Picture of Vermeer "Milkmaid". History, description

This small picture today has an unconditional status of a masterpiece of world significance, comparable to the creations of Raphael and Leonardo, Rembrandt and Velasquez. Its author is considered a master, in many ways determined the significance of the Golden Age of Dutch painting of the XVII century. As usually happens with art phenomena of this level, Vermeer's painting "Milkmaid" has preserved for more than three centuries of its existence, the possibility of a unique fresh subjective perception for anyone who saw it for the first time, and the room for new interpretation by researchers of new generations.

Riddle of Vermeer

This master today is placed by experts on a par with Rembrandt and Frans Hals - the tops of the Dutch Golden Age, and for two centuries after his death he was considered an ordinary artisan, one of many painters who painted canvases adorning the walls of houses throughout Holland. The artist, who lived a little more than 40 years, wrote two paintings a year, although his colleagues on the shop gave out several paintings a month, did not leave behind a clear biography, not a single confirmed image of himself. One of the options for a hidden self-portrait is considered to be a cheerful gentleman, located on the left side of the picture "Skvodnitsa".

The reason for forgetting Vermeer's name is unclear - during his lifetime he enjoyed fame, though he did not go beyond his native Delft. For his paintings were paid a lot of money, in particular, the picture of Vermeer "Milkmaid" was bought for a huge sum of 175 guilders. It is believed that one of the reasons for his early death was poverty. The only thing that he was reproached by the customers is the slowness in the work. In total, the authorship of 34 things has been officially confirmed, several more paintings are only attributed to Vermeer, and each of them is considered a world masterpiece, ahead of its time on the subject and content, in form and technique, in a set of artistic means.

A milkmaid or a maid?

He worked very carefully on every tiny piece of his paintings and thought lightly about fixing his authorship, creation time and never gave them definite names. This fits into the strategy of his paintings. He invited the viewer to think up what he wrote on the basis of his life experience and development, to finish the story, which he began to tell in the picture.

In English, the picture of Vermeer "Milkmaid" is more often called The Milkmaid, a milkmaid. This sometimes provokes a heated discussion among art critics who regard Vermeer as the singer of the Dutch urban life. They insist on the existence of a strict hierarchy of domestic servants, and a girl who pours milk from a clay jar is just a servant, perhaps a cook who cooks a special pudding from bread, which is present in the picture as part of a virtuoso still life.

It seems that the profession of the girl - it's the tenth, it's more important than her amazing self-esteem and warm attitude towards her, which the artist expresses.

A scene in the kitchen

Vermeer's painting "Milkmaid" is a very small picture - 45x41 cm. It is truly amazing by design and embodiment. Before us is a very simple laconic composition, devoid of unnecessary details, which allows it to be filled to the brim with its soft side light and air. The stocky but well-shaped figure of the girl clearly appears on the almost ascetic background of the wall. You can even consider a white outline that separates the main character from the background. This approach to filling the picturesque space was absolutely innovative - the painters of that time tried to impress the viewer with the richness and abundance of details of the image.

Perhaps this desire was originally from Vermeer. X-ray examination showed that on the back wall there was some complicated image, most likely - a geographical map. But the master refused it, allowing him to concentrate on the figure of the main character, on the expression of her face, carefully drawn clothes, folds of the tablecloth and on the luxuriously painted still-life.

The details in the background are sufficient to enrich the content of the picture with additional allusions and to blossom its picturesque row with the effective texture of the basket, the filigree decor of the tile at the bottom of the wall and the effective accent of the brass oil lamp on the wall harmonized with the active color of the tablecloth and the girl's skirt. Vermeer's painting "Milkmaid" is a masterpiece of a great colorist!

Virtuoso technique

Art historians confirm that when working on the picture, Vermeer used a camera obscura - a special optical device that helped achieve a high degree of reliability in constructing prospective cuts, color and light interactions of different parts of the canvas. Vermeer had a similar experience - in his legacy - "outstanding" in beauty, authenticity and expressiveness "veduty" - "View of the city of Delft" and "Little Street", which it was simply impossible to perform without a camera obscura.

The researchers saw the proof of the use of the optical device in a small loss of sharpness in the foreground, in the image of bread in the basket, which was a characteristic phenomenon for such devices. But in its application there is no depreciation of the level of professional skill of the artist. Description of the picture by Jan Vermeer "Milkmaid", from the point of view of pictorial technique, shows her highest level. This is proved by the freedom of combining wide confident dense smears, which simulates the girl's face, confident molding of the form on the folds of fabric and filigree dot smears that scattered the still life of bread from the flickering light. And the texture of the wall with marble overflows of peeling paint is amazing!

The "Gioconda effect"

And yet "Milkmaid" - Vermeer's painting - is above all a subtle and multifaceted psychological work. The smile hidden by the master on the contrasting border of light falling on the girl's face is endowed with attentive connoisseurs by elusiveness and polysemy comparable to that which is contained in Leonardo's great masterpiece. What is the young girl thinking about looking at a thin milk trickle? Is she just tired? Dreaming? Did you remember something?

Perhaps, the author of the picture "Milkwoman" Jan Vermeer of Delft could not say about this either. This mystery, which has been living for more than three centuries, continues to live, while real art is alive.