| Artist | Jan Vermeer |
|---|---|
| Year | 1656 |
| Type | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 143 cm × 130 cm (56 in × 51 in) |
| Location | Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden |
The Procuress is a 1656 oil-on-canvas painting by Jan Vermeer. It shows a genre scene in a brothel - one of the two women is the eponymous procuress, while the figure on the left has been identified by some as a self portrait of the artist.[1] As one of only three paintings Vermeer signed and dated (the other two are The Astronomer and The Geographer), it is his earliest known genre work and was influenced by earlier works on the same subject, such as The Procuress (c. 1622) by Dirck van Baburen.[2] It is now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.
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Some critics have thought the painting is atypical of Vermeer's style and expression.
Pieter Swillens wrote in 1950 that—if the work was by Vermeer at all—it showed the artist "seeking and groping" to find a suitable mode of expression. Eduard Trautscholdt wrote 10 years before that "The temperament of the 24-year-old Vermeer fully emerges for the first time" [3]
The painting was in the Waldstein collection in Dux (Duchcov), then bought in 1741 for the Elector of Saxony.[3]
The painting was exhibited in 1980 at the Restaurierte Kunstwerke in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republic exhibit in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Altes Museum.[3]