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The Milkmaid
Also titled Het melkmeisje
Johannes Vermeer (Delft, 1632–1675)
c. 1660
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- height 45.5 cm x width 41 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
About this work
A maidservant pours milk, entirely absorbed in her work. Except for the stream of milk, everything else is still. Vermeer took this simple everyday activity and made it the subject of an impressive painting – the woman stands like a statue in the brightly lit room. Vermeer also had an eye for how light by means of hundreds of colourful dots plays over the surface of objects.