Vermeer's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

In the Vermeer painting Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, the latter sits at Christ’s feet while Martha stoops to offer him a loaf of bread in a wicker basket.

Johannes Vermeer, Christ in the House
of Martha and Mary, 1654 - 55 

The National Gallery of Scotland (its place of residence) describes this piece as one of the largest that Vermeer had created and the only known one covering a biblical topic. 

This painting shows an artist seeking a path. According to the National Gallery of Scotland (NGS), this picture "belongs to a small group of very early works which show the artist experimenting with various techniques and combining various influences in Dutch and Flemish art. ... The strong play of shadow and light, the characterization of the figures and broad handling of paint were probably inspired by the work of artists from Utrecht, who in turn were in turn inspired by Caravaggio's art" (The chart below shows my characterization of the path from Caravaggio to these "Utrecht Caravaggisti").

But it also provides flashes of the mastery that would become a hallmark of the painters mature offerings: "The lay of light on different surfaces such as the loaf of bread or the different fabrics is closely observed. The handling of the shape and color also has something of a distilled quality that we associate with the artist. Even the statesque figure of Martha, with her downcast eyes, seems like a precursor of the tranquil women who occupy Vermeer's later interiors, caught in suspended animation as they perform the simplest of domestic tasks."

The painting's size and topic suggests that it was created for a specific commission but its ownership is unclear prior to it surfacing in a private English collection as a Raphael. A cleaning in1901 revealed the Vermeer signature and its true authorship.

Graham-Dixon (Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found) sees the figure of Christ in this work as having been “lifted directly from The Death of St Joseph” by the Neapolitan Caravaggio follower Andrea Vaccaro. “The figures are nearly identical in physiognomy and pose, down to the exact position of their hands, the one difference being that Vaccaro’s Christ is standing and Vermeer's’s seated."

Andrea Vaccaro, The Death of St. Joseph, c. 1650 

Christ, according to Graham-Dixon, "addresses the stooping Martha in the manner of a mild and forbearing schoolmaster correcting a pupil who has made an innocent mistake." Further, by showing Martha with "lowered eyes and a solemn expression," the suggestion is that she understands the message that Jesus is conveying.

The NGS only suggests that this painting was made as a private commission but Graham-Dixon goes a little further by asserting that the buyer had to be someone who disagreed emphatically with the Calvinist position that faith alone is sufficient for the attainment of salvation. Martha is the meek and humble bearer of a gift, a loaf of bread, which immediately identifies her with the first of the seven Christian Acts of Mercy, feeding the hungry.

Graham-Dixon sees the painting as "turned more towards a female gaze" and, given its size, it may have been an altarpiece in a private, home-based chapel.

Vermeer's Diana and her Companions: After Andrew Graham-Dixon (Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found)

In Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, Andrew Graham-Dixon divides Vermeer's oeuvre into (i) works created for the van Ruijven family and (ii) everything else. Within the Everything Else class, we encounter the painter's earliest works, those based on Bible stories, myths, or the lives of Saints. The earliest known of these is Diana and her Companions, painted, according to Graham-Dixon sometime around 1653.

Johannes Vermeer, Diana and her Companions, c. 1653

This was the same year that Vermeer registered himself (December 29, 1653) as a Master Painter with the Guild of St Lukes. Registering as a Master implied having spent the prescribed apprenticeship period with a qualified Master but there is no indication as to who played that role in Vermeer's life. In that he was not accorded the initiation-fee discount provided to apprentices who trained under Delft-based Masters, one has to assume that he trained under a "foreign" Master.

But let's get back to Diana and her Companions. The story is told by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses. According to Graham-Dixon, "Diana was one of twelve gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, a slim and athletic huntress who was venerated by the Greeks and Romans as the personification of chastity. ... Her nymphs were required to be as chaste as Diana herself. But one of these Callisto, was seduced and impregnated by Jupiter without Diana's knowledge, her pregnant state only being discovered when she refused to disrobe and bathe in the stream along with the others."

In the painting Diana and her companions are resting in a woodland glade post the hunt. The scene is illuminated by a light emanating from the top left, a Caravaggio-like chiaroscuoro. Graham-Dixon describes the modeling herein as "broad and soft" and the color palette as a "rich mix of red, blue, orange, russet and gold." This palette, according to the author, is more Italian than Dutch and indicates that the young Vermeer was a "sophisticated and well-read painter who had spent a lot of time looking at Italian art."

