The Lacemaker (Vermeer)

The Lacemaker is a by Jan Vermeer painted in the years 1669 to 1670 oil paintings. The 24.5 centimeters high and 21 centimeters wide image, the smallest of Vermeer's paintings, shows a woman who is working on a bobbin lace. The picture is signed but not dated. Today it hangs in the collection of the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

Image description

In the center of the picture a young girl sitting on a work table that is moved closely to a blank wall. She is wearing a bright yellow dress with a large white collar, in her left hand she holds two clapper, with the other she stabs a needle gently into the shallow cushion on which she is working at the top. On a small wooden box next to her right hand is a pile of lace needles, the silk yarn is kept in a pillow-like container to flow out smoothly out of the white and red threads.

The young woman is styled extremely complicated. The brown hair is parted on both the front and across the head. The attention to the back of the head is combed back hair is woven into a braid that closely wraps around the back of the head. On both sides of the temples themselves curls strands that are dissolved artfully from the strict curl hairstyle. Hairstyle and clothes as well as the processing of costly silk suggest that it is the daughter of a middle-class family and not a servant to the young woman.

History

The picture was probably before 1674 owned by Vermeer's patron Pieter Claesz of Ruijven was then from 1681 to 1682 in the possession of his heirs Magdalena van Ruijven and Jacob Dissius. 1696 Amsterdam was sold by the heirs Dissius for 28 guilders. After several more auctions, where prices rose only slightly, it scored 3150 guilders (6000 francs ) at an auction on April 1, 1870. In the same year it was for a price of 7900 francs to the Louvre, where it is kept today.

Reception

Between 1954 and 1957, Dali worked with Robert Descharnes on a film - which remained unfinished - explodes painting in the course of Vermeer. In 1957, the film entitled " The Lacemaker and the Rhinoceros " was shown in cinemas.