The Milkmaid

Johannes Vermeer

c. 1660

oil on canvas

Rijksmuseum

A woman in a yellow and blue dress pours milk from a jug into a bowl, surrounded by bread and pottery on a table. She stands in a sparsely furnished room with a window on the left. A woman in a yellow and blue dress pours milk from a jug into a bowl, surrounded by bread and pottery on a table. She stands in a sparsely furnished room with a window on the left. A maidservant pours milk, entirely absorbed in her work. Except for the stream of milk, everything else is still. Vermeer took this simple everyday activity and made it the subject of an impressive painting – the woman stands like a statue in the brightly lit room. Vermeer also had an eye for how light by means of hundreds of colourful dots plays over the surface of objects.