The delicate sunlight on each of the Dutch artist’s painting easily delights the viewer. Playfully, the light teases the image of a woman reading or writing a letter or holding one while gazing out the window—scenes which also invite a little mystery. The subtle illusion of light on his subjects has become the trademark of Dutch seventeenth century painter, Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), who unfortunately only enjoyed far-reaching fame centuries after his death.
One of his most talked about work, Girl with the Pearl Earring (1665) brings the viewer face to face with a young European woman whose gaze is slightly moving away from the viewer’s eyes, her head somewhat tilted and lips just a bit apart. But one can’t let her go just yet because the reflection of light on her pearl earring draws the viewer like a magnet. Then the viewer’s eyes are directed to her head scarf, her attire. She is the European seventeenth century muse of East meets West.
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| Girl with the Pearl Earring (1665) |
The praised Johannes Vermeer painting exhibition, which has been running since February this year in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, includes 28 of 37 paintings which most experts agree to be the work of the artist completed during his short life. Landscape paintings, religious scenes, and most recently, canine paintings (not in the exhibition), have all been attributed to the artist; however, his images of women in an interior middle-class household setting are what Vermeer is best known for. His works reveal not only the exceptional craft of the Delft-native artist but also capture the narrative of power and conquest during seventeenth century Netherlands.
| Vermeer’s paintings tell a story of a victorious nation and the wealth gained by the few.
Vermeer provided a historical backdrop to a particular era in the Dutch Republic. The Turkish carpet, the Chinese porcelain, the tableware, the maps and globes, the windowpanes, the musical instruments, the hairdo and the fashion—and what else your eyes may capture in Vermeer’s paintings—tell a story of a victorious nation and the wealth gained by the few.
Pearls were an exotic foreign object desired by European elites. The Girl with the Pearl Earring is not only telling us about the extensive reach of the Dutch empire, but also, as scholars have argued, that the empire at the time was one of the leaders of world trade.
Historian Timothy Brook, in his book, Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World (2009), traced the roots of world trade and globalization in the seventeenth century through the works of Vermeer. The seventeenth century is an economic, political, and cultural era in Dutch history, coined “the Dutch Golden Age”, where the Dutch Empire accumulated its wealth from overseas trade with Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
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| Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (approx. 1657–1659) |
Vermeer is one of the distinguished artists of the Dutch Golden Age, which spans from 1588 to 1672, a timeline in Dutch history which its government recently had to apologize for.
On December 19th, 2022, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague said,
Today, on behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize for the past actions of the Dutch State. To enslaved people in the past, everywhere in the world, who suffered as a consequence of those actions, as well as to their daughters and sons, and to all their descendants, up to the present day. (Tempo, 2022)
This apology comes a year after the first exhibition on Dutch slave trade was held in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, which exposed the stories of slavery during the Dutch Golden Age.
The apology followed a recommendation from a report published by a government-appointed advisory board. Another recommendation is for the Dutch government to recognize that the slave trade and slavery from the seventeenth century until abolition "that happened directly or indirectly under Dutch authority were crimes against humanity" (NPR, 2022).
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| A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman (1664) |
However, the apology was not specifically extended to the slavery in its former colony, the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). Between the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the Dutch chartered trading company, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) attained, traded, and used 600,000 to 1 million slaves, mainly from present-day India and the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch East Indies was a valuable Dutch colony which secured the Dutch Empire’s prominent position in the spice trade of nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper, and cloves.
| The Dutch Government had focused its apologies on condoned systematic use of extrajudicial executions and torture killings which occurred during the Indonesian Independence War of 1945-49.
Over a decade ago, the Dutch Government had focused its apologies on condoned systematic use of extrajudicial executions and torture killings which occurred during the Indonesian Independence War of 1945-49. The Dutch government particularly apologized for the 1947 massacre in a village in the province of West Java and on the island of Sulawesi, expressed in 2011 and 2013 respectively, and had paid compensation to the families of both massacres.
But the crimes against humanity that the Dutch perpetrated toward the indigenous people of its Indonesian colony have occurred long before the War. In Vermeer's landscape painting of his hometown, View of Delft (1660), the port of Delft is featured. Brook (2009) found evidence of VOC operations in the port of Delft. VOC became a Dutch multinational corporation which had a powerful and leading role in trade between the Dutch and Asia and a legal monopoly of trade in the Dutch East Indies, where slave commodity plays an important part.
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| View of Delft (1660) |
Brook saw that advanced technology in navigation and shipbuilding, which facilitated the movement of people and international trade, impacted on interconnectedness in the seventeenth century world. However, this advancement in trade resulted in the enslavement and exploitation of people in various parts of the world.
