What sort of person was johanne Vermeer?

You can look him up in Wikipedia, or if you are in college, you can use the art history databases. Very little is known about him personally--he owned and operated a tavern at one time for instance. Beyond some extant court records there is little first person documentation about his life.

However, you have the paintings and there are certain things you can infer by looking at those.

--He was familiar with the mathematical laws of one point perspective, suggesting that either he was well educated (at least in art technique) or that he was familiar with other art utilizing this method.

--Chances are good that he was good at math (see above.)

--He probably owned and used a camera obscura or some other mechanical aid to help him draw complex detail in perspective (judging from some of the rugs.)

--He was a keen observer of light and detail.

--He was likely a calm man, given his penchant for quiet domestic interiors rather than other subjects.

--He was well aware of social customs and modern costume, the clothes and hairstyles of his models were modern as were their activities. And so on. If you really look at his works (and there are less than three dozen known works by his hand), you can start to make some assumptions on common themes and images. Work from there.

Cranky.

he was a cool guy you could chug some brew with