Vermeer, according to Graham-Dixon, shows the moment just after Diana calls her companions to rest after the exertions of a busy hunt. The scene includes a dog -- representing fidelity -- and a thistle -- "calling to mind the narrow and thorny path of Virtue chosen by Hercules at the crossroads' -- but the central figure is the goddess. 

While the central figure, Diana is not the focus. That role, according to the author, is reserved for the companion who is washing her feet, a ritual nowhere described in Ovid's work. "Washing the feet draws us away from Classical antiquity" and places us into the realm of religious themes such as Jesus washing the feet of the Disciples and Mary Magdalene washing Jesus' feet. Two details that are evocative are the brass basin and white linen cloth, items which appear again and again in Flemish altarpieces of the Crucifixion, Lamentation, and Descent from the Cross.

In this transformation from mythological painting to one with Christian overtones, Diana's leading attendant can be construed as Mary Magdalene. According to Graham-Dixon, the painting appears to be more about the attendant than either Diana or Callisto. "In her person is embodied not only the chastity and rigor prized in antiquity, but also the most tender form of Christian humility."

Graham-Dixon surmises that this painting might have been paying homage to a new bride by emphasizing her qualities of modesty and reserve. He discussed a few potential candidates but eventually ruled them out of consideration.

Understanding the initial ownership paths of Vermeer's body of work: After Andrew Graham-Dixon

Andrew Graham-Dixon, acclaimed Caravaggio biographer, has recently published a book titled Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found and, while I am still in its early stages, I found some enlightening revelations. I report on these early findings in this post.

Graham-Dixon's research has shown that a significant portion of Vermeer's work was done for one family; and ownership of those works stayed within the family until the death of the last member and a subsequent auction.

Six years after Vermeer's death, a married woman named Magdalene Peters van Ruijven also died. She was 27 years old at the time of her death and had only been married for 2 years to her surviving spouse Jacob Dissus. Magdalene had been the daughter of a heir (her father) to a brewing fortune and a mother who hailed from a wealthy Delft family. Both of her parents preceded her in death and she had inherited their possessions, a part of which was a collection of paintings.

Magdalene's will bequeathed her assets to her spouse and the Delft city records still show the enumeration of those assets. According to the Recorder, a total of 20 Vermeer paintings were passed from Magdalene to her husband; 2/3 of Vermeer's known production. According to Graham-Clark, this list had been discovered and published by John Michael Montias 30 years ago.

Following Magdalene's death, Jacob, for one reason or another, was obligated to share her estate with his father; inclusive of six Vermeers. It is not clear under what circumstances Dissus regained, or retained, ownership of those paintings but all 20 were found in his print shop upon his death in 1695. His paintings were sold at auction in Amsterdam subsequent to his death.

The Delft recorder had not assigned names to any of the paintings but the Amsterdam auctioneer did (as shown below). Two of the paintings are unknown and are presumed lost.

Graham-Dixon sees this collection as unique in a number of ways. First, it was built around the works of a single painter. Vermeer had begun working for the Van Ruijven's about 1657 -- while he was in his mid-20s -- and, for the next 13 years, painted almost exclusively for them. At the end of this period he more or less gave up painting. Graham-Dixon noted that this was unusual in the "annals of patron-artist relationships."

The collection was fuirther unique in the way that the family cherished and preserved the holdings. Graham-Dixon asserts that Vermeer's lack of visibility in the art world was due to this fact. He had done most of his work for them and they held it tightly to their collective chests.

One of the paintings included in the auction was unnamed, but due to the description, Graham-Dixon contends that it "can be plausibly identified as The Art of Painting." If that is the case, it would have been purchased subsequent to Vermeer's death as he had retained control of it during his lifetime and, further, it was inherited by his widow post his death. It had been sold by the Administrator against her will. If bought by the van Ruijvens, it would have been the daughter, or the Mom, making the purchase as the Dad had died by this time. To round out the possibilities, the painting described in the listing could have been a second version of The Art of Painting (now lost) or could have been a different painting altogether (also lost).

A total of 20 Vermeers had been recorded at the time of Magdalene's death yet 21 of his works were offered at the auction. Graham-Dixon offers two alternatives: (i) Dissus bought another Vermeer between 1683 and 1695 or (ii) the Recorder failed to identify one of the other paintings in the inherited assets as a Vermeer.

The third unique bit about this collection was that it (i) amounted to 2/3 of Vermeer's total production and (ii) contained almsot all of the paintings on which his modern reputation has been built. The figure below captures the Vermeer works that were not included in the auction and categorizes them according to Graham-Dixon's characterization.

