'The Milkmaid' by Johannes Vermeer

Van Gogh admired Rembrandt, but he was also fascinated by Johannes Vermeer. He wrote of his work: 'Isn't it curious that that Delft v.d. Meer in The Hague has remained so beautifully colored, with a whole series of scratchy tones of red, green, gray, brown, blue, black, yellow, white'. He also described the blue skies around Arles as if from a Vermeer painting. In 1885 Van Gogh visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where he became enchanted by Rembrandt's 'Jewish Bride'. He must have seen Vermeer's 'Milkmaid' (ca. 1660) there as well, as these two paintings are in the same gallery. Let's look a little closer at Vermeer's masterpiece.

We see a woman attentively pouring out milk. Her hands and her face are red from working in the sun. On the table is some bread with a decanter of Delft pottery. From the window, light comes from above, illuminating the woman and the stream of milk. On the wall hangs a bread basket, with a metal bowl next to it. To the right on the floor is a little stove, which people used to warm themselves with.

At first glance it looks like a quiet and clean scene. But appearances are deceiving. Broken nail holes can be seen in the wall. The nails that are still in there don't seem to have been carefully put into the wall either. In the window there is broken glass. Under the window, the wall is damaged by mold from the moisture in the room. On the floor there are also objects everywhere that do not belong there. But despite the clutter, Vermeer creates a clean and convincing whole.

Vermeer's use of color is striking. He uses bright red, blue and yellow side by side. These are the primary colors. Around the 17th century, knowledge of these theories was only beginning to emerge. In addition to the blue and yellow, he uses green, which in turn contrasts with the red of her skirt. The blue is the very expensive pigment lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone that came all the way from Afghanistan. In those days it was more expensive than gold, so it is very strange that Vermeer had a lot of this pigment at his disposal. Presumably he must have received it from his Messiah Pieter van Ruijven, who owned about 20 of his paintings.

How did Vermeer come to create his compositions? In (almost) all of his interior paintings there are holes present in the paint layer. In the Milkmaid, this is present slightly above the jug. This explains the perspective of the window, and even the flow of the milk. Another technical aspect is the use of points of light where the light falls. For example, if you zoom in on the bread, the bread is built up in dots. So it's an optical trick that he mastered very well.

What do you admire about the Milkmaid?

Have you always wanted this masterpiece on your wall? You can! You can request 'The Milkmaid' in oil on canvas, with your desired dimensions. Fill in the quotation form without any obligation, and you will receive a reply within 24 hours.