The Lacemaker, A young girl sits over a table making lace with needles and thread., 1669-70

Vanderbilt photo identifier: SC.MSS.088.DUTC.0681; Public Notes: From the Louvre: A young lacemaker, undoubtedly a member of the Delft bourgeoisie, is hunched intently over her work, deftly manipulating bobbins, pins and thread on her sewing table. The theme of the lacemaker, frequently depicted in Dutch literature and painting (notably by Caspar Netscher) traditionally illustrated feminine domestic virtues. The small book in the foreground is probably the Bible, which reinforces the picture's moral and religious interpretation. But this is also, as in Vermeer's famous Milkmaid (circa 1658, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), one of the peeks into domestic privacy that so fascinated him. He loved to observe the everyday objects around him and paint different combinations of them in his works: he used the same piece of furniture and Dutch carpet with leaf motifs in several of his pictures.