According to Graham-Dixon, the two genre paintings, on the basis of the same coat of arms appearing in a stained-glass window in each of them, seem to have been commissioned by the same family. He added The Love Letter to the genre category because it "follows the convention of Dutch genre painting in a straightforward way." It is not known who purchased this piece originally.

The Astronomer and The Greographer were commissioned by a director of the Dutch East India Company. Allegory of the Catholic Faith was commissioned by an Amsterdam Burgher.

As shown in the figure above, seven Vermeer-typical paintings were created for non-Ruijven patron(s). With the exception of Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, it is unclear who commissioned these paintings.

To Graham-Dixon it is clear that "with few exceptions, Vermeer created his most distinctive and memorable pictures for the Ruijven family."

My quest to recreate — longitudinally — the 2023 Rijksmuseum Vermeer exhibition

“Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) did not produce many paintings - probably only two a year on average - yet every one of the works of this Delft master is an extraordinary creation that elicits fascination and wonder. Vermeer takes the viewer into an introvert, tranquil world. In the interiors he painted, light plays in an inimitable way and the use of colour is always startling. Although Vermeer composes his paintings, selects motifs and alters the spaces, he achieves such a degree of illusion that his pictorial world still feels identifiable and familiar some 350 years later.” So says the Foreword to the Catalog that accompanied the Vermeer 2023 exhibition at the Rijksmuseum.

By bringing together 28 of the artists paintings — over three quarters of his surviving oeuvre — the Rijksmuseum exhibition allowed visitors to gain a “better understanding of his art, his considerations, and his decisions.” 

This was the first time in its history that the museum had devoted an exhibition solely to Vermeer and it was its most successful exhibition ever. A total of 650,000 visitors from 113 countries visited the exhibition during its 6-week run from February 10 to June 4, 2023.

The chart below shows Vermeer's oeuvre and the selection displayed at the exhibition. 

Vermeer Oeuvre (Images of the Timeline presented at 
the 2003 Rijksmuseum Vermeer Exhibition)

The timeline was photographed by a friend who had the good fortune to attend. According to the Catalog Editors, the works on the timeline "are presented in chronological order, as far as this is possible based on the mere five paintings that Vermeer himself provided with dates: Saint Praxedis, 1655; The Procuress, 1656; The Art of Painting, 1666 (or 1668); The Astronomer, 1668 and The Geographer, 1669. All of the other paintings are grouped around these, whereby the curators of this exhibition have made use of dates previously posted in the literature."

The paintings with asterisks accompanying their captions were not included in the exhibition, thus arriving at a final total of 28 works shown.

I had secured a ticket to attend the exhibition but personal reasons intervened. Subsequently I made a commitment to visit these pieces in a geographically and temporally unrestricted exhibition hall; that is, wherever they were. My quest has taken me to exhibitions and museum collections and is still ongoing. I recount my progress to date in the following.

Exhibitions

I was able to see some Vermeer pieces at two exhibitions.

Vermeer’s Love Letters at the Frick Collection

In June of 2025 I made my second visit of the year to the Frick Collection (I was there on the re-opening day) to see their exhibition titled Vermeer’s Love Letters. This exhibition featured three of the artist’s paintings — Mistress and the Maid (Frick Collection); The Love Letter (Rijksmuseum); and Woman Writing a Letter with her Maid (National Gallery of Ireland) — which “explore reading, writing, and exchanging letters, popular subjects in the artist’s circle of Dutch painters.” The exhibited pieces center on an interaction between a woman and her maidservant and were here brought together in a single gallery for the first time.

Johannes Vermeer, Mistress and Maid,
ca. 1664 - 1667

Johannes Vermeer, The Love Letter,
ca. 1669 - 1670

Johannes Vermeer, Woman Writing a Letter
with her Maid, ca. 1670 - 1672

From Rembrandt to Vermeer at Amsterdam's H'art Museum

The first recorded mention of Amsterdam dates back to 1275, when it was granted a charter by Count Floris V of Holland. To celebrate its founding 750 years ago, the city hosted a number of events in 2025. One such event was an exhibition of Dutch Masters from the Leiden Collection titled From Rembrandt to Vermeer. The exhibition included 75 works by 27 artists to include the likes of Jan Steen, Ferdinand Bol, and Frans Hals but pride of place went to Rembrandt (18 works — 17 paintings and one drawing — being shown together in Amsterdam for the first time) and Vermeer (his Young Woman Seated at a Virginal is the only Vermeer in private hands).

