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ABOUT THE COVER IMAGE

this sample.
Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Worth Publishers.

For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.
Uncorrected proofs have been used in

by Bedford, Freeman &

Copyright ©
Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, ca. 1658
Distributed
This oil painting by the world-renowned Dutch artist Johannes
Vermeer shows a kitchen maid slowly and carefully pouring milk into
a round pot known as a Dutch oven, perhaps to make bread pudding,
as there are torn pieces of bread on the table. Light streams in from
the window, illuminating part of her face and her lustrous blue skirt,
and reflecting off various objects in the kitchen. Her pushed-up
sleeves indicate that she is hard at work, though she also has a slight
smile, making one wonder what she is thinking. Vermeer and other
seventeenth-century Dutch artists captured intimate household
scenes of women working or reading, children playing, and families
eating, often selling the paintings to middle-class buyers. They had
money for art because of the booming Dutch economy, facilitated by
policies of religious toleration unique in Europe in the seventeenth
century.
The Milkmaid, ca. 1658–1660 (oil on canvas), Jan (Johannes) Vermeer (1632–1675), Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands/Bridgeman Images

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