THE PROCURESS

(De koppelaarster)

1656
oil in canvas
56 1/2 x 51 1/8 in. (143 x 130 cm.)
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Alte Meister (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister), Dresden

an interactive analysis *
scroll your cursor over the 10 hot areas of the painting or the 8 special topics below
(browsers: IE 4+, IE 5+, IE 6+, NS 4+, NS 6+)

* special thanks to Adelheid Rech who provided much valuable information.


"The richly satisfying nature of the relationship between the man and the woman on the right eventually begins to assert itself and draw us deep within it, on its own terms. One is struck by how miraculously uncontaminated it remains, either by its setting or by the dark figures who gather around it, and how much this counts in the way of value. Within the experience the couple share they seem invulnerable (and oblivious) to both the voyeuristic and the moralistic gaze. And the important thing is that the painting achieves uninhibited, intuitively convincing access to this experience."

Edward A. Snow, A Study of Vermeer, 1979

  • the following resources were used to compile the text of this interactive study
  • Edward A. Snow, A Study of Vermeer
  • BAILEY, Anthony, Vermeer: A View of Delft,  New York, 2001, pp. 157-172
  • BLANKERT, Albert, (with contributions by RUURS, Rob and VAN DE WATERING, Willem), Vermeer,  Oxford, 1978
  • GOWING, Lawrence, Vermeer, London, 1952 and 1970
  • LIEDTKE, Walter, in Vermeer and the Delft School, ed.by Ivan Gaskell und Michiel Jonker New York, 2001
  • NASH, J. M., Vermeer, London, 1991
  • NEIDHARDT Uta, Marlies GIEBE, eds. Johannes Vermeer. »Bei der Kupplerin«. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden 2004. (exh. cat.).
  • SCHAMA, Simon, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age,  Univ. Of California Press, 1987 SCHNEIDER, Norbert, Jan Vermeer 1632.1675: Veiled Emotions, Cologne, 1994
  • SUTTON, Peter, "Love Letters: Dutch Genre paintings in the Age of Vermeer,"  in Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age of Vermeer, London, 2004, pp. 14-49
  • VERGARA, Alejandro, Vermeer and the Dutch Interior, Madrid, 2003
  • WHEELOCK, Arthur K. Jr., Vermeer; The Complete Works, New York,1997
  • de WINKEL, Marieke, "The Interpretation of Dress in Vermeer's Painting," in Vermeer Studies, edited by Ivan Gaskell and Michiel Jonker, National Gallery of Art Washington D.C., Yale University Press, New Haven, London 1998 , pp. 327-39.