Officer and a Girl Laughing (c. 1655-1660)
Girl Interrupted in her Music (c. 1656-1661)
Mistress and Maid (c. 1666-1667)
(The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
A Maid Asleep (c.1656-1657)
Young Woman with a Water Pitcher (c 1664-1665)
Study of a Young Woman (c. 1665-1674)
Woman with a Lute (c. 1662-1664)
Allegory of Faith (c. 1670-1674)
London
(The Kenwood House)
The Guitar Player (c. 1670-1672)
(The Royal Collection)
The Music Lesson (c. 1662-1664)
(The National Gallery)
A Lady Standing at a Virginal (c. 1670-1673)
A Lady Seated at a Virginal (c. 1670-1675)"
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