Johannes Vermeer or Jan Vermeer ( baptised October 31 1632 , died December 15 1675 ) was a Dutch Baroque painter . Johannes , Jan or Johan Vermeer ( ; baptized in Delft on 31 October 1632 as Joannis , and buried in the same city under the name Jan on 15 December 1675 ) was a Dutch painter who specialized in exquisite , domestic interior scenes of middle class life . Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime .