The Milkmaid

The Milkmaid

• De keukenmeid
• De melkmeid

SK-A-2344

A maidservant pours milk, entirely absorbed in her work. Except for the stream of milk, everything else is still. Vermeer took this simple everyday activity and made it the subject of an impressive painting – the woman stands like a statue in the brightly lit room. Vermeer also had an eye for how light by means of hundreds of colourful dots plays over the surface of objects.

Bikker, Jonathan, 'The hidden collection of the spectacularly bankrupt banker Leendert Pieter de Neufville', Simiolus 36 (2012), nr. 3/4, p. 196, afb. 21.

painter: Johannes Vermeer

c. 1660

olieverf op doek

height 45.5 cm x width 41 cm

Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

purchase 1908

Public domain

? Pieter Claesz van Ruijven (1624-1674) and Maria Simonsdr de Knuijt (1623-1681), Delft; ? their daughter, Magdalena van Ruijven (1655-1682), Delft; ? her widower, Jacob Dissius (1653-1695), Delft;{Montias 1989, pp. 246-262, 359, doc. 417.} his sale, Amsterdam, 16 May 1696, no. 2, fl. 175, to Isaac Rooleeuw (1663-1701), Amsterdam;{Hoet and Terwesten 1752-1770, vol. 1 (1752), p. 34; Montias 1989, p. 363, doc. 439; Grijzenhout 2010, p. 66.} his sale, Amsterdam, 20 April 1701, no. 7, fl. 320;{Hoet and Terwesten 1752-1770, vol. 1 (1752), p. 62.} …; sale Jacob van Hoek (1670-1718), Amsterdam, 12 April 1719, no. 20, fl. 126;{Ibid., p. 221.} …; collection Pieter Leendert de Neufville (1707-1759), Amsterdam, after 1752;{Missing in the collection description of 1752, see Hoet and Terwesten 1752-1770, vol. 2 (1752), pp. 513-516.} his son, Leendert Pieter de Neufville (1729-1774?), Amsterdam; sale De Neufville, Amsterdam (J.M. Cok), 19 June 1765, no. 65, fl. 560, to the dealer Yver;{Copy RKD.} …; sale Jean Dulong (?-?), Amsterdam (H. de Winter and J. Yver), 18 April 1768, no. 10, fl. 925, to Van Diemen;{Copy RKD.} …; collection Jan Jacob de Bruyn (1720-1792), Amsterdam;{Reynolds 1996, p. 106.} his sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 12 September 1798, no. 32, fl. 1,550, to the dealer J.A. Spaan;{Copy RKD.} …; sale Hendrik Muilman (1743-1812), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 12 April 1813 _sqq._, no. 96, fl. 2,125, to the dealer J. de Vries for Lucretia Johanna van Winter (1785-1845), Amsterdam;{Copy RKD.} her widower, Jonkheer Hendrik Six (1790-1847), Lord of Hillegom, Amsterdam; their son, Jonkheer Pieter Hendrik Six (1827-1905), Lord of Vromade, Amsterdam;{Archive Six family, inv.no. CS53207-002. 0014.} from whose heirs, fl. 550,000, with 38 other paintings, with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, to the museum, 1908

• Bikker, Jonathan, 'The hidden collection of the spectacularly bankrupt banker Leendert Pieter de Neufville', Simiolus 36 (2012), nr. 3/4, p. 196, afb. 21.
• Gijsbert van der Wal, 'Schilderen in druppeltjes', Kunstschrift (2014) nr. 3, p. 13, afb. 11.
• The New York Times, 13 sept. 2009, p. 77 [paginagrote advertentie van The Metropolitan Museum of Art].
• Z.Z. Filipczak, 'Vermeer, elusiveness, and visual theory', Simiolus 32 (2006), nr. 4, p. 263, afb. 2.
• Pieter Roelofs, 'Nu of nooit : na 300 jaar weer samen', Oog 3 (2009) nr. 1, p. 80-81.
• C. van der Bas, 'The Muilman Collection: the progressive taste of an eighteenth-century banking family', Simiolus 32, (2006), nr. 2/3, p. 156
• P. Hecht, 'Daniël Franken : genereus en bescheiden', Bulletin van de Vereniging Rembrandt 24 (2014), afb. p. 10.
• Karen Rosenberg, 'A humble domestic crosses the sea/ocean', The New York Times, 11 sept. 2009, p. 23, 29.

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200108369