The Little Street by Johannes Vermeer
Studies on a Vermeer street scene now reveal that the Dutch Golden Age master made significant alterations to the painting before its completion.
The Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was undoubtedly one of the art world’s highlights of 2023. With twenty-eight of the artist’s thirty-four surviving paintings in one place, it allowed both scholars and the general public to view most of his work in new ways. The exhibition featured some of his most iconic works, including Girl with a Pearl Earring, View of Delft, and The Geographer. The show required extensive cooperation between several major museums, including the Rijksmuseum, the Mauritshuis, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Frick Collection. It also acted as a vehicle for collaboration between art historians and conservators. Recent research into Vermeer and his work has challenged commonly held assumptions about the artist. Many may understand Vermeer as a methodical and meticulous artist, one who rarely made major changes once he had composed a scene. Some even believe he used a special optical device to create his paintings. However, new research on some paintings shows significant changes. In September 2022, for example, scans on The Milkmaid showed various objects that are now missing from the completed work. In fact, we now know that about thirty of Vermeer’s paintings contain some form of alteration. And now, even after a year following the Rijksmuseum exhibition’s closing, the research conducted is still bearing fruit. The Rijksmuseum has published a book-length account of some of the research, titled Closer to Vermeer, which showcases some of the discoveries related to the painting The Little Street.
Johannes Vermeer completed The Little Street around 1658. It is one of only three paintings by the artist that are not interior scenes. The painting shows a house in the city of Delft as seen from the street. Several figures go about their business, with a woman in the doorway attending to her sewing. Meanwhile, a pair of children kneel over what is likely a game. The brick structures themselves are rendered with magnificent detail, with Vermeer using the slightest impasto to simulate the texture of the materials. It took until 2015 for researchers to pinpoint exactly where in the city Vermeer chose as his subject. Today, people can see a slightly newer building at 42 Vlamingstraat. The alleyway, occupied in the painting by a woman in red and blue, still exists and is sometimes marked by a facsimile of the woman in the painting. Vermeer’s perspective is that of someone looking across the canal that divides the street. Upon examining the archival documents, it makes sense that Vermeer chose these buildings for his painting since his aunt Ariaentgen Claes van der Minne owned the building on the right side of the painting. There, she operated a business selling tripe.
Tests conducted using a stereomicroscope reveal traces of pigments in certain parts of the painting, indicating that something else was once present. The scene’s initial composition was, therefore, rather different from the finished painting. Digital recreations of the painting before the alterations reveal that the playing children are missing, while the door is closed, and the sewing woman has been moved to the threshold of the alleyway. Furthermore, several changes were made to the building’s window shutters. Rijksmuseum specialist Pieter Roelofs commented, “By literally opening the door, Vermeer makes the scene accessible to the viewer. These and the many other new discoveries in [Closer to Vermeer] paint a picture of a dedicated artist constantly striving to perfect his paintings.”