Tim’s Vermeer follows tech entrepreneur Tim Jenison on his journey to recreating his own “Vermeer” (a copy of The Music Lesson) using a camera obscura-like technique. Jenison uses a mirror to reflect the image onto his own canvas. We learn that he also went to great lengths to physically recreate the setting of the original Vermeer painting. When he began work on the painting itself, he only used techniques and methods that Vermeer would have been able to access at the time. Ultimately, it took Tim seven months to finish his painting, and by the end, it looked very similar to the original work. The film somewhat detracts from Vermeer’s reputation by showing that “anyone” could recreate one of his works, and it does not deeply explore the difference between copying and creating. Though Jenison’s work is technically good and could probably pass as a Vermeer when seen by itself, when compared to an original, it is clear that the work is only a copy.
Available on Amazon Prime Video
By Julia Pfau