YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Bought with the income of the ANN S. FARNAM FUND VERMEER OF DELFT OTHER WORKS BY E. V. LUCAS ROSE AND ROSE VERENA IN THE MIDST THE VERMILION BOX LANDMARKSLISTENER'S LURE MR. INGLESIDE OVER BEMERTON'S LONDON LAVENDER URBANITIES SPECIALLY SELECTED A DOS WELL OF BAGHDAD 'TWIXT EAGLE AND DOVE THE PHANTOM JOURNAL LOITERER'S HARVEST CLOUD AND SILVER ONE DAY AND ANOTHER FIRESIDE AND SUNSHINE CHARACTER AND COMEDY OLD LAMPS FOR NEW THE HAMBLEDON MEN THE OPEN ROAD THE FRIENDLY TOWN HER INFINITE VARIETY GOOD COMPANY THE GENTLEST ART THE SECOND POST ROVING EAST AND ROVING WEST A WANDERER IN VENICE A WANDERER IN PARIS A WANDERER XN HOLLAND ' A WANDERER IN FLORENCE A WANDERER IN LONDON LONDON REVISITED THE BRITISH SCHOOL HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS XN SUSSEX ANNE'S TERRIBLE GOOD NATURE THE SLOWCOACH THE LIFE OF CHARLES LAMB EDWIN AUSTIN ABBEY : HIS LIFE AND WORK and THE POCKET EDITION OF THE WORKS OF CHARLES LAMB I i. MISCELLANEOUS PROSE ; II. ELLA ; III. CHILDREN'S BOOKS ; V. POEMS AND PLAYS ; V. AMD VI. LETTERS '''Lead of- a CJjlHinq ffirf VERMEER OF DELFT BY E. V. LUCAS WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY Sir CHARLES J. HOLMES DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY WITH A FRONTISPIECE IN PHOTOGRAVURE AND TWELVE OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS SECOND EDITION METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. LONDON First Published . . . March gth 1922 Second Edition April 1922 J>\8 INTRODUCTION WHITE Magic ! " Among the many happy phrases in which Mr. Lucas has summed up for us the character of Vermeer's painting, none is more happy than that. It prints on the memory, not only the radiant luminosity of Vermeer's masterpieces, but also that method so subtle, so impenetrable, by which his bright images are transferred to the canvas. Let us think of the two words separately, and first of the " whiteness." What is it in essence but the cool light of day, as we see it through a very large window ? Why does its brightness and coolness make so vivid an impression upon us ? Surely because we seldom see Vermeer's paintings except among pictures by his great contemporaries. Their tones and methods are different, though De Hooch, at his best, now and then comes near to Vermeer in truth and vigour. Their almost universal practice is to paint things as seen in a room, either with a small window v VERMEER OF DELFT (as Rembrandt loved to see them) or where the light of a large window is modified by curtains or by buildings close at hand. The result is a very strong illumination upon the figures and objects close to the window, while all that is farther away is rapidly merged in shadow. So Maes and Metsu and Terborch and the rest paint the atmo sphere of a room as a delicately tinted mist which envelops and softens everything but the chief focus of attraction. Look, for example, at Metsu's " Duet " (No. 838) in the National Gallery : it could not in its way be more vivid or more delight ful. Then turn to the Salting Vermeer (No. 2568) which just now hangs next to it — a picture often spoken of with a certain condescension, as being indubitably less brilhant' in tone, and less arresting in design than several of the painter's more famous works. In a moment you will see that the atmo sphere and tone of the Vermeer, though quiet, perhaps just a little too quiet, are absolute nature, while the Metsu, with all its dexterous pretence of realism, is not realistic at all. The room is filled, not with air, but with an exquisite brown fog. Vermeer, in fact, was in one respect like our own Constable. He saw that air was clear and vi INTRODUCTION transparent, that light could be cool and fresh, and with the search for these attributes came other discoveries. Cool light produced deUghtful and unexpected tones of cool colour ; yellow and blue in particular were transmuted into hues incom parable. Again, through the clear luminous air of his well-lit painting-room, the occupants com bined into fascinating silhouette patterns with the pictures, the maps, the furniture and the fines of the doors and windows. The subtle balancing of the lines and masses in these arabesques, the finding of proportions at once audacious and impec cable between the component parts, coupled all the while with an exact atmospheric perspective, so that the painting should be as perfect in its three-dimensional quality as in its pattern : — these became Vermeer's preoccupations. Was it merely a coincidence that he lived in Delft? Or is it possible that a sight of some of the Oriental impor tations for the use of the famous Delft potteries showed Vermeer the path to this new vision ? His famous blues and yellows may well have been thus inspired, for did not Tiepolo, a century later, learn the secret of those colours from Chinoiseries ? And as Japanese prints kindled the Paris of Manet and Whistler fifty years ago, so similar sparks vii VERMEER OF DELFT may have fallen on Holland in the seventeenth century, and found only the lamp of Vermeer's genius prepared for them. The technical problems involved by this novel vision were unknown to the Low Countries. Their traditional method, the use of a foundation of transparent brown into which touches of more positive colour were crisply worked, with infinite craft by Metsu and Terborch, with marvellous vigour by Rembrandt and Rubens, was bankrupt in face of Vermeer's requirements. The crystalline purity of light on white walls or linen, the adjust ment of contours and edges as trimly and precisely as the camera shows them to us to-day, the making of tones as flat and simple and solid as nature exhibits to the unsophisticated eye, and, last and most difficult of all, the suppression of every trace of human handiwork which might intervene between the spectator and complete optical illusion — such were his demands. And allied with these almost scientific ideals there was in Vermeer a spirit of refined aloofness, of leisurely aristocratic distinction, which lifts him high above his clever, but for the most part rather homely, colleagues. His magic is seen to the full only in a few pic tures, where his aristocratic temper and his scientific vm THE YOUNG COURTESAN THE GALLERY, DRESDEN INTRODUCTION ideas are fused in perfect harmony. Mr. Lucas has spoken of them better than I could ever do, though I should Hke to put in a plea for the Windsor picture being included among the masterpieces. It is certainly one of the most grand and spacious of all Vermeer's designs, and if the varnish were skilfully treated, it would prove to be as brilliant as it is subtle. The infinite gradations of tone and atmosphere, the clarity of illumination, the exquisite adjustment of each mass to its neighbour, with just so much softness or crispness as nature presents, which are characteristic of these master pieces, are qualities which could be obtained only by a smooth and precise method of work. This in turn compelled painting on a small scale, and the sacrifice of such effects as those obtained in the Dresden " Courtesan." Free and forcible hand ling with its inevitable accidents of texture would at once dispel the illusion of naturalness. So the perfect works of Vermeer are mosaics of enam elled pigment of small or moderate size, each section fitted precisely to its neighbour, each absolutely just in relative value, and bearing no trace of what painters call " brushwork," except at points where rehef and emphasis, life and spirit, were specially needed. We can see where, at the ix VERMEER OF DELFT last, the master touched in a ribbon, the high fights on a satin dress or a pearl, but we can only guess, and that rather vaguely, at the magic of the preceding stages. But guess we can. Look again, for example, at the Salting picture in the National Gallery, and note the marbling of the instrument at which the lady is seated, and the indication of a picture hanging on the wall behind her. In these two passages we see flat tones laid neatly side by side, and I feel certain that the mature works of Ver meer were started with just such a mosaic of simple tones, aU suggestion of structure by the direction of the brush strokes being carefully avoided. In some cases the underpainting would appear to have been bluish, or at least a very cool grey. In our deUghtful standing figure (No. 1383) the ground is that fine old traditional ground terre-verte, foUowed in due course by umber. The method, in fact, is exactly similar to that employed by Michelangelo in his early " Madonna with St. John and Angels " (No. 809), as a moment's com parison wiU prove. But the substance and surface and quality of the edges would surely have shown some trace of brushwork, had they not been treated by a softening or pohshing process at each stage ? INTRODUCTION Such processes were common in highly specialized crafts like the coach-painting of the past, and if Vermeer employed or adapted one of them we should understand why his pictures grew to perfection so slowly, and why his output was so small. It is noticeable that his craftsmanship never falters over still-Ufe or draperies which could be painted from a lay figure. The heads and faces of his sitters, which could not be kept so still, not infrequently seem to have given trouble, and to be handled with less certainty than the rest of the picture. There can be no doubt, at any rate, that his " magic " was the result of a very elaborate process, and one which the painter was slow in learning. Those who have borne with me thus far wiU recognize that here we have grounds for assigning relative dates to a considerable portion of Vermeer's work. The pictures in which this technical magic is perfectly developed must be mature ; those in which he hesitates and is evidently seeking his way must be, in comparison, youthful. Let us consider a few of them. The evidence of tradition is supported by a drawing in the British Museum * which indicates a close 1 See Burlington Magazine, January, 1903, p. 327. xi VERMEER OF DELFT connexion between the School of Rembrandt and the young Vermeer, when he was painting the " Christ in the House of Mary and Martha," now at Skelmorlie Castle. The Italo-Dutch influences in the " Diana at her Toilet," and the Venetian influence in the Dresden " Courtesan " are indica tions of experimental work in other directions. The latter picture indeed, both in colour and design, achieves real success, and work on this scale must have been abandoned, probably for the reason already given, with no smaU reluctance. Certain technical analogies make me feel that the famous " View of Delft " at The Hague, and the " Street in Delft " from the Six CoUection, are not much later in date. In these we find that unswerving sincerity of vision which separates Vermeer from all his contemporaries, combined with technical methods not unlike theirs. " The Girl Asleep " in the Altman CoUection is another illustration of the transition period. The modelUng of the head is stUl like that of the girl in the Dresden " Courtesan," the half-tones are warm and treated in traditional Dutch fashion, but in the background we see already the development of fresh air painting combined with pattern. The Dresden ' ' Girl Reading a Letter," and two or three other pictures, which xii INTRODUCTION are heavy and brownish in the half-tones, represent the next stage of growth. At the end of it I fancy must come that monumental figure, the " Maid servant Pouring Milk," at Amsterdam. Here we have the work of the student become master, sound, soUd, luminous ; but stiU, it would seem, the achievement of one doing quite perfectly a thing known, visible and tangible, rather than of one venturing upon the unknown. It is that, the element of surprise, of daring, of the unexpected, which contributes so much to the attraction of Vermeer's later masterpieces, to his " White Magic," which Mr. Lucas has described with such felicitous enthusiasm. C. J. H. Xlll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Head of a Young Girl The Young Courtesan The Artist in his Studio . Front ispiec FACING PAGE S . viii 4 The Pearl Necklace . 8 View of Delft . 12 Maidservant Pouring Milk The Little Street 16 20 A Woman Reading a Letter The Lace-maker 24 28 A Lady Writing a Letter . A Lady Weighing Gold Mistress and Servant. 3236 40 A Woman with a Water Jug 44 XV VERMEER OF DELFT I THE outstanding surprise — to those visitors to the exhibition of Dutch painting in the SaUe of the Jeu de Paume in the TuUeries in the spring of 1921 — was the work of Jan Vermeer of Delft. The Rembrandts astonished by their number and their sombre power ; the other masters, ancient and modern, from Nicolas Maes to Matthew Maris, from Jan Steen to Van Gogh, had each his devotees ; but it was the three Vermeers that provoked the exclamations of wonder and delight : the " View of Delft," with its golden placidity and charm ; the " Maidservant Pouring Milk," at once so small and so big, with no detaU neglected and yet its effect one of massive breadth ; and, most of aU, the " Head of a Young Girl," that marvel of paint, that miracle of sweet ness and Ught. From morning tiU evening there was a crowd of worshippers at this shrine. 1 1 VERMEER OF DELFT UntU the Dutch Exhibition the stay-at-home Parisian (and to stay at home is an honourable Parisian habit) had had the opportunity of study ing Vermeer only in the single, but perfect, example in the Louvre : the " DenteUiere " or "Lace-Maker." Possibly before the Dutch Ex hibition this exquisite picture may have won— so tiny and modest is it — less than its share of attention. But now and henceforth its popularity is secure : visitors to the Louvre wiU love it not only for its own sake, but as a reminder of those other works from the same magical brush. " Ah ! " they wiU say, " superb, is she not ? But you should have seen the ' Head of a Young Girl ' ! " And their eyes wiU fiU with tears. It is because of this conquest of Paris by Ver meer of Delft that I have expanded an article on the painter which I wrote in 191 1 under the title " On the Track of Vermeer," in the hope that it may satisfy some of the curiosity which is felt about this rare and enigmatical master. II Jan Vermeer, or Van der Meer, was born in Delft and baptized there on October 31, 1632. VERMEER OF DELFT His father was Reynier Janszoon Vermeer, and his mother Dingnums Balthasars. On April 20th, 1653, he married, also in Delft, Catherina Bolenes. How many chUdren they had I do not know : it is stated ten, but eight survived him, all under age. It is generally believed that Karel Fabritius, himself a pupil of Rembrandt and a painter of extraordinary distinction, was Vermeer's instructor ; but the period of tuition must have been very short, for Fabritius became a member of the Delft GuUd in 1652, before which year he was not qualified to teach, and he was dead in 1654, kiUed by a powder explosion. A poem on the death of this distin guished painter by a Delft writer has a stanza to the effect that from the ashes of that Phoenix rose Vermeer. There is very little of the work of Fab ritius to be seen; but his charming "Siskin," a small picture of the little, musical, shy bird, painted with the breadth that is commonly kept for auguster subjects, hangs by Vermeer's "Head of a Young Girl " at The Hague, and it would alone prove Fabritius to have possessed not only strength but sweetness ; whUe such other pictures from his hand as can be identified — they are reproduced in Dr. Hofstede de Groot's monograph on the two Phoenixes — show that he was an extraordinarily 3 VERMEER OF DELFT interesting painter. And here a few dates may be valuable to keep in mind : Rembrandt, 1606-1669 ; Fabritius, circa 1624-1654 ; Vermeer, 1632-1675. Dr. Hofstede de Groot thinks that Vermeer may have had an Italian master as weU as a Dutch, and it is easy to believe. I had, indeed, with none of Dr. de Groot's knowledge, entertained a simUar conjecture ; and in the huddle of pictures in one of the rooms of the Academy at Vienna I even found a copy of an Italian picture — a Correggio, I think — which Vermeer's hand might easUy have made, so luminous and liquid is it. That he visited Italy is more than unhkely — practically impossible ; but to gain that Venetian something which his works occasionally discover there was no necessity for him to have done so, for the Dutch coUected foreign works, and Italian painters settled in HoUand in some numbers. The facts about Vermeer are singularly few, con sidering the high opinion in which he was held in his town. Almost the only intimate thing told of him is the story of his unpaid bread biU, as recounted by De Monconys, the French traveUer. De Mon- conys visited him in 1663 and wanted to buy a picture, but none could be found in the artist's house. Vermeer's baker offered, however, to seU 4 THE ARTIST IN HIS STUDIO COUNT CZERXIX, VIENNA VERMEER OF DELFT one which was hanging on his wall and for which he asked 300 florins ; but the Frenchman would not give so much, his idea of the value of a Vermeer being two hundred and fifty florins fewer. After the artist's death, it is told, the baker's overdue account of 3,176 florins was liquidated by two pictures. The poverty suggested by this state of affairs is the more difficult to believe in when we remember that Vermeer's wife had rich relations and that from time to time she is known to have come into money, and also that Vermeer's prices are said to have been higher than those of any other painter except Gerard Dou. But we must bear in mind several circumstances. One is that Vermeer was an artist, and artists are not, as a rule, either great adminis trators or astute financiers. Another is that he was highly fastidious and probably worked only as he wished, did not hasten, and was as hkely as not to teU a cUent to take it or leave it. A third, that he had many chUdren, ten or eight, and even eight chUdren can make quite a substantial income look very foolish. It is probable that not aU his capri cious industry nor Frau Vermeer's occasional wind- faUs could keep pace with the young Vermeers' appetites ; and one result was the long score against the household in the baker's books. 5 VERMEER OF DELFT It is also known, no matter how exalted his reputation among fellow artists — he was elected a "Master " of St. Luke's Guild when only twenty- one — that Vermeer was not a popular painter with the patrons of his day. That he should not have been desired may be a mystery to us ; but of such mysteries the records of painting are fuU. Many are in existence at this moment. An even greater mystery, to me, is the fact that dealers saddled with Vermeers (could there be, to our ears, a stranger phrase ?) had, in order to find purchasers for them, to make-believe that they were painted by other and more desired artists, chiefly Peter de Hooch (1630-1681). How any one scrutinising with any care the work of the two men could ever mistake one for the other is bewildering. Gabriel Metsu (1630-1667) and Nicolas Maes (1632-1693) were also used as stalking-horses ; which means, of course, that there must have been some jugglery with Vermeer's signature, laying, indeed, all evidence based on his signature under suspicion. But I doubt if Vermeer aUowed poverty to vex him. His work gives less indication of being done under conditions of stress or anxiety than any that I know. Of all the painters of the world none less suggests necessity than Jan Vermeer of Delft : on 6 VERMEER OF DELFT the contrary, his work carries with it the idea of aristocracy, prosperity and fastidiousness rarely associated with the father of a large famUy's struggle for existence. That he must have carried off his want of pence with an air is, I think, practically proved by the fact that the GuUd of St. Luke elected him as its Chief on four several occasions. You can see that he was placid : the fact shines in every picture. He was placid and he liked others to be placid, too. His wife (if, as I conjecture, it was she who sat for certain of his pictures) was placid ; his daughters (if, as I conjec ture, certain of his models were his daughters) were placid ; his other sitters were placid. His one undisputed landscape shows that he wanted nature to be placid ; his one street scene has the dove brooding over it. None the less, even though he took things easUy, Vermeer must have made some effort to keep up his credit, because the equable baker was not all. What of the butcher and the shoemaker, the tailor and the dressmaker ? And what of the landlord ? And the vintner ? The inference — especiaUy when it is remembered that the baker occasionally agreed to be paid in kind and hang we know not which of the masterpieces on his wall — the inference there- 7 VERMEER OF DELFT fore is that Vermeer painted, was forced by necessity to paint, many pictures in excess of the very smaU number— thirty-seven or thirty-eight — at the pre sent moment identifiable. Of this, more later; but I want to bring out the point here, since it is of the highest importance and might indeed completely alter the life of mUlionaires. We may, from several circumstances, beheve Vermeer to have been a home-keeping man. One is that not only was he born in Delft (in 1632) but he married in Delft (in 1653) and died in Delft (in 1675) ; another, that the years in which he was a chief of the Delft GuUd, and therefore a resident there, were 1662, 1663, 1670 and 1671 ; and another, that his only famous landscape and his only known street scene are both Delft subjects. When I add that Vermeer died on December 13, 1675, at the early age of 43, and that his executor was Antony van Leeuwenhoek, the inventor of the microscope (and probably his model for the three or four scientific pictures), I have said all that is known for certain of his career. Ill To me it is not to Andrea del Sarto that the title of " The Perfect Painter " belongs, but to Jan 8 THE PEARL NECKLACE KAISER FRIEDKICH MUSEUM, DERLrX VERMEER OF DELFT Vermeer of Delft. Andrea, with all his weakness, was in a way greater than that : he had, one can see, finer thoughts, sweeter imaginings, a richer nature than a perfect painter needs ; the phrase perfect painter limits him to the use of his brush, and one thinks of him (and not whoUy because Browning was a man of genius) always as a human being too. But of Vermeer we know nothing save that he was a materialistic Dutchman who applied paint to canvas with a dexterity and charm that have never been equalled : in short, with perfection. His pictures teU us that he was not imaginative and not unhappy ; they do not suggest any particular richness of personality : there is nothing in them or in his Hfe to inspire a poet as Andrea and Lippo Lippi inspired Browning and as Romney inspired Tennyson. Vermeer was not like that. But when it comes to perfection in the use of paint, when it comes to " The Perfect Painter " — why, here he is. His contemporary, Rembrandt of the Rhine (whose hand has been traced by the experts in nearly seven hundred paintings), is a giant beside him ; but ruggedness was part of his strength. His contemporary, Franz Hals of Haar lem, could dip his brush in red and transform the 9 VERMEER OF DELFT pigment into pulsating blood with one flirt of his wrist ; and yet think of his splendid carelessness elsewhere. His contemporary, Jan Steen of Leyden, had a way of kindling with a touch an eye so that it danced with vivacity and dances stiU, after all these years ; but what a sloven he could be in his backgrounds ! His contemporary, Peter de Hooch (to whom, as I have said, for two purblind centuries, Vermeer's pictures were chiefly attributed), could flood canvas with the light of the sun, but how weakly drawn are some of his figures ! And so one might go on with the other great painters — the Itahans and the Spanish and the Enghsh and the French, naming one after another, all with more to them as personalities than Vermeer, all doing more work, yet all, even Michelangelo and Leonardo, even Correggio, even Raphael, even Andrea, even Chardin (who was, so to speak, Ver meer's love-child), faUing beneath him in the mere technical mastery of the brush and the palette — no one having with such accuracy and happiness adjusted the means to the desired end. Vermeer aimed low, but at his best he stands as near per fection as is possible. It is this joyful mastery that fascinates me and made it so natural, when in the autumn of 1907 I 10 VERMEER OF DELFT was casting about for a motive for a hohday, to say, " Let us pursue this painter, let us see in twenty-one days all the Vermeers that we can." IV The farthest European city containing an undis puted Vermeer being Vienna, we went there first ; and there was a certain propriety in doing so, for in the Vienna picture the artist is supposed to have painted himself, and to begin with a concept of him was interesting and proper. The " Maler " was at Count Czemin's, a comfortable mansion at Number 9 Landes-gerich strasse, which in those peaceful times was thrown open to visitors on Mondays and Thursdays. To-day (1921) all this has probably changed ; but the Vermeer, I am told, is stiU there. There were four rooms of pictures, and nothing in them mattered very much save the Vermeer. An elderly butler was on duty, to show you the best place to stand in, to bring a chair, and murmur such facts about the marveUous work as appealed most to his imagination — not so much that it was a miracle of painting as that it was acquired for a mere song, and that Americans constantly walked into the room with blank cheques in their hands and entreated the Count to fiU them up at his ir VERMEER OF DELFT pleasure. But no, the owner was too proud of his possession. Well, I admired him for it, and I admire him even more to-day, when Austria is so poor. The picture may not have such radiance as the " Pearl Necklace " at Berlin, or such greatness as the "Maidservant Pouring MUk," or such sheer lovely beauty as the Mauritshuis " Head of a Young Girl," but it is brilliant and satisfying. It does not give me such pleasure as certain others to be named later, but it is, in some ways, perhaps finer. Ver meer — if it is he — is seated at his easel with his back to the world : a largish man, with long hair under a black velvet cap, and the careful costume of a man who can pay for his bread. Nor does the studio suggest poverty. The artist is at work on the head of a demure damsel whom he has posed near the window, with the Hght faUing upon her, of course from the left. The little mousy thing has a wreath of leaves in her hair and a large book held to her breast ; in her right hand is a long musical instrument. She is probably one of the -artist's daughters. Her features have a resemblance to those of other of his sitters. On the wall is the most fascinating of the many 12 m ^5M *fl VIEW OF DELFT MAI'RITSHUIS, THE HAGUE VERMEER OF DELFT maps that the artist painted — with twenty Httle views of Dutch towns in the border. Vermeer was the first to see the decorative possibilities that He in cartography. The beautiful blue Danube had so Httle water in it at the time of my stay in Vienna that the voyage to Budapest would have taken almost twice as long as it should, and there was not time. To make the journey by train, just for one day, was an unbear able thought at that moment, although I now regret that I did not go. The Budapest Vermeer is a portrait, a Dutch Vrouw, standing, looking fuU at the world, without any accessories whatever. Not having seen it I can express no opinion as to its authorship, but I know experts who are con vinced that only Vermeer painted it. Dr. de Groot, although doubtful, reproduces the picture in his book among the practical certainties. So also does M. Vanzype, who goes farther and includes the por trait of a young man in the Brussels GaUery, for which the curator, M. A. J. Wauters, has made out a very eloquent case, but which Herr Bredius of the Mauritshuis and Dr. de Groot both repudiate. For myself, aU I can say of it is that one does not jump to the denial of it as one did to the putative example in our National GaUery, now completed by the 13 VERMEER OF DELFT addition of its lost half and given to Michael Schweertz. The Budapest Vermeer is, as the reproduction proves, a beautiful picture — a youngish Dutch woman with the inevitable placidity, but not so open and easy-going as the personahties whom the artist chose for his own pictures : she has folded hands and large white cape and cuffs. M. Vanzype admits that this portrait and that of the young man at Brussels lend colour to the theory of Thore and M. Arsene Alexandre that Vermeer studied for a while immediately under Rembrandt ; but he goes on to show that this was practically an impossibUity. A recent acquisition in the National GaUery caUed " The PhUosopher," by Rembrandt (No. 3214), might, however, very easUy be employed to support that theory, for the lighting is Vermeer's own. Not impossibly it was the property of Karel Fabritius and Vermeer saw it in his studio. Turning reluctantly away from Budapest we went next to Dresden, which has two Vermeers. The famous Raphael is, of course, Dresden's lodestar, and next come the Correggios, and there is a triptych by Jan Van Eyck and a man in armour by Van Dyck ; but it is of Vermeer of whom we are talking, and the range of Vermeer cannot be understood at 14 VERMEER OF DELFT aU unless one sees him in the capital of Saxony. For it is here that his " Young Courtesan " (chastely softened by the modest Baedeker into " The Young Connoisseur ") is found. It is a large picture, for him, nearly five feet by four, and it represents a buxom, wanton girl, of a ripe beauty, dressed in a lace cap and hood and a bright yeUow bodice, con sidering the value of the douceur which a roystering Dutchman is offering her. Behind is an old woman curious as to the result (the picture is sometimes caUed"The Procuress "), and beside her is another roysterer, whose face might easily be that unseen one of the artist in the Czernin picture, and who is wearing a similar cap and slashed sleeves. The party stand on a balcony, over the raihng of which has been flung one of the heavy tapestries on which Dutch painters loved to spend their genius. The picture is remarkable as being a new thing in Vermeer's career and, indeed, a new thing in Dutch art ; and it also shows that, had Vermeer Hked, he might have done more with drama, for the faces of the two women are expressive and true ; although, such was his incorrigible fastidiousness, his prefer ence for the distinguished and radiant to the ex clusion of aU else, that he cannot make them either ugly or objectionable. The procuress is a Vermeer i5 VERMEER OF DELFT among procuresses, the courtesan a Vermeer among courtesans. The fascination of the canvas, though totaUy different from that of any of his others, is equal to any : it has a large, easy power, as weU as being a sumptuous and daring adventure in colour. It is the work of a Dutch genius who has admired the Venetians. Herr Martin has pointed out a change of mind in this picture. The young courtesan originaUy wore a large white lace coUar, but the artist reduced the collar in size and removed the lace. In the " View of Delft " are traces of another pentimento, as these changes of mind are called. There was once an additional figure in the foreground. The date of " The Young Courtesan " — 16561 — is the only one in any Vermeer picture which Dr. Hofstede de Groot accepts as genuine, and it convinces him that the pictures at Skelmorfie and Budapest were painted at about the same time. Other experts have other views. The second Dresden picture is also a Httle off Vermeer's usual path. The subject is famihar: the Dutchwoman reading a letter by a table; the Hght comes through the same window and falls on the same white waU ; but the tone of the work is distinct, sombre green prevaiHng. It would be 16 MAIDSERVANT POURING MILK RIJKSMUSEUM, AMSTERDAM VERMEER OF DELFT thriUing to own this picture, but I do not rank it for aUurement or satisfaction with the best. Any thing below the highest standard — such is the fastidiousness which this man's fastidiousness en genders—quickly disappoints ; although the student working up to the best and reaching the best last would be continuaUy enraptured. Next, Berlin. After the " Head of a Young Girl " at the Mauritshuis, which among the figures comes always first with me, and the " View of Delft," it is, I think, the Berlin "Pearl Necklace" that is Vermeer's most enchanting work. The white waU in this painting is beautiful beyond the power of words to express. It is so wonderful that if one were to cut out a few square inches of this wall alone and frame them one would have a joy for ever. Franz Hals' planes of black have never been equaUed, but Vermeer's planes of white seem to me quite as unapproachable. The whole picture has radiance and Hght and delicacy ; painters gasp before it. It has more, too : it is steeped in a kind of white magic, as the " View of Delft " is steeped in the very radiance of the evening sun. I hope (I wrote in 191 1) that when we have fought Germany in the inevitable war of which the papers are so con sistently fuU, it wiU be part of the indemnity. And 2 17 VERMEER OF DELFT now (adding to this in 1921) I would urge the British Government to take " The Pearl Necklace " as f uU payment and get to work again. The other Vermeer in the superb gaUery over which Dr. Bode then presided with such dangerous enthusiasm (dangerous, I mean, to poorer rival galleries) is not so remarkable ; but it is burnt into my memory : that white Delft jug I shaU never forget. The woman drinking, with her face seen through the glass as Terburg would have done it (one Hkes to see painters excelling now and again at each other's mannerisms) ; the rich figure of the Dutch gentleman watching her ; the room with its chequered floor : aU these I can visualize without an effort : the retina never loses it. Vermeer, true ever to his native town and home, painted this jug several times. Not so often as Metsu, but with a greater touch. You find it notably again in the King's example at Windsor Castle. Berhn then had also a private Vermeer, which I did not see — Herr Simon's " Mistress and Servant." Judging by the photogravure, this must be magnifi cent ; and it is peculiar in respect of being almost the only picture in which the painter has a plain table-cloth in place of the usual heavUy-patterned tapestry. The lady, in yeUow and ermine and 18 VERMEER OF DELFT pearls, is evidently ordering dinner; the placid, pleasant maid has a hint of Maes. The picture is now in the Frick CoUection in New York. Two other pictures I also ought to have seen before leaving Germany — one at Brunswick and one at Frankfort. In the Brunswick painting a coquet tish girl takes a glass of wine from a courteous Dutch gentleman at the table, whUe a sulky Dutch gentleman glooms in the background. On the table is another of the white Delft jugs. The Frankfort picture is " The Geographer at the Win dow," which in the reproduction strikes one as a most beautiful and dignified work. The geographer — probably Antony van Leeuwenhoek — leans at his Hghted table over a chart, with his compasses in his hand. AU the painter's favourite accessories are here — the heavy tapestry on the table, the window with its smaU panes, the streaming light of day, the white wall, the chair with its brass-headed nails. And the kind, thoughtful face of the geographer makes the whole thing human and humane. Ver meer, I fancy, was never more harmonious than here. He has three other pictures in which the same figure occurs, but I have not seen them. One belongs to Baron Alphonsede Rothschild ; another is now in America ; another is said to be in Belgium. 