Vermeer is known for glorifying the middle class and the simple tasks, such as lacemaking. Though this lady was probably part of the upper middle class because her clothes are more expensive. The Netherlands of that time was the first truly middle class, merchant country and it's painter's reflect that culture. Vermeer invited us to notice the beauty and virtue of daily, mundane chores and things. We are invited to admire the lacemaker's diligence, observe how much care she puts into her work. She seems completely lost in what she's doing, bathed in beautiful light.

Vermeer lived in the Dutch Golden Age (17th century). The Netherlands became a nation of traders and craftsmen. The Netherlands started trading with the far east, dominated trade in Europe and the Far East (they had a monopoly of trade with Japan) the first ever multinational corporation emerged - the Dutch East India Company. It established THE FIRST modern stock exchange, the Bank of Amsterdam was established which was pretty close to a central bank. Also, unlike in other countries, your social status depended on how much money you had, the landed nobility didn't have much importance - the urban merchants dominated the dutch society. This is important because, I think, only in such a society where nobility isn't THE ONE AND ONLY THING WORTH TALKING ABOUT, an artist can make his career painting domestic scenes and mundane tasks. This would not have been possible in Italy, for example, where money was gained only from commissions from wealthy donors (namely the church and aristocracy) and you mostly painted gods, greeks and romans and jesusey stuff.

There are theories that Vermeer painted his work using camera obscura. This is seen in the colors and in the blurred background, which are the effects of using Camera Obscura. Also, lacemaking is portrayed very accurately which shows that Vermeer spent a lot of time studying the craft before putting it on an easel. He is thought to have used other optical devices (camera lucida and obscura and curved mirrors) as well, because of his photo - realistic attention to detail. In 2008 Tim Jenison tried to recreate a Vermeer's painting using a lot of interesting optical devices. He even made a documentary about it - Tim's Vermeer.

Camera lucida (light room) - artists use it to see both, their drawing surface and the scene simultaneously. Camera obscura (dark room) is used like a photocamera to project images through a small hole onto a dark surface. 

Johannes Vermeer was a dutch painter who specialized in middle class life and domestic scenes. He was never wealthy, he had 10 children, painted and took care of his family art business all his life.