The Dissius Auction

Advertisement of Vermeer paintings in the Dissius Amsterdam sale of 1696 advertisement for the Dissius sale of twenty-one Vermeer paintings

In April 1696 an advertisement appears for the auction in which are mentioned  "excellent artful paintings, among them 21 pieces extraordinarily vigorously and delightfully painted by the late J. van der Meer, representing several compositions, being the best he ever made..."

Dissius shop in Delft

In 1680, Jacobus Dissius maried Pieter van Ruijven's daughter, Magdalena. Dissius was registered in the Guild of Saint Luke as a bookbinder and ran a bookshop on 32 Markt Square in Delft called Het Gulden ABC (The Golden ABC). The shop (above middle), which still stands today, was given to him by his father.

image courtesy of Pieter Haringsma

To art historians the Amsterdam auction's chief importance lies in the catalogue descriptions of the 21 paintings they comprise one of the few solid historical foundations critics have for determining what are genuine Vermeer paintings and what are not. Some of the descriptions are too vague to be of much use, and some of the paintings have vanished. But about 16 of those 11 have been identified today with considerable certainty. Had it not been for the auction, there might have been no record of the paintings at all, because that auction marked the last time far nearly 200 years that Vermeer's work received any but the most cursory public attention. The history of a few of the paintings can be traced through those dark years-they usually changed hands as the work of Metsu, De Hoogh or Terborch, and often for paltry sums. Isolated voices spoke out occasionally in praise of Vermeer: Sir Joshua Reynolds mentioned the Milkmaid as one of the paintings he liked best during a trip to Holland in 1781.

"Thoré, who reprinted this list in his catalogue raisonné, assumed that it represented works left on Vermeer's hands at the then unknown time of his death. Following the researches of Abraham Bredius, it has long been assumed that this colIection is identical with that outlined far more summarily in the inventory drawn up early in 1683 of the estate and property of the Delft printer, Jacobus Abrahamsz. Dissius. This inventory listed, in the front room, 8 paintings by Vermeer and 3 ditto in boxes, in the back room 4 paintings by Vermeer, another painting by Vermeer in the kitchen, 2 paintings by Vermeer in the basement room and, beside the above items, 2 paintings by Vermeer, making a total of 20 works, only one fewer than the number auctioned in the 1696 sale. But it was J. M. Montias who, a century after Bredius, went back to the Delft archive and discovered not only that Bredius had overlooked one Vermeer listed in that 1683 inventory (he had noted only 19 works) but that the colIection had not been formed by Dissius at all. The inventory was of the "estate and property due to Jacobus Abrahamsz. Dissius on his own account inherited as the result of the death of Juffr. Magdalena van Ruijven, Dissius's wife, who had died on 16 June 1682. Magdalena van Ruijven was not yet twenty-seven when she died and had married Dissius only two years earlier. There can be little doubt that the twenty paintings by Vermeet bequeathed to Dissius were part of Magdalena's own inheritance from her father, Pieter Claesz. van Ruijven." 1

checkmarl By clicking on the auction number you can view what the consensus of Vermeer specialists believe is the probable painting as it has survived to the present.

Text which refers to works that are not by Vermeer's hand are in lighter gray.

16 May 1696. Catalogue of paintings sold on this date in Amsterdam.

 

1. A young lady weighing gold, in a box, by J. van der Meer of Delft, extraordinarily artful and vigorously painted 155-0
2. A maid pouring out milk, extremely well done, by ditto 175-0
3. The portrait of Vermeer in a room with various accessories, uncommonly beautiful painted by him 45-0
4. A young lady playing a guitar, very good by the same 70-0
5. In which a gentleman is washing his hands in a perspectival room with figures, artful and rare, by ditto 95-0
6. A young lady playing the clavicen in a room, with a listening gentleman, by the same 80-0
7. A young lady who is being brought a letter by a maid, by ditto 70-0
8. A drunken sleeping maid at a table, by the same 62-0
9. A gay company in a room, vigorous and good, by ditto 73-0
10. A gentleman and a young lady making music in a room, by the same 81-0
11. A soldier with a laughing girl, very beautiful, by ditto 44-0
12. A young lady doing needlework, by the same 28-0
13. The Old Church in Amsterdam, artful, by Emanuel de Wit 74-0
14. The Grave of the Olod Prince, by the same 51-0
15. Another church 34-0
31. The Town of Delft in perspective, to be seen from the south, by J. van der Meer of Delft 200-0
32 . A view of a house standing in Delft, by the same 72-0
33. A view of some house, by ditto 48-0
. number 34. was skipped in the Hoet catalogue
35. A writing young lady, very good, by the same 63-0
36. A lady adorning herself, very beautiful, by ditto 30-0
37. A lady playing the clavicen, by ditto 42-0
38. A tronie in antique dress, uncommonly artful, by the same 36-0
39. Another ditto by Vermeer 17-0
40. A pendant by the same 17-0
41 A large landscape by Simon de Vlieger, his very best 26-0
42. A smaller on by the same 32-10
43. Another one by ditto 30-0
44. Another larger one by ditto 37-0
45. A "tronie" by Rembrandt 7-5

back to the
dissius auction

  1. John Nash, Vermeer, Amsterdam, 1999, p. 22