19 VERMEER OF DELFT It is interesting to note that Van Leeuwenhoek was also painted by Maes, whose work so often was confused with Vermeer's. The portrait is No. 2581 in the National GaUery. At Amsterdam we went first to the sombre mansion of the Six famUy at number 511 Heerengracht, one of the most beautiful and reserved of the canals. A ring at the beU brought a rosy and spotless maid to the door, and she left us for a Httle whUe in a lobby from which Vermeer might have chosen his pictures' blue tiles, until a butler led the way upstairs to the Httle gallery. I am writing of 1907, before the negotiations for the purchase by the State of the " Maidservant Pouring Milk " were completed, and I therefore saw it in its natural home, where it had been for two hundred and more years. But since then, at a cost of 500,000 florins at twelve to the pound (or at nearly £155 a square inch) it has passed to the Ryks. The price sounds beyond reason, but it is not. Granted that a kind and portly Dutchwoman at work in her kitchen is a subject for a painter, here it is done with such mastery, sympathy and beauty as not only to hold one speUbound but to be beyond appraisement. No sum is too much for the possession of this unique work— unique not only in Vermeer's career (so far 20 STREET IN DELFT RIJKSMUSEUM, AMSTERDAM VERMEER OF DELFT as we are aware) but in all painting. What the artist would have asked for it we do not know. At the sale of his works in 1696 it brought 175 florins. Vermeer here is at his most vigorous and powerful. His other works are notable above everything for charm : such a picture as " The Pearl Necklace " at Berhn represents the ecstasy of perfection in paint ; but here we find strength too. I never saw a woman more firmly set upon canvas ; I never saw a bodice that was so surely filled with a broad and beating bosom. Only a very great man could so paint that quiet, capable face. Some large pictures are very Httle, and some small pictures are large. This " Maidservant Pouring Milk " is only eighteen inches by fifteen, but it is to aU intents and purposes a fuU length : on no Hfe-size canvas could a more real and Hving woman be painted. When you are at Amsterdam you cannot give this picture too much attention ; be sure to notice also the painting of the hood and the drawing of the stUl Hfe, especiaUy the jug and the bowl. It was this picture, one feels, that shone before the dear Chardin, aU his Hfe, as a star. The other Vermeer in the Six mansion was the "Street in Delft"— "Het Straatge " or "The 21 VERMEER OF DELFT Little Street ' ' — which artists adore. The charm of it is not to be communicated by words, or at any rate by words of mine. It is as though Peter de Hooch had known sorrow, and, emerging triumphant and serene, had begun to paint again. And yet that is, of course, not aU ; for De Hooch, with aU his radiant tenderness, had not this man's native aristocracy of mind, nor could any suffering have given it to him. Like the " View of Delft," Hke the " Young Courtesan," this picture is isolated, not only in Vermeer's record, but in the art of aU time. Many grow the flower now — there is a modern Dutch painter, Breitner, whose whole career is an attempt to repro duce the spirit of this facade — but the originator stiU stands alone and apart, as indeed, by God's sense of justice, originators are usuaUy permitted to. The sale of twenty-one of Vermeer's pictures at Amsterdam in 1696 included the " Street in Delft" which the Six family owned, and also a view of houses, a smaUer work, which fetched forty-eight florins, and which has disappeared. In the spring of 1921 the "Street in Delft" was put up for auction. It was later offered to the Louvre at an immense figure— £70,000 sterling was mentioned as the price — and then suddenly was withdrawn from France and presented to HoUand by Sir 22 VERMEER OF DELFT Henry Deterding. Its permanent home is the Ryks Museum at Amsterdam. The Ryks Vermeers were, in 1907, two (now made four by the "Maidservant Pouring Milk" and the " Street in Delft ") ; and, of these, one I do not like, however much I am astounded by its dexterity, and one I could never tire of. The picture that I do not like, " The Love Letter," shows, with the " New Testament Allegory " at The Hague, the painter in his most dashing mood of virtuosity. Neither has charm, but both have a masterful dexterity that not only leaves one bewUdered but kUls aU the other genre painters in the vicinity. Both were painted, I should guess, to order, and do not represent the painter's own choice of subject. It is conjectured by Herr Martin that " The Love Letter " represents the artist's studio, as it con tains several articles that, from an inventory which has survived we know he possessed. The inventory also includes a stone table for grinding colours, seven ells of gold leather hangings, a landscape, a sea piece, and a large picture of the Crucifixion. The leather and the Crucifixion both occur in the " New Testament AUegory " ; and there is a landscape and a sea piece in " The Love Letter." There are landscapes in other Ver- 23 VERMEER OF DELFT meers, too. The identification of aU the pictures within Vermeer's pictures would indeed make an absorbing exercise in sleuthing for a Lecoq of art. The other Ryks picture— the " Woman Reading a Letter " — gives us the essential Vermeer again in all his dehcacy and quietude. It was the first of his best pictures that I ever saw — before the expedition which began with Vienna— and I f eU under his speU instantly. What I have said of the " Maidservant Pouring Milk " applies also to the " Woman Read ing a Letter " ; she becomes in time a fuU length. The picture is only twenty inches by sixteen, but the woman also takes her place in the memory as life-size. It is one of the simplest of all the works, comparable with the " Pearl Necklace," but a Httle simpler stiU. And yet, of course, there was nothing really simple about Vermeer. His apparent sim plicity is the result of endless toil and conscientious purpose. The woman's face has been injured, but it does not matter ; you don't notice it after a moment ; her intent expression remains ; her gentle contours are unharmed. The jacket she wears is the most beautiful blue in HoUand ; the map is a yellowish brown ; the waU is white. The woman reading, whose condition obviously is interesting, is, I Hke to think, the vrouw Vermeer, 24 WOMAN READING A LETTER RIJKSMVSEUM, AMSTERDAM VERMEER OF DELFT the mother of the young girls in the pictures at The Hague, Vienna, and Brussels. If we knew this for certain, we should be able to use the information towards the solution of a problem which perplexes aU the Vermeer experts, namely : At what stage in his career did he paint certain pictures ? Mr. Roger Fry thinks that Vermeer began in the grand manner — with the " Diana " at The Hague and the " Christ " at Skelmoriie Castle — and graduaUy re signed himself to the narrower but more popular scope of Dutch genre. Mr. George Clausen, R.A., himself an exquisite painter, thinks just the reverse. Dr. Hofstede de Groot believes that the pictures with the little spots of high Hght — such as the "View of Delft " and the " Street in Delft " — came early. But even the layman may be permitted to be sur prised by this judgment. The " Maidservant Pouring Milk," for example, which has these spots, suggests the completest, maturest power. This thing alone is certain : we shall never know. But the exercise of conjecture is one of Hfe's pleasantest alleviations. Even the dated " Geographer " at Frankfort— 1668— teUs us nothing, for the date is not taken seriously. But were the year correct, there would stUl have been time for the painter, before he died, in 1675, to change his style. Supposing that, as is 25 VERMEER OF DELFT extremely probable, the " Young Girl " at the Mauritshuis was one of the painter's daughters, we can get approximately at a year. Vermeer was married in 1653. Say that the chUd was his eldest, born in 1654. In the picture she is a girl of perhaps sixteen : that gives us 1670 as its date. If the girl in the Duke of Arenberg's picture at Brussels is her sister — and they have many points of simUarity — we can get at the date of that picture too, and also of the " Lady seated at the Virginals " in the National Gallery — No. 2568 — for the musician is clearly the same child. But if these girls were not Vermeer's daughters, then we are again lost. As to how Vermeer worked, the experts also differ. Of such mysteries I know nothing, but I was present recently at a meeting of artists con vened to discuss Vermeer's genius, and I Hstened to their various theories and watched their eloquent hands. One held that Vermeer painted direct from Hfe ; another, that he made one drawing only, on his canvas, and buUt up on that. One was convinced that under aU his high tones is a lower. Such unfamUiar words to me as " impasto " and " scumble " filled the air ; but we came out by the same door wherein we went. The Hague is the most comfortable city that I 26 VERMEER OF DELFT know in which to see pictures. It is so Hght and open, the " Oude Doelen " is so pleasant an hotel, and the pictures to see are so few — just a handful of old masterpieces at the Mauritshuis and just a handful of the romantics at the Mesdag Museum. That is aU : no formal gaUeries, no headaches. Above all, there are here the two most beautiful Vermeers that are known — the " Head of Young Girl " and the " View of Delft." Writing in another