Painted around 1658–1660, Johannes Vermeer's 'The Milkmaid' depicts a young kitchen servant at a bare wooden table, pouring a slow thread of milk from a terracotta jug into an earthenware bowl. Everything is subordinated to the almost miraculous rendering of daylight from a window at the left: the nubs of bread, the rivet holes in the copper basket, the thick-woven blue apron. A small foot-warmer and a row of Delft tiles along the baseboard introduce Vermeer's characteristic quiet domestic tension. The picture is one of only thirty-four universally accepted works by the artist and a centrepiece of the Rijksmuseum.

Exhibition Venue

Rijksmuseum

Amsterdam, Netherlands