"The Milkmaid" by Johannes Vermeer was probably painted in 1658 and is displayed in The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Vermeer created several paintings that were illuminated like this one - via the window on the left. Following his death in 1675, Vermeer's paintings were largely ignored until an influential French art historian began to sing his praises in the 1860's.
There is a lot more that could be said about this painting including its precision, its use of colour and the Dutch tradition of making images of maids. However, what I mostly wish to say is that I greatly admire this work. Because of a framed print my parents displayed in my childhood home, I have known it all my life. It seems almost timeless and celebrates the dignity of labour though I doubt that Vermeer saw it that way.
I imagine the model may have moaned to the artist, "Mr Vermeer, how much longer do I have to hold this bloody jug? My arm is killing me!" Little did she know that over 360 years later her sturdy image would be world famous.
It is an excellent work, but that is not to say I like it.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to speak the truth when looking at art.
DeletePaintings that we have known for a long time, like this one which you remember from your childhood home, are special, aren't they. When we come across them in a different place and at a different time, we greet them like old friends. I imagine little YP studying the print closely and maybe even spinning a story to include much more than that tiny glimpse of a room and of a moment in a day centuries ago, like I did with a framed print of The Chocolate Girl at my aunt's house in Denmark.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chocolate_Girl
I cannot say that I have seen that engaging picture before. Lovely. I note that it is housed in Dresden.
DeleteDear Neil,
ReplyDeleteyes, indeed, a very beautiful painting. The Dutch artists captured the detail and emotion of every day life so magnificently, elevating the mundane to the sublime. Many of these works are perfect lessons in social history, the clothes, eating habits and furnishings of the rooms etc. are all catalogued for us to reflect upon centuries later.
In Norwich there is a large collection of Dutch artworks. The city was very heavily influenced by the Dutch or 'Strangers' who fled the Reformation and came to Norfolk. Even the Norwich football team is named 'The Canaries' after the canary birds brought to Norwich by the Dutch.
Thanks for that final point Jane & Lance. I never knew that. I believe The Dutch had much influence in other east coast places - such as Boston, Kings Lynn, Hull, Ipswich and Lincoln.
DeleteWe went to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam when I was a child and my Mum and Dad bought several prints which are still up in my Dad's house now. I have such a love of them as I felt they awakened in me a love of art.
ReplyDeleteI guess that children only see images. The discovery of true art arrives with maturity and understanding.
DeleteI am by no means an expert on art but I have always admired paintings such as those by Vermeer. They capture the essence of the subject so well and I can gaze at them for a long time, imagining that I am there in that place, experiencing that moment.
ReplyDeleteFeeling surely matters more than knowledge when it comes to art appreciation.
DeleteI suppose Milkmaid is a gender specific noun YP? I can't think of a Male equivalent. Milkman means something else. We watched Fake or Fortune last night. It really gives you an insider's view of what art and painting is about.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that men would often carry the milk but as you say there does not seem to be a male equivalent of the word. Perhaps we need to call them all dairy workers.
DeleteI wonder why Dutch artist's paintings of that era are always so dark apart from that tiny bit of illumination. Rembrandt's works were the same. Was it symbolic of the genre or just that they lived in gloomy dwellings?
ReplyDeleteThe prime example being "Night Watch". I am afraid that I do not know enough to answer your question ADDY.
DeleteYou have now sent my mind off on an investigation it's almost possible to undertake. When I was a child my "Uncle John" (then in his 80s) lived next door. He had been a wholesale fruiterer but he wasn't cut out for business and his brother (a Lord Mayor of Liverpool) was far more interested in politics than the business and eventually Uncle John retired to paint for the rest of his life. One of the paintings he copied was a of the Dutch School and was of a main in a kitchen not unlike your painting but, in my mind, it was much darker. A task for a wet afternoon (but not this one!).
ReplyDeleteI think that your Uncle John finally got his priorities right.
DeleteVermeer, Georges de la Tour (1593-1652) and Jean Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779) form a trinity of painters I hold dear.
ReplyDeleteJohn Fowles said he did not need to analyse why Alain-Fournier's novel Le Grand Meaulnes had such a powerful hold on him.
I feel the same way about these three painters. So I have largely avoided reading the scholars and art critics.
Very little is known about de la Tour, and not that much about Vermeer.
An old painter taught me a good lesson. When you visit a public gallery concentrate on just a few paintings and works of sculpture.
Hemingway was always in the Prado looking at the Goyas, and in Paris he concentrated on the Cezannes.
Vermeer is worth the long gaze.
I agree. If one attempts too much in a good art gallery crowded with paintings of merit, one comes away reeling. You just cannot take it all in. I am glad that you also admire Vermeer and assume that you are Mr Haggerty Esquire.
