“So also Vermeer creates a story. A story of everyday life. And it’s amazing, I think, how he’s able to make this everyday scene into a monumental painting.”
Taco Dibbits, General Director of the Rijksmuseum
Put up for sale (for tax purposes) by the Six family in the early 20th century, “The Milkmaid” attracted the attention of American financier J. Pierpont Morgan who would have brought the painting out of the Netherlands.
“The Milkmaid” was, however, not sold to Mr. Morgan nor did it leave the Netherlands.
Instead the painting was acquired in 1908, together with 38 others also offered by the Six family, for 750,000 guilders by a consortium comprised of the Rijksmuseum, the government of the Netherlands, and the Rembrandt Society.
Successfully retained at home, “The Milkmaid” entered the protective custody of the Rijksmuseum where it has remained since.
“The Milkmaid,” painted in oil on canvas by Delft painter Johannes Vermeer in about 1660, describes a maid standing in the dairy kitchen of a Delft household making a bread pudding.
Bread, protected from the mice in a chest hanging by the window up on the wall, is readied in a basket on the table. A blue porcelain pitcher holds beer to be used as yeast. The milkmaid pours milk, delivered to the door from the countryside, from an earthenware pitcher.
Taco Dibbits spoke engagingly of “The Milkmaid” during his presentation of 26 January 2018 at the Yale University Art Gallery: “Understanding the Rijksmuseum: The History of a National Museum”.
“And then there is the first big intervention of the State. “The Milkmaid” by Vermeer, she was about to be sold to the US, and the Dutch said, ‘no, this cannot happen,’ and a committee was formed, in the Netherlands everything goes by committee, a committee was formed, consensus was reached, it was brought into Parliament, and it was unanimously decided that this painting should be acquired for the country, and it has been in the Rijksmuseum since the the beginning of the 20thcentury.
“For Vermeer, it is incredible to see how well preserved it is. And it’s a large part of its magic.
“You really feel his brushstroke and the way he indicates the brittleness of the bread and the breadcrumbs
“and the way he with little dots, you can still see them on the paint surface, and the way he depicts the dark blue skin of the milkmaid, she’s been cleaning, probably in cold water, the way he does that, and contrasts it with the dark blue behind it, it is an amazing painting.
“And it’s a painting that tells a story, a story of a lady, or a maid in this case, standing in the dairy kitchen, a kitchen on the north. There is a window, but you see the mold. I always say it is the most beautiful plaster wall ever painted, you see the mold here. And the windows on the north, a small hole in the window to show that it’s really glass.
“Bread is in the chest, hanging up against mice.
“You know it’s cold because there’s a stove here, with a little piece of pottery, within it hot coals.
“And here is the milk. The milk would be delivered at the door from the country, delivered at the door in large buckets.
“And there is a pitcher with beer which is used as yeast.”
Taco Dibbits, “Understanding the Rijksmuseum: The Story of a National Museum,” Yale University Art Gallery, 26 January 2018
“The Milkmaid” was “probably purchased from the artist by his Delft patron Pieter Claesz van Ruijven (1624-1674), who at his death appears to have owned twenty-one works by Vermeer.”
The twenty-one paintings were sold in 1696 from the estate of van Ruijven’s son-in-law, Jacob Dissius.
At this sale, “The Milkmaid” was described as “exceptionally good” and brought the second-highest price. (Vermeer’s “View of Delft,”c. 1660-1552, now in the collection of the Mauritshaus, The Hague, fetched the highest price, 200 guilders).
Auctioned in 1719, the painting belonged to at least five Amsterdam collections before it was acquired by one of the great collectors of Dutch art, Lucretia Johanna van Winter (1785 – 1845) who in 1822 married into the Six family of collectors.
Years later, in the early 20thcentury, heirs of the two sons of Lucretia Johanna van Winter intended to auction off “The Milkmaid” together with 38 other paintings in their collection. American financier, J. Pierpont Morgan, expressed interest in acquiring the painting.
In order to keep “The Milkmaid” in the Netherlands, the Rijksmuseum, with support from the Dutch government and the Rembrandt Society, purchased “The Milkmaid,” together with the other 38 paintings, in 1908 for 750,000 guilders.
See:
“The So-Called Dissius Auction (1696 sale of 124 paintings by the artmerchant Gerard Hoet)”, Essential Vermeer
“The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer,” Walter A. Liedtke, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009, p. 22
“The Milkmaid,” The Rijksmuseum
TacoDibbits, “Understanding the Rijksmuseum: The Story of a National Museum,”Yale University Art Gallery, 26 January 2018