Johannes Vermeer, Young Woman Seated
at a Virginal, ca. 1670 - 1672

Museums

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

In August of 2025, I saw five Vermeers at The Met on the 5th and two at the Frick Collection on the 6th. What was amazing was the fact that, at that time, 10 Vermeers were located within 1 mile of each other in NYC: five at the Frick (including the three in the Love Letters exhibition) and five at The Met.

Johannes Vermeer, Young Woman with a
Water Pitcher, ca. 1662 (The Met)

Johannes Vermeer, Girl Interrupted at her Music,
ca. 1658 -1659 (Frick Collection)

Johannes Vermeer, Officer and Laughing Girl,
ca. 1657 (Frick Collection)

Johannes Vermeer, A Maid Asleep,
ca. 1656 -1657 (The Met)

Johannes Vermeer, Young Woman with a Lute,
ca. 1662 - 1663 (The Met)

Johannes Vermeer, Allegory of the Catholic
Faith, ca. 1670 - 72 (The Met)

Johannes Vermeer, Study of a Young Woman,
ca. 1662 (The Met)

Mauritshuis, Den Haag

Mauritshuis is famous for housing Girl with a Pearl Earring and I was able to see that piece plus two others when I visited there after my trip to the H'art Museum.

Johannes Vermeer, Diana and her Nymphs,
ca. 1655 - 1656

Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft,
ca. 1662

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring,
ca. 1664 - 1667

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The day following my visit to Mauritshuis, I visited the Rijksmuseum to view its Vermeers. We have already encountered one of their four Vermeers on loan to the Frick Collection for its Love Letters exhibition. The ones on display when i visited were as follows:

Johannes Vermeer, View of Houses in Delft
(The Little Street), ca. 1658

Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid,
ca. 1658 - 59

Johannes Vermeer, Woman in Blue
reading a Letter, ca. 1662 - 1664

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Later in August I visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and was able to see the following Vermeer-attributed paintings:

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with the Red Hat,
ca. 1669

Johannes Vermeer, A Lady Writing,
ca. 1665

Johannes Vermeer, Woman holding a
Balance, ca. 1662

I also saw Girl with a Flute, 1669/1675, a painting attributed to Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum exhibition but which, according to the National Gallery, was not painted by that Master’s hand.

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Flute,
 1669/1675

According to the National Gallery, “Her pose, expression, clothing, and surroundings resemble those seen in paintings by Johannes Vermeer. In 2020 - 2021, however, a team of National Gallery of Art researchers - curators, conservators, and scientists - determined that Vermeer did not paint Girl with a Flute. The artist who created this work was intimately familiar with Vermeer’s materials and techniques but was unable to match his delicate brushwork.”

National Gallery, London

In December 2024, I saw the two Vermeers in this institution's collection:

Johannes Vermeer, A Young Woman
Seated at a Virginal, ca. 1670 - 1672

Johannes Vermeer, A Young Woman Standing
 at a Virginal, ca. 1670 - 1672

Louvre, Paris

I had to return to the Louvre in order to see its Vermeers as, on the day of my initial visit, they had closed — without notice — the section wherein those paintings were housed. The Lacemaker was included in the Rijksmuseum exhibit but The Astronomer was not.

Johannes Vermeer, The Lacemaker,
ca. 1666 - 1668

Johannes Vermeer, The Astronomer,
ca. 1668

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The Rijksmuseum Vermeer exhibition claimed to have brought together 28 of the artists known works but research conducted by the National Gallery of Art has shown that one of these works -- Girl with a Flute -- is not of the master's hand. The total number of Vermeers in the exhibition, therefore, was 27.

As shown above, I have to date viewed 19 of the 27 Vermeers in the exhibition and 20 of the 28 paintings exhibited. The paintings that were a part of the exhibition, and that I have not yet seen, are:

• Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, ca. 1654 - 1655
• Saint Praxedis, 1655
• The Procuress, 1656
• Girl Reading a Letter at an open Window, ca. 1657 - 1658
• The Glass of Wine, ca. 1659 - 1661
• Woman with a Pearl Necklace, ca. 1662 - 1664
• The Geographer, 1669.

Conversely, I have seen Girl with a Pearl Earring, Girl with a Veil, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, A Maid Asleep, and The Astronomer, paintings that were not included in the exhibition.

The paintings that I have not yet seen and were not included in the exhibition are:

• Girl with a Wine Glass, ca. 1659 - 1661
• The Music Lesson, ca. 1662 - 1664
• The Concert, ca.. 1662 - 1664
• The Art of Painting, ca. 1666 - 1668.