Occasional Glimpses: Vermeer's Milk Maid

Johannes Vermeer is rightly considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age, but it wasn’t always so. Although modestly recognised in his lifetime in Delft and The Hague, he quickly slipped into obscurity after his death, and it remained that way for nearly two centuries, until his rediscovery in the 19th century by French art critic, Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who was so impressed when he came across Vermeer’s View of Delft that he spent years seeking out other paintings by this virtually unknown artist. Today, Vermeer’s paintings are of course lauded as masterpieces and worth mega-millions; should you ever come across his painting The Concert, which was stolen in 1990 and remains missing, do grab it – it is worth about $200M.

Although “launched” by a cityscape and particularly famous for a "tronie" (Girl with a Pearl Earring), Vermeer painted mostly domestic interiors. As his biographer put it: “Almost all his paintings are apparently set in two smallish rooms in his house in Delft; they show the same furniture and decorations in various arrangements and they often portray the same people, mostly women”.

A prime example is today’s choice, The Milkmaid, painted around 1658 and showing a domestic kitchen maid, suitably attired and pouring milk into an earthenware pot (and thus possibly making bread pudding judging by the amount of bread on the table). Vermeer’s careful design (there were several revisions) resulted in a masterpiece of light and shadow, colour, contours, and shape. He restricts his palette mainly to the primary colours of red, blue, and yellow, and the pigments are rich and vibrant - Vermeer is known to have used only the very best, and most expensive, pigments. Above all, the skill of the artist has wrought a remarkably realistic scene, with quirky but authentic features such as the foot warmer, lower right, and the hanging basket, upper right.