Vermeer's Delft Today: Oude Langendijk

By 1660, we know that Vermeer and his family had been living together in his mother-in-law's (Maria Thins) house at Oude Langendijk, in the heart of Delft's Catholic community then called "the Papist Corner." The first document which unequivocally proves that the Vermeer family had changed living quarters is dated 27 December 1660 although it is possible he made his move somewhat earlier. We do not know, however, where they lived prior to this move but the house and inn owned by his father, Mechelen, is the most likely candidate. From a physical point of view, the move from Mechelen to Oude Langendijk was a short one, perhaps no more than 120 paces across the Market Place. But from social point of view, it was worlds apart.

 

No one knows why he made the move. Was it a part of the Vermeer/Thins arrangement or simply a question of finances? Perhaps one or both parties believed Mechelen was not suited to bring up children, certainly not in a climate of chaste Catholicism. In any case, Vermeer moved into Maria Thins' home when he was approximately 28 years old and had painted his masterpiece View of Delft and begun to experiment with the initial interiors such as The Milkmaid and the Officer and Laughing Girl. Once fully accustomed to his new residence, he set out to paint a series of sublime masterpieces which are so perfect that one critic called them the "pearl paintings."

Although Maria Thins must have made her presence felt, it seems she in no way interfered in Vermeer's artistic production and perhaps quite oppositely, she was directly supportive. Some sacrifice for Maria Thins' generosity may have been necessary. As John Michael Montias pointed out in his readable Vermeer and His Milieu, we lack any evidence of Vermeer's contact with his own family after his marriage. His name does not appear on any documents concerning his mother's affairs - not even on the unsuccessful attempt to sell Mechelen in 1669. He failed to witness the baptisms of family members to say nothing of his failure to name any of his children after his mother or father, a common practice  of the time.

With relative security, we can now say that the Vermeer/Thins spacious house once stood on the corner of two streets, the Oude Langendijk and the Molenpoort (present day Jozefstraat). The site of Vermeer's house is now occupied by 19th century Maria van Jesse church building. A commemorative plaque, initiative of the Dutch art historian and Vermeer expert Kees Kaldenbach, signals the place today's curious.¹ Judging by Dirk van Bleyswijck's Plan of Delft of 1675-8 there were no houses directly opposite Maria Thins's house which are present today, thus, he had a clear view across the Market Square all the way to Mechelen.

Maria Thins had a particularly unhappy marriage filled with domestic violence. When she separated from her husband, Reynier Bolnes, a prosperous brickmaker, she was able to claim a sizable share of money through the legal proceeding which followed. Native of Gouda, she moved into the house in Delft which had been bought one year earlier by her brother Jan Willemszoon Thins. The price of 2,400 guilders indicates a house of notable size and quality, for a modest house could be bought in Delft at that time for 600 to 800 guilders. At the Oude Langendijk end of this alley there was a wooden gate which served to stop cattle which had escaped from the Beestenmarkt. After Jan Thins' death this Thins/Vermeer house was inherited by his two younger sisters Maria and Cornelia Thins.²

Many historians believe that the Thins house is pictured on a 18th c. drawing of a Jesuit church on Oude Langendijk by Abraham Rademaker. Montias believes that the Thins/Vermeer house is the furthest one to the right which may also be one or two houses over to the right, just outside the scope of this drawing. What we can deduce from this drawing is a series of modest houses, each one having a ground floor, an upstairs floor, some with an extra floor, and an attic.

Judging from Vermeer's inventory and the appearence of his paintings, the ten-room dwelling was a large, comfortable bourgeois household. Two months after his death of in December 1675, an inventory was made of the moveable goods in his estate. Many of the objects described correspond to objects shown in the interior scenes for which the artist is best known. While it is not possible to affirm beyond a doubt that he painted the objects listed in his inventory, it seems quite probable that he did, for the home was very much the center of Dutch life in the seventeenth century, and Vermeer's studio was in the house in which he lived. As one Dutch merchant declared, "My home is my ornament, my house is my best costume,/Therefore my treasury and my coffer are open/And what my house needs I hasten to buy."

Inside Vermeer's House

According to an inventory, Vermeer's house had 11 rooms including kitchens, a cellar, a courtyard and an attic. The considerable size of the house places it among the larger houses in Delft. Each room had a different function which was not always the case in Dutch houses. Living and working space in houses of the common folk were not clearly defined as yet.

On the ground floor we find a large room, grote zaal or "opkamer" in Dutch, which gave onto a  a small room, a mezzanine, four kitchens (one for cooking and one for doing wash) and a cellar which was evidently on the basement level. A group of family portraits, religious objects and Vermeer's civic guard pike and helmet indicate the representational function of the grote zaal.There were also two rooms on the first floor and an attic above.

The contents of these rooms was not what would be termed luxurious. Some of the objects were worn and of little value. Instead, the wardrobe of the Vermeer family was more than adequate although seriously lacking if compared to the wardrobes of the rich Delft burgers. Several jackets or coats belonged to Vermeer and a few fur-lined jackets (the type which we see in the compostions of Vermeer) were owned by his wife Catharina. It should be remembered that clothes were extremely expensive and that the poor had scarcely one of each basic type of garment at best. The abundance of hats, gloves, nightwear and silk in Vermeer's house was lacking.

"Most houses in Dutch towns are built closely together. They are aligned in such a way that light only enters the house from either the street side or from the garden side. That is why the painter's studio would be located at either end of the house. In any street which runs from east to west, northern light can be found on either the garden side of the northern block of houses - or at the street side of the southern block of houses. This is obvious on such streets as the Choorstraat in Delft on which a remarkable number of artists lived."³

Vermeer's studio was located on the upper floor from which he could look out directly on the Market Square and observe the civic life of his city. The windows faced north, the direction that painters always preferred because the light from the north is cooler and, above all, more consistent throughout the day. It is probable that Vermeer also employed two smaller rooms on the same floor for his prefession . The attic was used for storing painting equipment such as a large slab of stone used for grinding paint. The inventory of the top floor also lists two painter's easels, three palettes, six panels, ten canvases, three bundles with all sorts of prints, a high reading desk and here and there rummage not worthy of being itemized separately.

In all, about 25 books of all kinds were found, a sign of social distinction. Boosk nwere owned by about 2 or 5 percent of the Dutch population.

The list of cooking and eating utensils was substantial. No knifes and forks are listed but the use of these particular utensils were not widespread at the time.Thus, the house of Vermeer was more than adequate but not luxurious.

Please visit the website of art historian Kees Kaldenbach for detailed information regarding every imaginable facet of the house of Vermeer.