작품 상세

Wim T. Schippers (1942), Prototype for 'Het Melkmeisje' (The Milkmaid), mixed media with painted plaster coating, 45x28x28 cm, Provenance: Property from the collection of art historian Prof. Dr. Albert Blankert, The Hague. The current lot is a model-study for the sculpture that the artist Wim T. Schippers made in 1976 for the city of Delft on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Johannes Vermeer's death. While the painter Johannes Vermeer never left his hometown of Delft, and his paintings have spread all over the world, there was not a single Vermeer to be found in Delft. To compensate this, Wim T. Schippers was asked by de Vermeer Stichting to make a work of art to commemorate Vermeer in his town of birth. Because Wim T. Schippers was mainly known as a director of absurdist television programs, the public was quite apprehensive at the first unveiling in May 1976. There was great relief when the sheet was pulled from the artwork and the ‘Milkmaid’ appeared. “A beautiful Ode to Vermeer,” was the unanimous verdict. The three-dimensional version of "Vermeer's Milkmaid" in concrete and stucco by Wim T. Schippers has since been a much-valued part of Delft’s city view, as much admired by the people of Delft as by the tourists alike, despite the minor fact that this Milkmaid pours water instead of milk… After many wanderings around Delft, the statue was again unveiled in 2012, in restored form, by Wim T. Schippers at its current location, in the park next to the Nieuwe Kerk.