''The Lacemaker'' is a painting by the Dutch artist

Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

(1632–1675), completed around 1669–1670 and held in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, Paris. The work shows a young woman wearing a yellow bodice, holding up a pair of bobbins in her left hand as she carefully places a pin in the pillow on which she is making her bobbin lace. At 24.5 cm x 21 cm (9.6 in x 8.3 in), the work is the smallest of Vermeer's paintings,Bonafoux, 66 but in many ways one of his most abstract and unusual.Huerta (2005), 38 The canvas used was cut from the same bolt as that used for '' A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals'', and both paintings seem to have had identical dimensions originally. The girl is set against a blank wall, probably because the artist sought to eliminate any external distractions from the central image. As with his '' The Astronomer'' (1668) and ''

The Geographer ''The Geographer'' (Dutch: ) is a painting created by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in 1668–1669, and is now in the collection of the Städel museum in Frankfurt, Germany. It is closely related to Vermeer's '' The Astronomer'', for instance usi ...

'' (1669), it is likely that the artist undertook careful study before he executed the work; the art of lacemaking is portrayed closely and accurately.Wheelock, 114 Vermeer probably used a ''

camera obscura A camera obscura (; ) is a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole. ''Camera obscura'' can also refer to analogous constructions such as a box or tent in w ...

'' while composing the work: many optical effects typical of photography can be seen, in particular the blurring of the foreground. By rendering areas of the canvas as out-of-focus, Vermeer is able to suggest depth of field in a manner unusual of Dutch Baroque painting of the era. In ''The Lacemaker'', the artist presents in an abstract manner the various elements which compose the girl's face and body and the pattern of the material on which she is working. The girl's hands, the curls of her hair and the T-cross which form her eyes and nose are all described in an abstract manner unusual for the era in which Vermeer worked. In addition, the red and white of the lace is shown as spilling from the sewing cushion with physical properties suggesting a near liquid form. The blurring of these threads contrasts sharply with the precision of the lace she is shown working on. Vermeer's painting is often compared to a 1662 canvas by the Dutch portrait and genre painter

Caspar Netscher Caspar (or Gaspar) Netscher (1639 – January 15, 1684) was a Dutch portrait and genre painter. He was a master in depicting oriental rugs, silk and brocade and introduced an international style to the Northern Netherlands. Life According to Ar ...

. However, Vermeer's work is very different in tone. In the earlier work, both the girl's shoes and the mussel shells near her feet have sexual connotations. In addition, the discarded shoes in Netscher's painting are unlikely to be the girl's own, hinting again at a sexual overtone. According to the art historian

Lawrence Gowing Sir Lawrence Burnett Gowing (21 April 1918 – 5 February 1991) was an English artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognised as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventuall ...

, :"The achievement of Vermeer's maturity is complete. It is not open to extension: no universal style is discovered. We have never the sense of abundance that the characteristic jewels of his century gives us, the sense that the precious vein lies open, ready to be worked. There is only one 'Lacemaker': we cannot imagine another. It is a complete and single definition."Gowing, 55

Notes

Sources

* Bonafoux, Pascal. ''Vermeer''. New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1992. *Gowing, Lawrence. ''Vermeer''. University of California Press, 1950. *Huerta, Robert D. ''Giants of Delft''. Bucknell University Press, 2003. *Huerta, Robert D. ''Vermeer and Plato: Painting the Ideal''. Bucknell University Press, 2005. *Wheelock, Arthur K. ''Vermeer: The Complete Works''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997.

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Further reading