Image source: Wikimedia Commons (CC0). View source
The Lacemaker
Johannes Vermeer · Baroque & Dutch Golden Age
- Artist
- Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675)
- Date
- c. 1669–1670
- Dimensions
- 24.5 x 21 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
The Lacemaker, one of Vermeer's smallest paintings, shows a young woman in a yellow bodice bent intently over her lace pillow, working the bobbins and pins with delicate fingers.
A closer look
We are placed very close to her, at eye level with her work, and the picture is almost entirely about concentration. Her hands and the fine threads are sharply in focus, while the foreground is soft and blurred: red and white threads spill out of a sewing cushion like trickles of paint. This effect, similar to the depth of field in a camera lens, has led some to suggest Vermeer used a camera obscura. A small prayer book on the table hints at the domestic virtue that lacemaking represented in the Dutch Republic.
More by Johannes Vermeer
In this gallery
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window
The Milkmaid
View of Delft
The Art of Painting
The Little Street
Woman Holding a Balance
The Astronomer
Famous works elsewhere
- The Geographer 1668
- The Procuress 1656
- Christ in the House of Martha and Mary 1650
- A Girl Asleep 1657
- Diana and her Nymphs 1650