Slave labor was an important part of VOC operation in the Dutch East Indies, first introduced in plantations and then throughout other settlements. Slaves were brought into Batavia (present-day Jakarta) from across the archipelago to support the function of the VOC administrative city of Batavia, including women, who under bondage, provided domestic and sexual services to VOC officers. By the last decades of the Dutch Golden Age, slaves comprised half of the Batavia population.
| The delicate light which brings such beauty in Vermeer’s work may cause one to forget about the darker side of the Dutch Golden Age.
According to the Rijksmuseum’s website, the slavery exhibition covers the Dutch West India Company's (WIC) involvement in the trans-Atlantic slavery in Suriname, Brazil, and the Caribbean, and the Dutch East India Company's involvement in colonial slavery in South Africa and Asia. This means that the Dutch government recognized the suffering it has inflicted upon the people of Indonesia through its slave trade.
However, in Rutte’s speech on 19th December 2022, the
apology appears to be directed toward the trans-Atlantic slavery, only
mentioning VOC and addressing Asia like an afterthought, as he said, “In Asia,
between 660,000 and over one million people—we don’t even know exactly how many—were
traded within the areas under the authority of the Dutch East India Company” (Tempo,
2022).
The delicate light which brings such beauty in Vermeer’s work may cause one to forget about the darker side of the Dutch Golden Age—where some lived a privileged life from the exploitation, enslavement, and impoverishment of others on the other side of the continent. The Dutch East Indies colony served an important role in the achievements of the Dutch Golden Age. A deeper expression of regret by the Dutch government is certainly in order.
Top image: Lady Maidservant Holding Letter, Vermeer circa 1666-1667 (Wikimedia)
More on Vermeer on my other blog: The Dutch Golden Age, Golden for Whom?
Sources:
Boffey, Daniel (2021) ‘Rijksmuseum Slavery Exhibition Confronts Cruelty of Dutch Trade.’ The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/18/rijksmuseum-slavery-exhibition-confronts-cruelty-of-dutch-trade [2 April 2023].
DW (2016) ‘Koenders Say Sorry for 1947 Indonesian Massacre.’ https://www.dw.com/en/dutch-foreign-minister-apologizes-for-1947-indonesian-massacre/a-19143315 [2 April 2023].
Internet Archive (2014) Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of The Global World. https://archive.org/details/vermeershatseven0000broo_m0d8 [16 April 2023].
Kehoe, Marsely L. (2015) ‘Dutch Batavia: Exposing the Hierarchy of the Dutch Colonial City.’ Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Arts. https://jhna.org/articles/dutch-batavia-exposing-hierarchy-dutch-colonial-city/ [28 August 2022].
Murphy, Kathryn (2023) ‘Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum.’ Apollo Magazine. https://www.apollo-magazine.com/vermeer-rijksmuseum-delft-seeing-dutch-republic-catholicism/ [2 April 2023].
Nayyar, Rhea (2023) ‘Newly Discovered Trove of Vermeer Works Reveals He Painted Mainly Dogs.’ Hyperallergic. https://hyperallergic.com/811644/newly-discovered-trove-of-vermeer-works-reveals-he-painted-mainly-dogs/ [3 April 2023].
NPR (2022) ‘Dutch Leader Apologizes for the Netherlands' Role in Slave Trade.’ https://www.npr.org/2022/12/20/1144311201/the-dutch-leader-apologizes-for-the-netherlands-role-in-slave-trade [2 April 2023].
Pinto, Anoushka (2020) ‘Headscarf in Vermeer's “Girl with a Pearl Earring” Has “Blue Pigment More Valuable Than Gold”, Reveals Research.’ MEAWW. https://meaww.com/girl-with-a-vermeer-pearl-earring-investigation-secrets-revealed-identity-blue-pigment-eyelashes [8 April 2023].
Republika (2016) ‘Kisah Nyai dan Pergundikan di Batavia.’ Bagian 2 Republika https://republika.co.id/berita/nasional/umum/16/02/19/o2qyfh385-kisah-nyai-dan-pergundikan-di-batavia-bagian-2habis [28 August 2022].
Reuters (2020) ‘Dutch King Apologizes for "Excessive Violence" in Colonial Indonesia.’ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-netherlands-iduskbn20x15l [2 April 2023].
Slavery (2021) Rijksmuseum website. https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/exhibitions/past/slavery [2 April 2023].
Tempo (2022) ‘PM Mark Rutte Apologizes for Past Dutch Slavery.’ https://en.tempo.co/read/1670414/pm-mark-rutte-apologizes-for-past-dutch-slavery [2 April 2023].
The Diplomat (2022) ‘Dutch PM Apologizes for Atrocities Committed during Indonesian Independence War.’ https://thediplomat.com/2022/02/dutch-pm-apologizes-for-atrocities-committed-during-indonesian-independence-war/ [2 April 2023].
The NY Times (2019) ‘A Dutch Golden Age? That’s Only Half the Story.’ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/arts/design/dutch-golden-age-and-colonialism.html [13 April 2023].
Wikipedia (2023) History of Dutch Slavery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Dutch_slavery [15 April 2023].
Images: Wikipedia
