The Little Street

Road (Dutch Het straatje to German The Little Street ) in Delft is an oil painting by Jan Vermeer, written 1657/1658. The 54.3 centimeters high and 44 centimeters wide picture shows a street scene of his native city of Delft. Today street belongs in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Delft.

Image description

In the foreground is a road to see the cobblestones painted with fluted brush stroke. In the background is in the right half of a house in the frontal view. On the left side two entrances to courts and other buildings can be seen. The right house has a facade of brick with a gable. This is reminiscent of loopholes incisions. The facade derives left over at low altitude to the neighboring house. Most shutters of the house are closed, which gives the impression that the house would be sealed off. Only through the open door, the viewer gets a glimpse into the interior of the house. In the doorway sits a woman who is engaged in lace-making. Before the house kneel two children, whose faces are not recognizable. It is also not visible to the viewer exactly what they do. Through the repaired beams with door to the courtyard, a servant is seen over a water barrel. The four figures are to each other in any narrative context. This also makes the picture looks very quiet. The picture impresses with the precision technology of Vermeer in combination with the power of the selected colors to be very realistic about the effect on the viewer. Some pigments have suffered over time; in particular the fall blue leaves on the tree.

Provenance

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was the street in Delft, named after the art collector Jan Six Collectie Six, who demanded one million guilders for it. Finally, Henri WA Detering acquired in 1921 the picture for 625,000 guilders from the collection and donated it to the Dutch State. On Deterding available through the picture in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is shown.