Johannes VermeerDutch, 1632–1675The Milkmaid
Het melkmeisje
May one see it?
Unknown: the museum keeps its counsel
Rijksmuseum
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The owner is known. Whether it is on view today, the museum does not say, and we were not trained to guess.
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the painting
The Milkmaid (Dutch: De melkmeid or Het melkmeisje), sometimes called The Kitchen Maid (Dutch: De keukenmeid), is an oil-on-canvas painting of a "milkmaid", in fact, a domestic kitchen maid, by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. It is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which regards it as "unquestionably one of the museum's finest attractions".
The exact year of the painting's completion is unknown, with estimates varying by source. The Rijksmuseum estimates it as circa 1658. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, it was painted in about 1657 or 1658. The "Essential Vermeer" website gives a broader range of 1658–1661.
Particulars
- Accession number
- SK-A-2344
What it shows
Sources
- Rijksmuseum: the museum's own open data · fetched 3 days ago
- Image: Rijksmuseum — public domain
Meanwhile, in the life of Johannes Vermeer
The whole life1652–1661
The influence of Pieter de Hooch in Delft
The genre painter Pieter de Hooch, who lived in Delft from 1652 to 1661, had an enormous influence on Vermeer, reflected in, among other works, Diana and Her Companions. De Hooch's individual style was developed further in Vermeer's paintings.
1653–1675
Patrons: van Ruijven and van Buyten
Pieter van Ruijven and his wife Maria de Knuijt were Vermeer's patrons for the better part of his career: van Ruijven bought much of his output, which kept Vermeer afloat financially but reduced the chances of his fame spreading beyond Delft. The baker Hendrick van Buyten held a couple of his paintings as collateral.
1653–1675 · Workplace
Delft
1660
Moving into his mother-in-law's house on the Oude Langendijk
In 1660 Vermeer and his wife moved into the eleven-room house of his mother-in-law Maria Thins on the Oude Langendijk. Here he worked in his own studio.
1662
Elected head of the Guild of Saint Luke
In 1662 Vermeer was elected head of the guild and was re-elected in 1663, 1670 and 1671, evidence that his peers considered him an established craftsman.
