The Lacemaker

A nice plate of De Kantwerkster, La Dentellière, or The Lacemaker, c. 1669-1671
When sold at auction in 1696, the catalog listed it as “demoiselle faisant de la dentelle aux fuseaux”. If Vermeer ever gave this painting a name, it is now lost. I like this print because the size, 7” x 8-5/8”, not too far from the size of the original, 8-1/4” x 9-5/8”. Most people do not realize how small this work actually is. It was acquired by Napoleon III and given to the Louvre in April, 1870. You can see the framed original at: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/framed/framed_lacemaker.html

The following comments are summarized from the excellent Vermeer site, http://www.essentialvermeer.com/index.html.  Joannis, Johannes, or Jan Vermeer was born in Delft in October 1632, and died in there in December 1675. Only the dates of his baptism (Oct 31, 1632), and burial (December 16, 1675) are actually known. The Lacemaker was painted between 1669-1671, oil on canvas. The signature on the painting is much faded, and is located on the right, halfway between the woman and the canvas edge, about the level of her hairline. It is thought that the lacemaker might be one of Vermeer’s daughters, Maria or Elizabeth. The sitter is quite similar to the woman in Vermeer’s “A Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid”. The tapestry was used in another Vermeer painting, “The Love Letter and Astronomer”.  The foreground threads are rather diffuse, perhaps implying the use of a camera obscura. The book next to the cushion might be a prayer book. The blue cushion with white stripes is a sewing cushion, with threads spilling out of an interior compartment. In another Vermeer painting, “The Love Letter”, the cushion on the floor next to the clothes hamper may be a lacemaking pillow

Let me followup with a few comments of my own.

This is not a servant girl, I'd expect her hair to be covered, and a less fancy dress. Vermeer was married in 1653, so if the sitter is one of his daughters, she would have been less than ~15 years old. Whoever it is, she does seem to have experience at a lacemaking pillow.

One of the most famous things about this painting are the two threads from the bobbins to the pillow - the hand movements seem to be genuine. The position of the lower bobbin between her first and second fingers might indicate that the working position of the hands is more like the flat-handed traveling hand position that the best Belgian lacemakers use. All she has to do is turn her left hand slightly to bring the bobbins up to this position. Is her wrist supported on the pillow to help with the thread tensioning? It would be unusual for an experienced lacemaker to allow any part of her hands to touch the work, so probably not. Too bad we can't see the ends of the bobbins - so frustratingly close. Bobbins were found in the 1629 shipwreck of the Dutch East India ship the Batavia off the western Australian coast show two options for roughly contemporary bobbins bobbins. Someone should compare measurements of bobbin length here to see if it is reasonable. Her head is bent a bit low for my tastes, but that might be artistic license.

Another thing of note is the design of the pillow itself. It appears to be quite similar to the Belgian 2-part rounded cushion - there seems to be a drawer in the upper part, and the base is not inconsistent with 19th-20th century examples. Even the fluting on the edges is seen in examples in my collection, at least on the lower base Belgian pillow. There is no sign of the holes for an extension in the pillow part, which probably hadn't been in use at this time. I don't know what to make of the little rectangular hole in the base of the pillow. The curve of the pillow seems more than modern examples, and the base seems to be a little higher. I don't think there's any reason not to believe that the base is a wedge and tapers toward the lacemaker.

We don't know what kind of lace she is making - her collar seems to be a Flemish continuous guipure, consistent with the time period. But it may be that the pinkish part draping off the center of the pillow may be headed for a rollup in the drawer. It does seem a bit too wide to be consisten with the pattern on the pillow. There are not masses of pins, and I think too much has been made in the past of the scarcity of pins at this period in time - a sharpened thin brass wire works just fine and that would have been easy to produce in quantity.

The stand might be adjustable, although it is fairly simple. There are certainly known examples of this type of stand today pillar stand. I'm a little puzzled by her skirt at the lower right. It seems a bit farther out than necessary - she might be cradling the pillow between her knees as well as relying on the support stand. In fact the lower right of the picture doesn't seem to be quite up to the quality of the rest of the image. Has this work ever been X-rayed? I wonder what is going on here. And what is happening between the base of the pillow and the support stand? It doesn't make a lot of sense.

first posted 1/30/2009