DeleteI done forgot to append my name, Neil.
DeleteHaggerty was a scrap merchant in Sheffield.
In another life.
Hameld was last seen alive climbing the 39 Steps.
I grew up with a huge book of lovely plates of artwork and as a child I spent hours going through it, looking at each picture, trying to determine the stories behind them. This picture was in it and I have always loved it.
ReplyDeleteYears ago I was at a flea market and there was a book seller and low and behold, there was the book! Not THE book, I'm sure, but a copy of the same book. I bought it but I haven't been able to get any of my grandkids interested in it.
Anyway, thanks for the memory, Mr. P.
What a lovely co-incidence I am sure that if you promised Levon a front loader if he spends an hour every day with that art book he will be very, very interested in it.
DeleteI enjoy looking at a picture which tells a story and sets your imagination going, this is one of those and sets me off on a nice little daydream!
ReplyDeleteI agree Jo - it is easy to imagine a story linked to that picture.
DeleteWhen You were in your parents home I think you would have looked at this painting many times looking for details . Your suggestion had me immediately looking for details.
ReplyDeleteIt was just always there - like a constant through the first sixteen years of my life.
DeleteI love Vermeer's work, and there aren't many extant paintings by him, apparently. Have you ever read "Girl with a Pearl Earring" or "Girl in Hyacinth Blue," both novels about Vermeer and his art? My parents had mass-market copies of a Renoir and a Cezanne in our living room and will always vividly remember them!
ReplyDeleteNever read "The Girl With a Pearl Earring". I will duly add it to my long list Steve.
DeleteThe painting that always does 'it' for me is this one. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/Andrew-Wyeth-Wind-from-the-.png I could lose myself in this painting every single time that I see it. I love it.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see that painting in its current home and at its full size. It is so wistful. Is about moving out beyond the curtain or about something coming in? Perhaps both.
DeleteIn our kitchen it was The Angelus by Millet and also The Gleaners By the same artist.
ReplyDelete"The Gleaners" is an image that I am also very familiar with. Another picture of ordinary folk at work.
DeleteMeike mentioned La Belle Chocolatiere by Jean-Etienne Liotard, painted 1743-44.
ReplyDeleteThere are two YouTube videos on this exquisite work.
*Liotard, the Chocolate Girl - for Pastel Painters* with Sophie Ploeg.
*The Most Beautiful Pastel Ever Seen.*
J Haggerty
I am pleased that Meike introduced me to this picture.
DeleteIt is the sea breeze that ruffles the curtain, and it is warm and smells like salt, and it calls us to come out and run in the sand.
ReplyDeleteYes. I agree with you about the mood of that picture Debby. It is liberating.
DeleteThe painting that evokes very early memories for me was Van Goch's "Sunflowers". There was a copy hanging on the wall in my bedroom when I was growing up. Probably a wedding gift or a caste-off from someone. To this day, I have always loved sunflowers, both real and in paintings. In fact over the years I've painted them on many occasions and they prove a useful subject when I'm lacking inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThe Dutch Masters paintings gave a good insight into everyday life - as your Vermeer shows. When visiting an art gallery, I always look at paintings depicting everyday scenes, rather than the religious ones. They are tell us so much more about life as it was lived in times gone by.
I wish you had your own blog CG - then we might see some of your paintings - including the sunflowers.
DeleteGreat post topic. I love that Vermeer painting - the colours of her clothes, the texture of the bread, her concentration as she pours - I never tire of looking at it. It graces the front cover of a book I found in an op shop many years ago -The Flavour of Holland, sketches and recipes by Hilary Keatinge and Anneke Peters. I bought the book for its cover as much as its content and have always had it facing outwards on the shelf. Reading Tracey Chevalier"s book caused me to buy a print of Girl With a Pearl Earring.
ReplyDeleteI was 18 when I first saw a print of Fragonard's The Reader on a billet's lounge wall and was smitten. We had nothing like that at home and I wanted to someday own a copy. It took 40 years to find one but every time I look at her it takes me back to that moment.. I am drawn to images of women doing the things I most like to do myself..reading, cooking, gardening, knitting.
As children we hated visiting our elderly relatives who had hunting trophies hanging on their walls. We were terrified by the great horned heads whose eyes seemed to track your every movement across the room.
The links above have sent me wandering through the internet,discovering a site called Berfrois which will become a favourite, a welcome diversion on another 30 deg day that's too hot for gardening.
Adele
Do you mean the girl in the yellow dress sitting sideways on? We don't see many paintings of people reading. It is a memorable image. Thanks for calling by once again Adele.
DeleteP.S. Knit quicker!
Yes that's the one.
ReplyDelete