place some years ago I ventured to call the Mauritshuis picture of a girl's head " one of the most beautiful things in HoUand. ' ' I retract that statement now and, instead, say quite calmly that it is the most beautiful thing in HoUand. And to me it is in many ways not only the most beautiful thing in HoUand but the most satisfying and exquisite product of brush and colour that I have anywhere seen. The painting of the lower lip is as much a miracle to me as a Darwin tuhp. I said that " The Pearl Necklace " was steeped in white magic. There is magic here, too. You are in the presence of the unaccountable. Paint — a recognized medium — has exceeded its power. The Hne of the right cheek is surely the sweetest Hne ever traced. I don't expect you to come, a stranger to this face, and feel what I feel ; but I ask you to look at it quietly and steadUy for 27 VERMEER OF DELFT a Httle whUe, in its uncoloured photographic pre sentment — the frontispiece to this book — until it smiles back at you again, as surely it wiU. Yes, even in photogravure reproductions lurk the ghosts of that smUe. Think of what has been happening in the world during the years this sweet face was set upon canvas — the evolutions and tragedies, the Hves Hved and ended, the whole passionate, fretted progress of the nations ! " Monna Lisa " has smUed a century and more longer, and she has been looked upon every day for centuries except in that dark period when she was stolen ; but this chUd, much more wonderful as a conquest of man over pigment, smiled unseen, for when she was bought at a Hague auction a few years ago by Herr Des Tombes for two florins thirty cents she was covered with grime. Think of it — two florins thirty cents — and if she found her way to Christie's to-day I don't suppose that £50,000 would buy her. But leaving aside the human interest of the picture, did you ever see, even in a reproduction, such ease as there is in this painting, such concealment of effort ? It was no small thing at that day for a Dutchman to lay his colours Hke this, so openly and lucidly. It is as though the paint evoked life rather than counter- 28 THE LACE-MAKER LOUVRE, PARIS VERMEER OF DELFT feited it : as though the chUd had been waiting there behind the canvas to emerge at the touch of the brush-wand. No wonder that in the spring of 1921 Paris flocked to her and worshipped ! And the " View of Delft " — what is one to say of that ? Here again perfection is the only word. And more than perfection, for perfection is cold. This picture is warm. Its serenity is absolute, its charm is complete. You stand before it, satisfied — except for that heightened emotion, that choking feeling and smarting eyes which perfection compels. The picture is stiU the last word in the painting of a town. Not all the efforts of artists since have improved upon it ; no one has done anything so beautiful. It is indeed because he painted these two pictures that I have for Jan Vermeer of Delft such a feehng of gratitude and enthusiasm. Wonderful as are many of his other pictures that I have described, they would not alone have subjected me to so much travelling in Continental trains by day and night. But to see this " Head of a Young Girl" and this "View of Delft" I would go anywhere. To the "New Testament AUegory " I have referred above : it does not give me pleasure except in its tapestry curtain. That detaU is, I 29 VERMEER OF DELFT suppose, among the wonders of painting. The other Mauritshuis Vermeer is the " Diana at Her ToUet "—that gentle, Italianized group of fair women, the painting of which Andrea himself might have overlooked. It is at once Vermeer and not Vermeer. It is very rich, very satisfying; but I, for one, should feel no sense of bereavement if another name were put to it. As a matter of fact Nicolas Maes was long held to have been its author. A fifth Vermeer the Mauritshuis chanced to possess when I was there, for Herr Bredius had recently discovered in a Brussels coUection a very curious example from the magic hand — a tiny pic ture of a girl with a flute, in a Chinese hat (or something very Hke it), with an elaborate back ground. It is Vermeer through and through, and so modern and innovating that were it hung in a Paris or London exhibition to-day, it would look out of place only by reason of its power. The picture is seven and a half inches by six and three-quarters, and was recently in the possession of Mr. Knoedler. After Delft, where I roamed awhile to reconstruct Vermeer's environment, but where, I regret to say, little is known of him — Brussels. For Vermeer there, one must, as in Vienna, visit the home of a 30 VERMEER OF DELFT nobleman — the Duke of Arenberg — and here again I fell into the hands of a discreet and hospitable butler. The d' Arenberg mansion is in the Rue de la Regence, just under the crest of the fashionable hUl. It was then open to the picture lover, like that of Count Czernin, only on certain days. The gaUery is smaU and chiefly Dutch, with a few good pictures in it. The Vermeer was isolated on an easel — instantly unmistakable, although so cruelly treated by time, for it is a mass of cracks. Yet through these wounds the beautiful living light of a young girl's face shines — not the girl we have seen at The Hague, but one very Hke her — her sister, as I like to think — dressed in the same Eastern trappings, a girl with a strangely blank forehead and eyes widely divided, akin to the type of Madonna dear to Andrea del Sarto. She is a Httle sad, and a little strange, this chUd, and only a master could have created her. At Brussels also was — and perhaps is — one of Vermeer's " Geographers " in the collection of the Vicomte du Bus de Gisegnies ; but this I did not then know. And in the Picture GaUery is the conjectural Vermeer portrait of the young man of which I have written above. After Brussels, Paris. Paris had then one Ver- 3i VERMEER OF DELFT meer in a private coUection — Baron Alphonse de Rothschild's " Astronomer," which I have not seen, and one in the Louvre — the beautiful " DenteUiere " — before which I have stood scores of times. This too is very smaU, only a few inches square, but the serene, busy head is painted as largely as if it were in a fresco. The fighting is from the right instead of the left — a very rare experiment with Vermeer. The London National GaUery has two Vermeers, but neither is of the highest interest. Both, how ever, have divine moments. " A Young Lady at the Virginals " — No. 1383 — is a marvel of technique ; the paint is appfied with all Vermeer's charm of touch ; the room is filled with the Hght of day ; there are marveUous details, such as the brass- headed nails of the chair, and the Httle spot of colour on the head is fascinating ; moreover, there is an agreeably ingenious scheme of blue, beginning with the gay sky of the landscape on the wall, passing through the dehcate tippet of the lady and ending on a soberer note with the covering of the chair. But it is not a picture of which I am fond ; it is a tour de force ; and I think I positively hate the Cupid on the wall. One feels that Vermeer must have painted the Cupid to please the husband 32 A LADY WRITING A LETTER SIR OTTO BEIT, LONDON VERMEER OF DELFT of the sitter, who insisted on his pictures being immortalized. Vermeer, left to himself, would have painted a map. The other National Gallery example, " A Lady Seated at the Virginals " — No. 2568 — lacks the painter's highest radiance. It is, I think, the same girl that we saw in the Brussels picture. Of the other London Vermeers, two belong to Sir Otto Beit. One of these is a tiny " Lady Seated at a Spinet," not in the first rank of fascination, but a little masterpiece nevertheless, and the other " A Lady Writing a Letter," notable for the strong and beautiful painting of the lady's face, fore shortened as she bends over her task. Beside her stands her blue-aproned maid, waiting to take the missive. The table has its usual tapestry and the wall its picture, this time an old master. But the head of the lady is what one remembers — with her white cap and her pearls and her happy, prosperous countenance. Sir Otto Beit's Vermeers are in Belgrave Square ; but in vain now one visits Hyde Park Gardens to see " The Soldier and the Laughing Girl," as one could in 1907 when it belonged to Mrs. Joseph. The girl sits at the table with a bright and merry face ; the soldier, who has borrowed his red from Peter 3 33 VERMEER OF DELFT de Hooch, is in the shade ; on the waU is a splendid rugged map of HoUand and West Friesland. The picture is paintier than is usual with Vermeer, but very powerful and rich. Mrs. Joseph, I was told, had been forced by the importunities of coUectors and dealers to have recourse to a printed refusal to sell this work ; but the doUar is very mighty and very persistent, and it is in America that the girl now laughs, in the Frick CoUection in New York. The Vermeer belonging to the King hangs in the private apartments at Windsor, but when I saw it, it was, by the courtesy of His Majesty's Surveyor of Works of Art, carried