Focus on this artwork and analyze the Composition and style.
The Guitar Player represents a new direction in Vermeer's art. Because he developed and perfected compositional balance and harmony during the 1660s, he was able to expand and paint scenes that show imbalance and fluctuation. Vermeer's painting of The Guitar Player  rejects compositional balance and harmony, which contradicts his previous paintings. This painting exhibits an unbalanced arrangement that depicts a lack of compositional consistency, but also rejects the past instrument of the lute to focus on the modern guitar. The rejection of the lute and depiction of the guitar may be linked to Vermeer's compositional organization. Vermeer painted the young guitar player far to the left, covering the right half of the painting in light and shadow. This imbalance gives the viewer a sense of change and movement. The combination of an uneven arrangement conjoined with a gleam of light coming from the right rather than the left, forces the viewer engage with the character and instrument in this painting. The compositional arrangement is reinforced by Vermeer's decision to specifically direct the light onto the guitar player, which helps the viewer feel the impact of her presence. As a result of Vermeer's decision to paint a single personality, a greater importance and focus is placed on the instrument. The inclusion of a pastoral landscape, dark curtains, three books, and a blue tablecloth provide a counterbalance to the overriding composition displayed on the left of this artwork.The late style of Vermeer utilized a number of painting techniques, most of which suggest an abstract style. His fascination with objects and actions that portray movement and sound are represented by an approach to painting that establishes objects as diffused and illuminated. In his painting, Vermeer integrated the use of abstraction through the strum of the guitar strings and movement of the right hand. Because this painting stayed with him until he died in 1675, we are to assume that this was his own stylistic direction, and not a request of a patron.
Guitar