The Procuress (Vermeer)
Encyclopedia
The Procuress is a 1656 oil-on-canvas painting by Jan Vermeer. It shows a genre scene in a brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

 - one of the two women is the eponymous procuress
Procuring (prostitution)
Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. Examples of procuring include:*trafficking a prostitute into a country for the purpose of soliciting sex...

, while the figure on the left has been identified by some as a self portrait
Self Portrait
Self Portrait is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's tenth studio album, released by Columbia Records in June 1970.Self Portrait was Dylan's second double album, and features mostly cover versions of well-known pop and folk songs. Also included are a handful of instrumentals and original compositions...

 of the artist. As one of only three paintings Vermeer signed and dated (the other two are The Astronomer
The Astronomer (painting)
The Astronomer is a painting finished about 1668 by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is oil on canvas, 51 cm x 45 cm , and is on display at the Louvre, Paris....

and The Geographer
The Geographer
The Geographer is a painting created by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in 1668–1669, and is now in the collection of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut museum in Frankfurt, Germany.-Description:...

), it is his earliest known genre work and was influenced by earlier works on the same subject, such as The Procuress
The Procuress (Dirck van Baburen)
The Procuress is the name given to a painting by the Dutch "Golden Age" painter Dirck van Baburen, of which several copies exist. The painting is in the Caravaggiesque style of the Utrecht school....

(c. 1622) by Dirck van Baburen
Dirck van Baburen
Dirck Jaspersz. van Baburen was a Dutch painter associated with the Utrecht Caravaggisti.-Biography:Dirck van Baburen was probably born in Wijk bij Duurstede, but his family moved to Utrecht when he was still young. He was also known as Teodoer van Baburen and Theodor Baburen...

. It is now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden features major works of art. It is located in the gallery wing of the Zwinger....

 in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

.

Reception

Some critics have thought the painting is atypical of Vermeer's style and expression.

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"

Provenance and Exhibitions

The painting was in the Waldstein collection in Dux
Dux
Dux is Latin for leader and later for Duke and its variant forms ....

 (Duchcov
Duchcov
Duchcov is a town in the Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has a population exceeding 9,000 and is located at the foot of the Ore Mountains....

), then bought in 1741 for the Elector of Saxony.

The painting was exhibited in 1980 at the Restaurierte Kunstwerke in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republic exhibit in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Altes Museum.

Sources

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., Johannes Vermeer, 1995, New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-06558-2

External links

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