Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/607

 vi JOHANNES VERMEER 583 The Gobelins tapestry is painted in a spotty manner; the rest of the picture is fairly smooth in style. The model may have been the woman represented in the Amsterdam picture (32). Canvas, 45 inches by 35 inches. Sales. Herman van Swoll, Amsterdam, April 22, 1699, No. 25 (400 florins); as a " Representation of the New Testament." Amsterdam, July 13, 1718, No. 8 (500 florins). Amsterdam, April 19, 1735, No. II (53 florins). David letswaart, Amsterdam, April 22, 1749, No. 152 (70 florins). Sold by the dealer Wachtler, Berlin, to A. Bredius (for 700 marks) as a work of E. H. van der Neer. In the possession of A. Bredius; exhibited on loan since 1899 * n the Ry a l Picture Gallery, The Hague. 3. DIANA AT HER TOILET. The goddess sits in the centre, facing right, on a stone bench; a maid-servant bathes her feet. Diana wears a brown garment, leaving her breast, arms, and feet bare. The maid-servant, whose figure is cut off by the frame, wears a purple skirt and a brown bodice. Beside the goddess to the right sits one of her nymphs, wearing a red jacket and a blue skirt, who is also washing her feet. Behind her a fourth woman in a dark dress stands looking on. To the left is another nymph, with face averted; her naked back and the golden yellow cloth which she has thrown round her form are strongly illumined. In the left corner of the foreground is a spotted dog. In the centre foreground are a small wash-basin and a towel. Behind the group are sombre bushes. Signed on the stone block, "J. v. Meer," with the "v" and "M" joined j but the signature is so faint that it is not absolutely certain what the letters are. An attempt has been made to alter the signature to that of N. Maes. Canvas, 39 inches by 42 inches. The attribution of the picture to Johannes Vermeer of Delft has become more plausible since the discovery of the " Christ in the House of Mary and Martha" (i), but it is not quite fully established. The Italian influence is not shown to such an extent in any other picture. Even the painter's characteristic method of setting his figures against a light and not a dark ground is not here pursued, for the figures sink into the background. The best-preserved portion of the picture is that in which the three strong colours, yellow, red, and blue, are combined. For the rest, it has suffered much from over-cleaning; the streaks of blue running through the yellow are disturbing. In the 1895 catalogue of The Hague the picture was still assigned to Vermeer of Utrecht; in the last edition it was ascribed to Vermeer of Delft, of whose authorship Bredius is more firmly convinced than is H. de Groot. Sale. Neville D. Goldsmid, of The Hague, Paris, May 4, 1876, No. 68 (10,000 francs). Now in the Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague, 1904 catalogue, No. 466. 4. THE ASTRONpMER. B. 35; H. 38. A three-quarter length. An astronomer sits, in profile to the Bright, at a table covered with a Turkey carpet. On it is a celestial globe, which he turns with his left hand j in his right he holds a little book open. A larger book, also open, is propped up against the globe; near it are a pair of compasses