The Procuress (Vermeer)

The Procuress
ArtistJohannes Vermeer
Year1656
MediumOil on canvas
MovementDutch Golden Age painting
Dimensions143 cm × 130 cm (56 in × 51 in)
LocationGemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

The Procuress (Dutch: De koppelaarster) is a 1656 oil-on-canvas painting by the then 24-year-old Johannes Vermeer. It can be seen in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. It is his first genre painting and shows a scene of contemporary life, an image of mercenary love[1] perhaps in a brothel. It differs from his earlier biblical and mythological scenes. It is one of only three paintings Vermeer signed and dated (the other two are The Astronomer and The Geographer). In 1696 the painting, being sold on an auction in Amsterdam, was named "A merry company in a room".

The woman in black, the leering coupler, "in a nun's costume",[2]: 224  could be the eponymous procuress, while the man to her right, "wearing a black beret and a doublet with slashed sleeves",[2]: 172  has been identified as a self portrait of the artist;[3] there is a resemblance with the painter in Vermeer's The Art of Painting.

It seems Vermeer was influenced by earlier works on the same subject by Gerard ter Borch, and The Procuress (c. 1622) by Dirck van Baburen, which was owned by Vermeer's mother-in-law Maria Thins and hung in her home.[4] Some critics thought the painting is atypical of Vermeer's style and expression, because it lacks the typical light. Pieter Swillens wrote in 1950 that—if the work was by Vermeer at all—it showed the artist "seeking and groping" to find a suitable mode of expression. Eduard Trautscholdt wrote 10 years before that "The temperament of the 24-year-old Vermeer fully emerges for the first time".[5]

The jug on the oriental rug is a piece of Westerwald Pottery. The kelim thrown over a bannister, probably produced in Uşak, covers a third of the painting and shows medallions and leaves.[6] The instrument is probably a cittern. The dark coat with five buttons was added by Vermeer in a later stage. The man in the red jacket, a soldier, is fondling the young woman's breast and dropping a coin into her outstretched hand.[7]

According to Benjamin Binstock, this "dark and gloomy" painting could be understood as a psychological portrait of his adopted family[2]: 81  and does not represent a didactic message.[2]: 123, 85  Binstock says Vermeer used his family as models; the procuress could be Vermeer's wife Catherina[2]: 231  and the lewd soldier her brother Willem.[2]: 81–82 

Dirck van Baburen, The Procuress, 1622, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The painting was owned by Maria Thins, mother-in-law of Johannes Vermeer, who reproduced it within two of his own paintings.[8]
  1. ^ Salomon, Nanette (1999). "Vermeer's Women". In Bal, Mieke; Gonzales, Bryan (eds.). The Practice of Cultural Analysis: Exposing Interdisciplinary Interpretation. Stanford University Press. p. 50. ISBN 9780804730679.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Binstock, Benjamin (2009). Vermeer's Family Secrets. Genius, Discovery, and the Unknown Apprentice. Routledge. ISBN 9781136087066.
  3. ^ Boone, Jon. "The Procuress: Evidence for a Vermeer Self-Portrait". Essential Vermeer. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
  4. ^ Montias, John Michael (1991). Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History. Princeton University Press. p. 146.
  5. ^ Liedtke, Walter; Plomp, Michiel C.; Rüger, Axel (2001). Vermeer and the Delft School. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 372, 374. ISBN 0-87099-973-7..
  6. ^ Ydema, Onno (1991). Carpets and their Datings in Netherlandish Paintings, 1540–1700. Antique Collectors' Club. pp. 43, 44, 145. ISBN 90-6011-710-7.
  7. ^ Liedtke, Walter (2007). Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 873. ISBN 9781588392732..
  8. ^ In the catalogue of Essential Vermeer (click on the woman in black)