Details
Inventor Tim Jenison obsessively seeks to understand the painting techniques used by Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer in this entertaining doc from magicians Penn and Teller.
Can a computer inventor with no formal art training re-create the work of 17th Century Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer? For eight years, millionaire inventor Tim Jenison attempted to do just that, and to solve one of the art world’s biggest mysteries along the way.
With extraordinary wit and charm Tim’s Vermeer follows Jenison’s quest to paint a replica of Vermeer’s ‘The Music Lesson’ with his own hands. Experimenting with mirrors and optics, Jenison obsessively pursues the question of how the Dutch Master was able to create such startlingly photo-realistic paintings, long before the invention of the camera.
Directed by Teller of magic duo Penn and Teller, and with Penn Jillette in front of the camera, this brilliant doc is a personal odyssey through art history, technology, painting technique and beauty – but ultimately it’s a beguiling study of fascination.