Johannes Vermeer - The Procures 1656
The Procures 1656
143x130cm oil/canvas
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany
The image is only being used for informational and educational purposes
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The woman in black, the leering coupler, "in a nun's costume", could be the eponymous procuress, while the man to her right, "wearing a black beret and a doublet with slashed sleeves", has been identified as a self portrait of the artist. There is a resemblance with the painter in Vermeer's The Art of Painting.
The man, a soldier, in the red jacket is fondling her breast and dropping a coin into the young woman's outstretched hand. According to Benjamin Binstock the painting could be understood as a psychological portrait of his adopted family. Vermeer is in the painting as a musician, in the employ of the madam. In his rather fictional book Binstock explains Vermeer used his family as models; the whore could be Vermeer's wife Catherina and the lewd soldier her brother Willem.
The three-dimensional jug on the oriental rug is a piece of Westerwald Pottery. The kelim thrown over a bannister, probably produced in Uşak, covers a third of the painting and showes medaillons and leaves. The instrument is probably a cittern. The dark coat with five buttons was added by Vermeer in a later stage.
In 1696 the painting, being sold on an auction in Amsterdam, was named "A merry company in a room". According to Binstock this "dark and gloomy" painting does not represent a didactic message.