Ruskin made some vague references to Dutch architectural painters in Modern Painters I. They relate to Dutch and Flemish painting in general in both its positive and negative aspects (see Ruskin on Dutch and Flemish painting). For though some of the architectural painters 'show a real desire to paint what they saw as far as they saw it' ( MP I:90), they have a tendency to seek detail for its own sake ( MP I:xxix). And though 'exquisite imitations of architecture are found constantly... the effect of age or of human life upon architecture [was never] adequately expressed' ( MP I:110). Later in his writings, Ruskin would refer to one of these painters by name. In the evidence that he gave to the National Gallery Site Commission (1857) regarding suitable works for display, he stated that 'Van der Heyden and others may also be mentioned as first rate in inferior lines' ( Works, 13.545). This was prescient, as a work by Jan Van der Heyden (1637-1712) was first acquired by the National Gallery, London in 1871. That he never named such major painters of domestic exteriors and interiors as Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684) and Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) is forgivable. Neither gained an international reputation until the nineteenth century, that of Vermeer growing particularly slowly. A monograph on Vermeer (1866) by the French critic, Théophile Thoré, may be considered the first substantial study of the artist outside the Netherlands. That Vermeer was the favourite painter of that great French Ruskinian, Marcel Proust, might also be noted.