All kinds of women's scum, a brothel scene

A painting in which all kinds of women's scum, 'Een schildery daerinne allerley vrouwentuych' in the inner kitchen, room C.

Illustration: a scene showing 'allerlei vrouwentuig' by Jacob Duck, Couple asleep, c. 1650-1660. The standing woman is making a lewd gesture with her right hand while picking the pocket of the man with her left hand. Coll. Peter Eliot. This painting is shown here as a possible example only.

Jacob Duck was active in The Hague in the years 1656-1660.

In a private message Albert Blankert wrote in 2001: "In the WNT dictionary we find 3 x vrouwentuig: 2 x as needlework, 1 x as jewelry. So it refers to women's stuff. But we do not know such a scene as a topic of any Dutch 17th century painting. It could be a still life, but I know none with such a subject. My own hunch has always been this subject: women's affairs, thus women doing something - which brings to mind in the first place a brothel scene in which a man is pickpocketed or such. This is no more than a wild guess."

Note : This object was part of the Vermeer-inventory as listed by the clerk working for Delft notary public J. van Veen. He made this list on February 29, 1676, in the Thins/Vermeer home located on Oude Langendijk on the corner of Molenpoort. The painter Johannes Vermeer had died there at the end of December 1675. His widow Catherina and their eleven children still lived there with her mother Maria Thins.

The transcription of the 1676 inventory, now in the Delft archives, is based upon its first full publication by A.J.J.M. van Peer, "Drie collecties..." in Oud Holland 1957, pp. 98-103. My additions and explanations are added within square brackets [__]. Dutch terms have been checked against the world's largest language dictionary, the Dictionary of the Dutch Language (Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal , or WNT), which was begun by De Vries en Te Winkel in 1882. In 2001 many textile terms have been kindly explained by art historian Marieke te Winkel.

Reproduction from Von Frans Hals bis Vermeer, exh.cat. SMPK Berlin museum, 1984.

This page forms part of a large encyclopedic site on Vermeer and Delft. Research by Drs. Kees Kaldenbach (email). A full presentation is on view at johannesvermeer.info.

Launched December, 2002; Last update March 2, 2017.

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