into a less sacred room of that vast and imposing fortress, to be looked upon. It is very charming, but not one of the first rank, and its coating of varnish does not improve it. But it is from the perfect hand, none the less, and there is the white Delft jug in it for the .eye to return to, like a haven, after every voyage over the canvas. Great Britain also has Vermeer's " Christ in the House of Mary and Martha," which, when it was exhibited in Bond Street some few years ago, divided the experts, but is now, although not confidently, given to our painter by Dr. de Groot. This picture, which I have not seen, has in the 34 VERMEER OF DELFT reproduction much of the large, easy confidence of the " Diana and Her ToUet " at The Hague. It hangs in Skelmorlie Castle. There are, I believe, ten Vermeers in America to-day (1921). Of these I have seen six : the two permanently at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, namely the " Woman Asleep," from the Altman CoUection, and the " Woman with the Water Jug," from the Marquand ; Mr. Widener's " Lady Weighing Gold," at Philadelphia ; Mrs. Hunting ton's " Lady with the Lute " ; Mrs. Jack Gardner's " Three Musicians " ; and " The Soldier and the Laughing Girl," now in the Frick Collection. The Frick CoUection also has " The Music Lesson " and " Mistress and Servant," which I have not seen. Nor have I seen Mr. Pierpont Morgan's example, or the late Mr. J. G. Johnson's. Mr. Widener's "Lady Weighing Gold" is the latest absolutely authentic Vermeer to be discovered, and it brings the number of his universally-accepted pictures to thirty-seven. It came to light in 1910, through the activities of Dr. de Groot, and is probably No. 1 in the fist of Vermeer's pictures sold at Amsterdam in 1696, to which we shall come later : "A Woman Weighing Gold." It represents one of those placid, domestic creatures to whom 35 VERMEER OF DELFT Vermeer's brush lent a radiance just one gleam of which many a Madonna of the Southern masters would have envied. How Httle can they have thought, these Delft housewives and maidens, that they were destined for such an immortaHty ! She stands beside a table, as most of Vermeer's women do, and she has a jacket of dark-blue velvet trimmed with fur, and a white handkerchief over her head. The tablecloth also is blue ; the curtain is orange. Standing there, she poises in her right hand a pair of goldsmith's scales. On the table is a profusion of pearls (painted with less miraculous dexterity than usual), and a tapestry rug has been tossed there too. Behind her serene, comely head, on the wall (where Vermeer usually places a map), a picture of the Last Judgment hangs, which may or may not be identifiable. (I should doubt if Vermeer intro duced it with any ironical intention ; that was not his way.) This picture is on a Hght grey wall. The Hght comes, of course, from the left, and never did this master of light paint it — or create it— more wonderfully. It triumphs through the window and curtain exactly as in " The Pearl Necklace," past the same black mirror. The woman's face, how ever, has the greatest lustre ; it diffuses such a lambency that one might almost say that the rest 36 A LADY WEIGHING GOLD MR. JOSEPH W1DENER, PHILADELPHIA VERMEER OF DELFT of the picture matters nothing ; so soft and lovely a glow were enough. I saw, in Mrs. Jack Gardner's ItaHan palace at Boston, " The Three Musicians," the picture being brought down and isolated for me in the cortile. It is not one of the most fascinating, but it is fuU of charm. Mrs. Huntington's " Lady with the Lute " was temporarily lent to the Metropolitan Museum, which, in 1920, was celebrating its fiftieth birthday, and I was enchanted by its quality. But the beauty of the Marquand example in the same buUding — " The Woman with the Water Jug " — is such as to dim the memory of everything else there. This picture is by far the most lovely thing I saw in America, and the most magical. Where other artists counterfeit Hght Vermeer kindles it, and never with more radiance than here. The work contains such a mastery of the problems of iUumination and shadow — apart altogether from sheer drawing — as must make many an artist go home and burn his brushes; and no other of Vermeer's pictures is so suffused with his marveUous blue. The jug and basin, both of pohshed brass, are miraculous, nothing less. The other permanent Metropofitan example, " The Woman Asleep," is more Hke Maes than Vermeer but as it seems to have been among the pictures 37 VERMEER OF DELFT sold in Amsterdam in 1696, it must be accepted : that is, if the description, " A Drunken Servant, Sleeping at a Table," can be said to fit it. Since the discovery of Mr. Widener's picture, yet another has been found— a large group of chUdren representing Diana and her Nymphs— which Mr. Paterson, of Old Bond Street— the discoverer of "Christ in the House of Mary and Martha"— possesses, and which is now at the SackvUle Gallery. It is, if Vermeer painted it, obviously an early and immature work, and is on a larger scale than most of the others : it has weaknesses of drawing, and in more than one respect suggests an experimental stage ; but one is inclined to accept its authorship. Everywhere it is interesting, and here and there remarkable, especially in the figure of the chfld in the left-hand corner. Mr. Roger Fry, who described it in the Burlington Magazine, considers it a genuine example. Putative Vermeers are, of course, continually turning up. I have seen several very recently, and none were satisfactory. A stiU-Hfe attributed to Vermeer was reproduced recently in the Burlington Magazine, but the experts wiU have none of it. The first catalogue of Mr. Widener's pictures contained three Vermeers, all of which were painted by other 38 VERMEER OF DELFT men. They disappeared, like the half-gods, when the " Woman Weighing Gold " came along. An authority whose opinions must be respected befieves that Vermeer's hand is to be seen in the picture of " Card Players " — No. 1247 in the National GaUery, which is credited to Maes. But I personaUy cannot agree. In any case it does not matter. None of these questionable Vermeers matter. The only things that matter are the unmistakable Vermeers, so beautiful and distinguished and masterly as to take the breath away. V Vermeer's practically unquestionable output totals thirty-seven pictures. Think of the smallness of the harvest. Thirty-seven ! That is to say, hardly more for Vermeer's whole career than the Boningtons to be seen in a single London collection — that at Hertford House — where there are thirty-five of his works. And Bonington died at the age of twenty-seven. How many pictures by Bonington exist I know not, but hundreds, I suppose, in aU. And Vermeer has only thirty-seven or thirty-eight to his name, and lived nearly twice as long, and had all those chUdren to support. The question that confronts us then, is, Where are 39 VERMEER OF DELFT the others ? Because there must have been others : indeed we know of a few, as I wiU presently show ; but there must have been many others, since Ver meer began to paint when he was young, and painted tiU the end, and had a working period of, say, twenty-three years — between 1652, when he was twenty, and 1675, when he died. At the modest rate of only four pictures a year this would give him a total of ninety-two pictures, or over fifty more than we know of. But putting his output at a lower rate — say at two pictures a year — that would leave us with several stiU to discover. Of the exist ence at one time of two, if not more, of these, we have absolute knowledge, gained from the catalogue of the Vermeer sale in Amsterdam in 1696, which I copy from an article by Dr. Hofstede de Groot in the Burlington Magazine in 1910. Three times, I should first state, was there a Vermeer sale. Once, in 1677, two years after the artist's death, when the dealer, Coelenbier, of Haarlem, sold twenty-six of his works. Then in 1682, the painter Dissius, of Delft, dying, left nineteen Vermeers, which were put up at auction. And then, at Amsterdam, in 1696, came the sale of twenty-one, of which, as Dr. de Groot shows, most are identifiable to-day. Dr. de Groot thinks that some of the pictures were in aU three 40 MISTRESS AND SERVANT FRICK COLLECTION, NEW YORK VERMEER. OF DELFT sales. Otherwise there would be a grand total of fifty-six to make us envious — or eighteen or nineteen more than are known about. This is the catalogue of the auction held at Amsterdam on May 16th, 1696, priced and annotated, with the present homes of the pictures conjecturaUy added. 1. A Woman Weighing Gold — in a case, painted in an extraordinary skilful and strong manner — fl.155 (normally £12 18s. Ad. Now in Mr. Widener's collection, in Philadelphia). 2. A Maidservant Pouring out Milk — exceedingly good — fl.175 (£14 ns. Sd. Now in the Ryks Museum). 3. The Portrait of Vermeer — in a room, with rich accessories, painted in an unusuaUy fine style — fl.45 (£3 15s. Now in the Czernin Collection). 