Technology executive and inventor Tim Jenison, who has never picked up a paintbrush, spends years trying to duplicate the singular photorealistic style of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer in this highly entertaining documentary by his friends, the comic magicians Penn and Teller.
Intrigued by art historians’ radical theory that Vermeer and some of his contemporaries used mechanical devices to advance the art of painting, Jenison experiments with a camera obscura and a mirror that allows him to paint an astonishingly precise copy of a photograph.
Evidently wealthy enough to indulge his curiosity, Jenison builds a replica of Vermeer’s studio and its contents — including intricately detailed furniture and clothing. He even replicates the daylight of Vermeer’s Dutch hometown, Delft, in a Texas warehouse. Jenison spends months painstakingly hunched over a canvas, squinting through lenses to re-create a Vermeer that’s good enough to impress art legend David Hockney.
Directed by the nonspeaking Teller, “Tim’s Vermeer’’ was written by Penn Jillette, who also serves as the bemused on-screen narrator. Comedian and painter Martin Mull also makes an appearance — but surprisingly, not Scarlett Johansson, who played Vermeer’s most famous subject in “Girl With a Pearl Earring.”