Thursday, September 10, 2009

Vermeer's The Milkmaid


The much-anticipated exhibiton of Johannes Vermeer's masterpiece, The Milkmaid, is now on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with other works by the Dutch artist and his contemporaries.

The gallery held a decent crowd for a Thursday afternoon, and rightly so. Not only is The Milkmaid stunning, the exhibition also displays several more of Vermeer's 36 known paintings, as well as beautiful depictions of Dutch daily life by other artists.

There is a reason, however, that the title of the show pointedly singles out one painting. As I said before, it is stunning. The Milkmaid clearly stands out above the rest, not in size or even complexity, but in vibrance. The colors are, rich, exquisite, mesmerizing - the sunlight glinting off the bread and its basket sucked me in, and the tiny highlights of the woman's earrings held me there in the painting.

I've marveled at the Vermeers in the Met's permanent collection, enjoying his exquisite pattern work in Young Woman with a Water Pitcher and A Maid Asleep, but now The Milkmaid stands as my unrivaled favorite painting of its time, by any artist.

3 comments:

  1. Found you through MUG. But your grammatically incorrect/ignorant blog title scared me off. Obviously, it describes your project: visiting the Met each day, or regularly. In that sense, EVERY DAY is two words. Your own title word -- EVERYDAY (one word)-- is an adjective meaning ordinary or routine, as in "These are my everyday clothes." Two different meanings...hey, it's a tough town. Only the smart survive.

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  2. Duly noted. Look, I don't know who you are, but your aggressive tone is uncalled for. If you take the time to read my blog, you'll notice that aside from a few stylistic choice phrases here and there, it is for the most part grammatically sound.

    Furthermore, it is a blog.

    My choice to make 'everyday' one word is as much a design consideration as a grammatical choice, though you do make a good point. If, as you say, " EVERYDAY (one word)-- is an adjective meaning ordinary or routine," then that term also applies. You see, The Met can be an EVERYDAY institution, you can break down the stodgy reputation and enjoy it as you would a walk in the park (an everyday activity).

    Again, I thank you for taking the time to view my blog. I apologize for offending your grammatical taste.

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  3. It is actually the first thing I noticed when I clicked on this blog through MUG -- this came to mind immediately: http://www.openbrackets.com/article/512/ and the the 'every day vs. everyday' thing is a pet peeve of mine.
    But, then I noticed on the left you used "every day" to describe your journey, and I decided to see it in a different way and accept it - and not care.
    Usually I don't comment on blogs or online, in general, because it's mostly rude lifeless jerks with nothing better to do. Like that guy.
    Don't let people get you down, and thanks for writing.

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