4. A Lady Playing the Guitar — very well painted — fl.70 (£5 16s. 8d. Now in the late John G. Johnston's collection in Philadelphia). 5. An Interior — with a gentleman washing his hands, with a vista and figures ; painted in a skilful and unusual style— fl.95 (£7 18s. /\.d. Unidentified). 6. An Interior— -with a lady at the Virginals and a gentleman listening— fl.8o (£6 13s. Ad. Now in Windsor Castle). 7. A Lady to whom a Maidservant is bringing a Letter — fl.70 (£5 ids. 8d. Now in the Ryks Museum ; or perhaps the picture in the Frick CoUection in New York). 4i VERMEER OF DELFT 8. A Drunken Maidservant, asleep behind a table — fl.16 (£i 6s. 8d. Now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York). 9. An Interior, with Revellers — weU painted in a strong manner — fl.73 (£6 is. 8d. Unidentified). 10. An Interior — with a gentleman making music, and a lady — fl.81 (£6 15s. Unidentified, or possibly the pic ture in the Frick CoUection). n. A Soldier with a Laughing Girl — very fine — £.44$ (£3 14s. 2d. Now in the Frick CoUection). 12. A Girl Making Lace — fl.28 {£2 6s. 8d. Now in the Louvre). [Pictures by other painters came here.] 31. A View of Delft, from the South — fl.200 (£16 13s. 4i. Now in the Mauritshuis) k 32. A View of a House in Delft — fl.72^ {£6 os. xod. Lately in the Six CoUection in Amsterdam, now in the Ryks Museum). 33. A View of some Houses — fl.48 (£4. Unidentified). 35. A Lady Writing — very weU painted — fl.63 (£5 5s. Possibly in Sir Otto Beit's coUection, but more probably Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan's example). 36. A Lady adorning Herself — fl.39 (£3 5s. Now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin). 37. A Lady Playing the Spinet — fl.42. 10 (£3 10s. xod. Now in the National Gallery, or the example in Sir Otto Beit's coUection). 42 VERMEER OF DELFT 38. A Portrait in an Antique Costume — painted in an unusual and skilful manner — fl.36 (£3. Probably the " Head of a Young Girl," in the Mauritshuis). 39. Another simUar Portrait — fl.17 (£1 8s. qd. Now in the Arenberg coUection, Brussels). 40. A Pendant to the last — fl.17 (£1 8s. 4^. Uniden tified). This leaves us with four of the Amsterdam sale pictures to discover — No. 5, No. 9, No. 15, and No. 40. And, of course, certain of those which Dr. de Groot identifies may be variants of the pictures which are known, for Vermeer was Hmited in his choice of subjects and often nearly repeated himself. And there is always — somewhere — the " Devi- deuse." Perhaps it is in England ; it was there in 1865, as we know from an article on Vermeer con tributed to the Gazette des Beaux Arts in the foUowing year, by Thore, the French coUector and critic, who wrote under the pseudonym W. Burger. TheophUe Etienne Joseph Thore was one of the earhest Vermeer enthusiasts — I think he came before Henri Havard, the traveUer, also a Frenchman — and the owner of two or three of his best pictures. " The Pearl Necklace " in Berhn was, for instance, his, and his also one of the National GaUery examples, the " Young Lady at the Virginals." But it has to 43 VERMEER OF DELFT be mentioned that his coUection contained a great many pictures not by Vermeer but attributed to him. Now as to the " Devideuse," or " Spinner." Thore thus describes it in his catalogue of Vermeers, true or spurious, in the Gazette des Beaux Arts : " An old woman seated in front of her skein- winder. FuU length figure, nearly natural size." The measurements are im. 30 by im. 10, which is 52 inches by 44. He goes on to say that it was Sir Charles Eastlake, then Director of the National GaUery, who drew his attention to this picture, and he quotes, in French, from the foUowing letter (undated) from Eastlake, which I have put into English. Eastlake wrote to Thore : "... As regards the Van der Meer of Delft, this is what happened : Mr. PhiUips had spoken to me of a work by this master, which he knew of in the country. His description having aroused in me a desire to see the picture, it was sent to London. It is of an old woman, seated, nearly in profile, her hands joined, resting in her lap. In front of her, to the right, some hemp wound round a frame (the winder). The figure is sHghtly smaUer than natural size. The background of waU is quite clear, almost without form, and one would almost mistake it 44 A WOMAN WITH A WATER JUG METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK VERMEER OF DELFT for sky were it not for several things suspended on naUs, with Hght shadows added. The foreground is equally clear, hardly to be distinguished from the waU. In consequence, the figure stands out weU. I had no doubt as to the artist, and later I took Dr. Waagen (who is at present with me) to see it. He also had not the least doubt that it was by Van der Meer of Delft. Price, 150 guineas. This price is reasonable. But the picture is not of such exceUence as I seek. I hope sooner or later you wiU find a perfect picture for the National GaUery. . . ." From the last sentence we may suppose that Thore was always on the look-out for good things for England. Commenting on Eastlake's remarks, Thore says : " On that my friend Mr. Phillips forwarded me the picture, adding that he considered it a very important work of this rare master, and I showed it to several artists, who were astonished. But the size — and the price, a little too high for me, about 4,000 francs — dismayed me, and I sent this beauti ful painting back to London ; to-day [early in the 1860's] it is mislaid in England, and I should be glad to find it again. But it is necessary to add to Sir Charles Eastlake's description one very in- 45 VERMEER OF DELFT teresting peculiarity, which neither he nor M. Waagen seems to have noticed : one of the trinkets suspended on the wall, a kind of smaU winder in wood, is in the exact form of Vermeer's mono gram. " I have," Thore adds, " a photograph of this picture," but he does not include it among the Ulus- trations to his article, and where his papers now are — he died in 1869 — I have no knowledge. If they exist the photograph is probably among them, and it might teU the modern expert if the search for the " Devideuse " were worth prosecuting. Dr. Hofstede de Groot, who tracked the " Woman Weighing Gold " and who has analysed with such care the claims of so many soi-disant Vermeers, would be able to pronounce judgment probably at once. In his Catalogue of Dutch Painters, 1907, he passes eighty-seven possible Vermeers under review and finds only thirty-six to satisfy him. The " Woman Weighing Pearls " is the thirty- seventh. I have not heard his opinion of Mr. Paterson's " Diana." Now, I hold that to track down the " Devideuse," whether Vermeer painted it or not, is as desirable an act as to scale Mount Everest or reach either Pole. 46 VERMEER OF DELFT VI Among the thirty-seven pictures that are univers- aUy accepted, although there are many interiors such as the painter loved, there is, remember, only one pure landscape, only one religious subject, only one real portrait, only one street scene, only one kitchen scene, only one purely classical subject. The lone- Hness of these examples fills one with a kind of fury. No painter, and especiaUy no painter with such an interest in the difficulties of his art, such a painter's painter, so to speak, as Vermeer, and moreover a man with many chUdren and a clamor ous baker — no painter paints only one landscape, especiaUy when the result is so commandingly successful as the " View of Delft." Where are the others? (M. Vanzype found a rephca, but it is not generally accepted.) No painter is satisfied with one attempt at a beautiful facade. Where are the others ? No painter paints only one classical subject. Where are the others? (Mr. Paterson's example is only half classical: classical, with a domestic flavour; a famUy scene in masquerade, to be exact.) No painter paints only one religious subject. Where are the others? No painter paints 47 VERMEER OF DELFT only one portrait pure and simple as distinguished from portrait and genre. Where are the others ? Vermeer himself, of course, may have destroyed some, as Claude Monet once destroyed a number of his. But I do not think so ; he could not have afforded to, and he was not that kind. No : they stiU exist somewhere. And the question where they are brings us back to the question of the mUlionaires. What are the miUionaires going to do about it ? Had I this wealth I would furnish expeditions to hunt among the by-ways of Northern Europe — not neglecting Norfolk — in the hope of coming upon another work by that exquisite Delft hand. (But of course the lost pictures may be any where. The "Christ in the House of Mary and Martha," for example, was found in a dealer's at Bristol and changed hands, I am informed, at £9.) On such an enterprise of discovery would I spend my money. And, incidentally, what charming adventures one would have, and what subsidiary treasure one would gather ! That would be an expedition worth making, even if the prime object of the search always eluded us. Printed in Grtal Britain hy Butler & Tanner Frame aid London. YALE UNIVERSITY ,39002 00208717 0b !